Experimental deployment of a self-organizing sensors network for dynamic thermal rating assessment of overhead lines

Abstract Dynamic thermal rating (DTR) assessment of overhead lines is recognized as an enabling technology for reliably improving the exploitation of existing power transmission assets. In this context, the conceptualization of decentralized sensors networks aimed at performing all the DTR functions in an easy-to-use and well-defined way, represents one of the most promising research direction. To address this issue, this paper proposes a self-organizing computing framework based on a network of cooperative smart sensors, which solves the synchronization, identification and prediction problems required for DTR assessment, without the need for centralized data acquisition and processing. Experimental results obtained on a real test-bed are presented and discussed in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.