Monitoring the components of the electricity system contributes to improving the operation and maintenance of the infrastructures used for energy transmission and distribution and consequently the quality of the electricity service. The use of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) IoT technologies in the electricity sector for the acquisition of electrical, structural and environmental measurements poses some challenges, mainly related to the installation conditions of the sensors and their power supply. To evaluate the applicability and reliability of these technological solutions, a demonstration platform has been set up which collects measurement data from sensors installed in the field and data on the functioning of the monitoring network itself, making them available to other applications. The platform was used for monitoring overhead and underground power lines in critical operating conditions which can cause disruptions with significant consequences both in terms of costs and inconvenience for users. For the monitoring of overhead lines, aimed at detecting the formation of ice, IoT sensors have been identified which acquire data relating to the environmental conditions and inclination of the cables using LoRaWAN data transmission technology. For the monitoring of the underground lines, aimed at detecting the operating conditions of the Medium Voltage cables, a prototype apparatus was used, equipped with a
integrated harvesting system, which acquires environmental data of the terrain and line status and can use two different data transmission modes (NB-IoT and LoRaWAN). In addition to these applications, a monitoring system for environmental quantities (CO2 and Temperature/Humidity) has been set up within RSE laboratories to experiment with other types of sensors.
The acquired measurements were made available through two platforms, one dedicated to monitoring overhead lines and environmental data from laboratories, and one for data relating to monitoring underground cables, both based on the same architecture. Finally, the data on the functioning of the
sensors installed in the field were correlated with installation conditions, in order to verify the reliability and performance of the sensor power systems and solutions.