Optimal PMU placement considering state estimation uncertainty and voltage controllability

The development of monitoring technologies in smart grid is undergoing an essential transition from periodical magnitude-based measurement by supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) to real-time phasor measurement unit (PMU)-based wide area monitoring and control. The implementation of PMUs can substantially facilitate grid-wide state estimation and operation control, which is dependent on an effective PMU placement strategy. In this study, the optimal PMU placement (OPP) problem is investigated with respect to zonal voltage controllability and voltage magnitude estimation in cooperation with SCADA. In particular, the OPP is formulated as a multi-objective minimal Ncut partitioning problem, in which various operating scenarios are represented by probabilistic load flows to achieve a general solution for planning purpose. Spectral clustering is employed to efficiently find the optimal clustering boundaries, which indicate the resulting placement layout. The proposed placement scheme is tested on New England 39-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.