Detecting power outages in low-voltage networks from telecommunications networks data

Equipping low-voltage networks with sensors to detect power outages would be a large effort; consequently, low-voltage networks usually do not contain sensors to detect power outages. When telecommunications equipment is affected by a power outage, the disconnection from the telecommunications network can be automatically detected almost in real-time. To test the feasibility of detecting power outages from telecommunication losses, we analyzed the disconnections of telecommunications equipment in retrospect to determine if the cause was a power outage. Our analysis showed that the ability to detect power outages from telecommunication losses depends on the prevalence of telecommunications equipment and the similarity of the telecommunications and energy network topology. In the future, methods similar to the ones described in this paper can be used to inform an energy network operator about outages and make it easier for a telecommunications provider to determine the causes of connection losses without the need to install any additional equipment.