Multi-stage Optimal PMU Placement to Benefit System Voltage Stability

Abstract

Phasor measurement units (PMUs) offer significant advantages over conventional measurements; they offer precise phasor measurements at a high refresh rate (50 sample/second). However, the PMUs are being deployed at a slow pace due to the high cost of installing PMUs. Therefore, the PMU locations need to be optimized, which is known as the optimal PMU placement (OPP) problem. For the OPP the minimum number of PMUs is installed to achieve the desired outcome. This outcome can be the complete observability of the system or other applications of the PMUs, such as bad data detection. This paper presents a multi-stage OPP using voltage stability criterion, where critical buses are prioritized for the OPP. The critical buses are determined using a voltage stability criterion, which is derived from the line stability factor. The proposed voltage stability creation can be integrated with other criteria for application-based OPP approaches. The proposed approach is tested on the IEEE 14-bus and the IEEE 30-bus test systems.