Automatic identification of service phase for electric utility customers

Utility distribution systems are becoming increasingly intelligent, with continued advancements in sensors, monitoring, and controls. In some cases, these improvements make it possible for the utility to isolate faults and reenergize sections of line from alternative points of feed. Under normal circumstances, utilities may dynamically reconfigure their system to optimize overall operating efficiency. With these capabilities comes increased need for detailed three phase models of the distribution system that identify existing equipment and loads on a per-phase basis. This granularity is needed in order to make informed decisions regarding distribution switching, optimization, and control. This paper presents a technique and preliminary test results for a method of automatically identifying the phase of each customer by correlating voltage information from the utility´s SCADA system with voltage information from customer electricity meters.