Optimal placement of PMU for power system observability using integer programming

Abstract

A fully observable power system is possible with linear state estimation algorithms with exclusive use of synchronized measurements obtained from PMUs. The objective of full observability is achieved by placement of the PMUs at specific locations in power system instead of installing at every bus in the network. The calculation of mimimum number of PMUs and their locations is an optimization problem. The various optimization methods and algorithms has been proposed in past to get the solution of OPP problem. In this paper binary integer programming based approach to solve OPP problem is presented. The binary integer programming problem is coded using optimization toolbox in MATLAB software. The OPP problem formulation is discussed for normal operating condition i.e. without any conventional measurements or injection measurements and without any contingencies as well as case with some conventional measurements (flow and/or injection measurements). The proposed method is applied to standard IEEE test systems-14, 24, 39 and 57-bus. Simulations are performed on MATLAB software and results are discussed in section-V. Simulation results performed on different standard IEEE test a system shows that, near about at one third to one fourth of the total system buses need to install PMUs to make the whole system completely observable.