In this paper we present PEAS, a robust energy- conserving protocol that can build long-lived, resilient sensor networks using a very large number of small sensors with short battery lifetime. PEAS extends the network lifetime by maintaining a necessary set of working nodes and turning off redundant ones. PEAS operations are based on individual node's observation of the local environment and do not require anynode to maintain per neighbor node state. PEAS performance possesses a high degree ofrobustness in the presence of both node power depletions and unexpected failures. Our simulations and analysis show that PEAS can maintain an adequate working node density in the face of up to 38% node failures, and it can maintain roughly a constant overhead level under various deployment conditions ranging from sparse to very dense node deployment by using less than 1% of total energy consumption. As a result, PEAS can extend a sensor network's functioning time in linear proportion to the deployed sensor population.