Abstract: With the rapid development of smart grid, big data techniques in the smart grid has been further improved, whose application will contribute to the establishment of smart grid. Based on the domestic and foreign research status of big data in smart grid, its characteristics is introduced in this paper, and a universal analysis framework is proposed by combining with the research results of smart grid. Then core content of big data in smart grid are discussed in such four aspects as analyzing techniques, management techniques, processing techniques and visualization techniques of big data. In the end, the roadmap of application evolution for big data in smart grid is presented, and the application of big data in smart grid is demonstrated from three specific application scenarios.