A cost-benefit multiobjective approach for placement of meters in electrical distribution systems

The present work proposes a multiobjective approach for optimal allocation of metering devices in Electrical Distribution Systems. The proposed approach seeks to obtain solutions that represent attractive investment options for utilities, while providing good performance for State Estimation (SE) when processing measurements from the allocated meters. The requirements of low investment costs and good SE performance are conflicting ones. In this paper, the Pareto multiobjective method, associated with the Modified Monkey Search (MMS) metaheuristic, is employed to obtain concurrent candidate solutions for optimal allocation of smart meters and phasor measurement units. The proposed method, called MMS-Pareto, is employed along with an efficient tool for SE in distribution networks, known as Enhanced Optimal Power Flow. The proposed method is assessed using benchmark systems of the literature, as well as a real Brazilian utility network, being adopted practical and updated costs for the meter devices. Comparisons with a weighted mono-objective approach are presented and the obtained results show that the MMS-Pareto can lead to good trade-off solutions, useful for system planners. Moreover, comparisons with the results obtained when employing other metaheuristics are presented.

Automated summary

The study proposes a multiobjective approach for optimal allocation of metering devices in Electrical Distribution Systems. By using the Pareto multiobjective method and Modified Monkey Search metaheuristic, the proposed method can provide good solutions that are useful for system planners.