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Several Link Quality Estimators (LQEs) have been proposed for Wireless Sensor Networks. However, their adequacy to smart grid environments has not been properly investigated. This paper addresses the problem of efficient low-power link quality estimation for smart grid environments. The first part of this paper presents a performance study of representative LQEs, namely ETX, four-bit and F-LQE, in three typical smart grid environments. These LQEs are evaluated in terms of reliability, stability and reactivity, by analyzing their statistical behavior. This study shows that F-LQE is more reliable and more stable than ETX and four-bit. However, it is not the most efficient for smart grid due to the lack of reactivity and also its higher complexity. Hence, the second part of this paper introduces Opt-FLQE, an optimized version of F-LQE that overcomes its limitations. The performance analysis of Opt-FLQE shows that it is more reactive than F-LQE while still being more reliable.