First a description is made of tutorial 4—standardization activities regarding the smart grid， electric vehicles， and charging stations， presented at the CIRED 2011. The tutorial focuses on the international standards of photovoltaic， wind power， smart meters， and electric vehicle charging infrastructures. The second part of the paper describes the main research topics and papers presented at session 1—network components of the conference， including asset management， distributed generation and electric vehicles access， the application of new materials in transformers， cables and overhead lines， as well as novel power electronic equipments.