Method and system for monitoring an electrical power grid

1. A method for monitoring an 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;

determining if the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault;

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is at a tail end from the fault,

sending a fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor; and

otherwise,

sending a sleep command to an adjacent downstream sensor from the one of the plurality of sensors for suppressing data transmission of the adjacent downstream sensor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor further comprises:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is a fault head end sensor,

relaying data from a fault tail end sensor to a collector device, and

sending a fault head end sensor data upstream to the collector device;

otherwise,

relaying data from the adjacent downstream sensor to the collector device;

waiting for data from a fault head end device; and

relaying fault head end device data to the collector device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor further comprises:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is a control sensor having a switch,

opening the switch; and

otherwise,

waiting for data from the adjacent downstream sensor.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor further comprises:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is not a head end control sensor from the fault,

closing a switch, putting the one of the plurality of sensors in a sleep mode.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor comprises sending the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention free time slots wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a quantity of sensors in the plurality of sensors.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein subsets of the contention free time slots are allocated into frames.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending the sleep command comprises sending the sleep command to the adjacent downstream sensor from the one of the plurality of sensors on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention free time slots wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a quantity of sensors in the plurality of sensors.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein subsets of the contention free time slots are allocated into frames.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

initializing each of the plurality of sensors comprising:

loading each of the plurality of sensors with a map of adjacent sensors; and

loading each of the plurality of sensors with information for designating a respective assigned time slot for transmitting and receiving data.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

adding another sensor to the plurality of sensors comprising:

loading the another sensor with a map of adjacent sensors; and

loading the another sensor with information for designating an assigned time slot for the another sensor for transmitting and receiving data.

11. A system for monitoring a fault 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 the plurality of sensors on a branch of the power grid;

determine if the one of the plurality of sensors is upstream from the fault;

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is at a tail end from the fault,

send a fault detected message to an adjacent upstream sensor; and

otherwise,

send a sleep command to an adjacent downstream sensor from the one of the plurality of sensors for suppressing data transmission of the adjacent down-stream sensor.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions causing the processor to send the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor comprise computer readable instructions that cause the processor to:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is a head end device,

relay data from a fault tail end device to a collector device;

send data from a fault head end device upstream to the collector device; and

put the one of the plurality of sensors in a sleep mode; and otherwise,

relay data from the adjacent downstream sensor to the collector device

wait for the data from the fault head end device; and

relay the data from the fault head end device to the collector device.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions causing the processor to send the fault detected message further cause the processor to:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is a control device having a switch,

open the switch; and

otherwise,

wait for data from the adjacent downstream sensor.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions causing the processor to send the fault detected message further cause the processor to:

provided the one of the plurality of sensors is not a head end control sensor from the fault, close a switch, putting the one of the plurality of sensors in a sleep mode.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions causing the processor to send the fault detected message comprise instructions to send the fault detected message to the adjacent upstream sensor on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention free time slots wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a quantity of sensors in the plurality of sensors.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein subsets of the contention free time slots are allocated into frames.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions causing the processor to send the sleep command comprise instructions to send the sleep command to the adjacent downstream sensor from the one of the plurality of sensors on a wireless network comprising a plurality of contention free time slots wherein a number of the contention free time slots is equal to or greater than a quantity of sensors in the plurality of sensors.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein subsets of the contention free time slots are allocated into frames.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to:

initialize each of the plurality of sensors comprising:

loading each of the plurality of sensors with a map of adjacent sensors; and

loading each of the plurality of sensors with information for designating a respective assigned time slot for transmitting and receiving data.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to:

add another sensor to the plurality of sensors comprising:

loading the another sensor with a map of adjacent sensors; and

loading the another sensor with information for designating an assigned time slot for the another sensor for transmitting and receiving data.