Network observability: a fast topological approach to identify critical measurements

This paper presents a new topological method for critical measurements identification in observable networks. A measurement is said to be critical, in observability sense, if its removal from the measurement set leads the associated system to lose observability. The proposed method is based on the properties of both, observable islands (OI) and redundant branch sets (RBS). To reduce the combinatorial bluster, the proposed method divides the measurements in two groups and classifies then in two phases. Indeed, it is simple and fast. In order to clarify the proposed method and to show its simplicity, two examples are provided. The proposed method is successfully tested in the IEEE-14 bus system and in two realistic systems of the Brazilian utilities. The first one is a 121-bus system from ELETROSUL, and the other is a 383-bus system from CHESF (Companhia Hidroeletrica do Sao Francisco)