Sensor placement algorithm for faults detection in electrical secondary distribution network using dynamic programming method: focusing on dynamic change and expansion of the network configurations

Modern power grids are developing toward smartness through the use of sensors in gathering data for situation awareness, visibility, and fault detection. In most developing countries, fault detection in the electrical secondary distribution network (SDN) is very challenging due to the lack of automated systems for network monitoring. Systems for monitoring faults require sensor placement on each node, which is not economically feasible. Hence, optimal placement algorithms are required to ensure that the network is observable with few sensors possible. The existing sensor placement methods based on mathematical and heuristic approaches are efficient for transmission and primary distribution networks which are mostly static in size and layout. Such methods may not be efficient in SDN which is dynamic in size and have a relatively large number of nodes. This study proposes an enhanced dynamic programming method for sensor placement to enhance fault detection in SDN. The proposed algorithm employs the depth search concepts and the parent–children relationship between nodes to determine sensor types and locations considering the optimal cost. The proposed algorithm was compared with other methods including particle swarm optimization, genetic algorithm, and chaotic crow search algorithm using different network configurations. The results revealed that the proposed algorithm suggested the minimum number of sensors and shortest convergence time of 1.27 min. The results also revealed that, on network expansion, maintaining the location of the existing sensors is more cost-effective by 20% than reallocating the existing sensors. Furthermore, the results revealed that an average of 30% of nodes, need sensors to observe the entire network, hence cost optimization.