Cable Diagnostics with Power Line Modems for Smart Grid Monitoring

Remote monitoring of electrical cable conditions is an essential characteristic of the next-generation smart grid, which features the ability to consistently surveil and control the grid infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a technique that harnesses power line modems (PLMs) as sensors for monitoring cable health. We envisage that all or most of these PLMs have already been deployed for data communication purposes and focus on the distribution grid or neighborhood area networks in the smart grid. For such a setting, we propose a machine learning (ML) based framework for automatic cable diagnostics by continuously monitoring the cable status to identify, assess, and locate possible degradations. As part of our technique, we also synthesize state-of-the-art reflectometry methods within the PLMs to extract beneficial features for effective performance of our proposed ML solution. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution under different aging conditions and varying load configurations. Finally, we reflect on our proposed diagnostics method by evaluating its robustness and comparing it with existing alternatives.