The key to all of these sensors, says Bird, is that they only need to be placed in the vicinity of the components in a power system. This allows the researchers to "sensitively monitor the state of the power system without the need to tap into it directly," he says. This is advantageous because directly accessing the grid could be expensive and time-consuming.

But sensing electrical signatures and magnetic fields are only part of the monitoring technology. Communication between sensing devices is also important. The researchers hope to employ the sort of wireless technology used in ad-hoc networks (see "Souped-Up Mesh Networks") so that the sensors themselves can adjust to each other's status if one is running low on power, for instance, to more effectively monitor the entire grid. "The advantage to this is that if an element fails, or a portion of the [sensor] grid malfunctions, the entire network will reconfigure to keep monitoring the grid," says Bird.

Currently, there are other technologies, all much larger than the proposed UB system, that are being explored to monitor power grids, says Don von Dollen, program manager for the Electric Power Research Institute, in Palo Alto, CA. But the technology that will ultimately gain widespread adoption is the one that is the most cost-effective, he says. "It all comes down to price."

Within the past few years, there have been advances in the fields of data processing, sensor technology, and communication--all necessary aspects of making a grid monitoring system technologically reliable and economically feasible. Research on micro sensors and wireless sensors, von Dollen says, is "an exciting area because there's an awful lot of potential."

The UB researchers expect to have a prototype nano-scale sensor system within about five years, with a larger-system version coming in a few years, says Sarjeant. While the promise of nanotechnology is great, it is still a relatively new technology that's only received serious research attention for about 10 years, says Martin Moskovits, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, in Santa Barbara.

He notes that much of this new grid monitoring project will probably be "very exciting fundamental research," and practical issues will most likely need to be resolved as the work progresses. However, Moskovits believes it's worth it. "The grid affects so many of our lives," he says, "it's an excellent place to put effort."