On the Impact of Measurement Errors on Loss Calculations in Distribution Grids

Power or energy losses are an important metric to describe efficiency of distribution grids. They can also be relevant input metrics for fault and theft detection approaches. When considering low-voltage grids, power losses have to be obtained from distributed low-cost measurement devices, which leads to measurement inaccuracies. When calculating power losses, these measurement inaccuracies need to be taken into account. This paper presents first steps for obtaining unbiased estimators and confidence intervals of loss calculation taking into account statistical errors on input measurands. Smart meter measurements from a real low-voltage grid are used to show the validity of approximations that are useful for efficient and effective confidence interval calculation.