Wireless Sensor Network Applications in Smart Grid

The decentralized and lightweight architecture of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have made them ubiquitous in several scientific, medical, military, and recently in smart grid applications. They enabled pervasive computing and the implementation of intelligent systems. Recently, they have been used in today's electric power systems, to bring about intelligence and implement some of the smart grid function in generation, delivery, distribution, and customers. They are becoming a vital component of the smart grid. Their advantages come with challenges because of harsh environment and stringent quality of service requirements. This paper describes different components of smart grid and then provides an overview of WSNs application in different part of smart grid and presents their opportunities and challenges for future work in diverse areas of smart-grid applications. The paper shows an example implementation of building monitoring system.