Standards-based wireless sensor networks for power system condition monitoring

This paper assesses the industrial needs motivating interest in wireless monito ring within the power industry, and reviews applications of WSN technology for substation condition monitoring (Section 2). A key contribution is the identification of a set of technical requirements for substation - based WSNs, focused around security requi rements, robustness to RF noise, and other utility - specific concerns (Section 3). Section 4 comprehensively assesses the suitability of various IWSN protocols for substation environments, using these requirements. A case study implementation of one standar d, ISA100.11a, is reported in Section 5, along with deployment experience. The paper concludes by describing future research challenges for WSN protocols which are specific to this domain.