Smart Grid Monitoring Using Power Line Modems: Anomaly Detection and Localization

TL;DR

This paper explores using power line modems as sensors to detect, classify, and locate various network anomalies in smart grids by analyzing high-frequency signals, with validated simulation results demonstrating effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to anomaly sensing in smart grids using power line modems and proposes algorithms for detection, classification, and localization.

Findings

Algorithms effectively detect and locate anomalies.

Simulation results validate the sensing approach.

Power line modems serve as efficient network sensors.

Abstract

The main subject of this paper is the sensing of network anomalies that span from harmless impedance changes at some network termination to more or less pronounced electrical faults, considering also cable degradation over time. In this paper, we present how to harvest information about such anomalies in distribution grids using high frequency signals spanning from few kHz to several MHz. Given the wide bandwidth considered, we rely on power line modems as network sensors. We firstly discuss the front-end architectures needed to perform the measurement and then introduce two algorithms to detect, classify and locate the different kinds of network anomalies listed above. Simulation results are finally presented. They validate the concept of sensing in smart grids using power line modems and show the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.