Towards optimal placement of phasor measurement units for smart distribution systems

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) have potential role in power system monitoring, protection and control. PMUs directly measure and provide synchronized measurements of voltage and current phasors at various system locations. This offer numerous possibilities for ascertaining information related to the state and health of a power system. The aim of an optimal PMU placement is to provide minimal PMU installations to ensure complete observability of a power system. Several methods have been proposed in the past and significant work has been carried out till date to ensure observability of transmission networks. Penetration of new technologies at distribution level raises concern about system operation. These concerns can be addressed by synchrophasor applications. Hence, PMUs play an equally important role at distribution level also. Since, distribution systems are large in size as compared to transmission systems, the algorithms reported may take longer computational time for optimization. Hence, an approach towards optimal PMU placement for distribution system is required. This paper presents a simple and effective algorithm of PMU placement for distribution networks that saves considerable amount of computational time. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE-13, 34 and 123 Node Test Feeders and results show that computational time is considerably reduced without significantly affecting the number of PMUs.