The wireless sensor network and local computational unit in the neighbourhood area network of the Smart Grid

The Smart Grid intends to provide good power quality, energy cost reduction and improve the reliability of the electricity Grid. Electricity Grids exist across a wide hierarchy of voltages and spatial scales. In this paper we particularly investigate the deployment of monitoring systems in the urban environment, specifically in a university campus that is embedded in a city. Monitoring at this level of the Grid is very underdeveloped, since most current Grids are controlled centrally and the response of the neighbourhood area is not generally monitored or actively controlled. We develop a communications architecture that can integrate sensor network applications. We provide both for sensors that directly measure the electricity activity of the network and also sensors that measure the environment (e.g. temperature) since these provide information that can be used to anticipate demand and improve control actions. Energy efficiency is a major design driver for our architecture. Finally we analyse the optimal number of clusters in a wireless sensor network for collecting and transmitting data to the local control unit for applying finer-grained control.