Location identification of distribution network events using synchrophasor data

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method to identify the location of events in power distribution systems. An event is defined broadly here to include a change in state of a switch, a change in voltage, in form of a sag or swell, etc. The proposed method is developed based on the compensation theorem in circuit theory to generate an equivalent circuit according to the pre-event and post-event feeder states. To such aim, the post-event voltage deviations from pre-event values are assumed to be measured by distribution-level phasor measurement units, a.k.a, micro-PMUs. Importantly, we consider the fact that it is neither economic nor necessary to measure every node's voltage deviation along the feeder to find the source and location of the event. In fact, we utilize data from as few as only two micro-PMUs, that are installed at the beginning and at the end of the feeder, to identify the location of an event. The rest of the information collected from the feeder is in form of pseudo-measurements. Despite the natural inaccuracy in pseudo-measurements, the proposed hybrid method is robust against the pseudo-measurements error. The effectiveness of the developed method is demonstrated through simulating the IEEE 33 bus test system in PSCAD.