Smart Audit and Monitoring of Transmission Towers (SAMST)

A major power outage hit Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of Croatia's coast in June 2024. Many reports have indicated interconnector breakdowns between Albania and Greece as well as fire catching on a 400 kW transmission line at the border between Bosnia and Montenegro. Localization of failures along the transmission lines is a critical task in cases of power outages. Currently, there is no way of remote pinpointing the location of a fault: the technicians perform the inspection of the area, where the issue has been reported. The larger the reported area, the longer the time needed for localization and repair. This paper aims to propose a Smart Audit and Monitoring System of Transmission Towers (SAMST), based on Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) devices. The results of this study indicate the possibility of preventing transmission line faults and shortening the time of reaction in case of outages. Below described method can improve the safety and quality of service of electric transmission systems, minimizing down times and damage costs.