A fault monitoring system for an aircraft includes a processor having a fault diagnosis algorithm, a memory connected to the processor, a plurality of sensors located at selected nodes in an electrical network of the aircraft and connected to the processor, and a data collection algorithm in one of the processor or the plurality of sensors. Each sensor is configured to continuously monitor voltage and current of the electrical network at its selected node and to transmit data representative of the monitored voltage and current to the processor. Upon the occurrence of a fault event, the data collection algorithm selects a subset of the data related to the fault event and at least one sensor transmits a selected subset of the data to one of the processor or the memory.