Optimal PMU-Communication Link Placement for Smart Grid Wide-Area Measurement Systems

Due to the relatively high costs of phasor measurement units (PMUs), the optimal PMU placement problem of minimizing the number of PMUs for full system observability has long been a popular research topic. However, PMUs alone will not make a system observable. An appropriate communication network that transmits all PMU data to the phasor data concentrator plays a key role. This paper proposes the optimal PMU-communication link placement (OPLP) problem that investigates the placement of PMU and communication links (CLs) for full observability in a power system. In addition to the location of PMUs and CLs, to ensure the reliable and timely transmission of PMU data, the communication capacity needed on every CL is captured by the OPLP problem. We carry out numerical studies on the IEEE 30-bus, 57-bus, 118-bus, and 300-bus systems for the proposed models. The results reveal that, when compared to the traditional optimal PMU placement model, OPLP can reduce the total installation cost significantly.