Method and system for reporting faults and control in an electrical power grid

A method for reporting a fault and control in an electrical power grid, comprising:

• in a branch of the electrical power grid:
• detecting a fault by one of a plurality of sensors on the branch of the power grid;
• sending a fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention access within a contention access period and contention free time slots within a contention free period wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a number of sensors in the plurality of sensors;
• allocating a respective contention free time slot to each sensor in the wireless network for sending sensor monitoring data in non-fault conditions;
• and
• assigning sensors in the network for performing control functions;
• the method further comprising:
• determining if the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault;
• provided the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault,
• sending the fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor on the wireless network;
• and
• otherwise,
• sending a sleep command to an adjacent downstream sensor on the wireless network from the one of the plurality of sensors.

A system for reporting a fault and control in an electrical power grid, comprising:

• a plurality of sensors on the electrical power grid, each sensor including a processor and a memory having computer readable instructions stored thereon, causing the processor to:
• detect a fault by one of a plurality of sensors on a branch of the power grid;
• send a fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention access time slots within a contention access period and contention free time slots within a contention free period wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a number of sensors in the plurality of sensors;
• allocate a respective contention free time slot to each sensor in the wireless network for sending sensor monitoring data in non-fault conditions;
• assign sensors in the network for performing control functions;
• and
• send a sleep command to an adjacent downstream sensor on a contention access time slot of the wireless network.

A system for reporting a fault and control in an electrical power grid, comprising:

• a plurality of sensors on the electrical power grid, each sensor including a processor and a memory having computer readable instructions stored thereon, causing the processor to:
• detect a fault by one of a plurality of sensors on a branch of the power grid;
• send a fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention access time slots within a contention access period and contention free time slots within a contention free period wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a number of sensors in the plurality of sensors;
• allocate a respective contention free time slot to each sensor in the wireless network for sending sensor monitoring data in non-fault conditions;
• assign sensors in the network for performing control functions;
• determine if the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault;
• provided the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault,
• send the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor on the wireless network;
• and
• otherwise,
• send a sleep command to an adjacent downstream sensor on the wireless network from the one of the plurality of sensors.