A novel comprehensive optimal PMU placement considering practical issues in design and implementation of a wide-area measurement system

Since phasor measurement units (PMUs) are increasingly installed in power systems, many research works have investigated the optimal PMU placement (OPP) problem with the sake of maximizing observability over the power grid, while minimizing the cost of purchasing PMUs. However, there are still some practical challenges that have not been considered in the previous research studies, and are needed to be addressed for a real wide -area measurement system (WAMS) implementation. In this paper, a comprehensive OPP model is proposed which employs a set of basic and novel constraints for a WAMS design. In this regard, the line-wise observability concept is proposed for the first time to consider the requirements of observability for a range of WAMS-based applications such as restoration management, model validation of power system components, and dynamic line rating (DLR) monitoring. In addition, observability constraints for multi-transmission system operator (multi-TSO) power systems that are operated by different legal entities are provided, which can considerably affect the OPP result. The proposed model is formulated based on a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation which enables the optimization problem to be solved easily and effectively by existing commercial optimization tools, without any need for linearization. The performance of the proposed OPP model is first verified through simulation results on an 86-bus real power system. Then, simulations are applied to IEEE 118-bus and 300-bus test systems, to certify the performance of the proposed model in comparison with other OPPs in the literature.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a comprehensive optimization model for PMUs placement in wide-area measurement systems, considering practical challenges such as line-wise observability requirements and constraints in multi-transmission system operator power systems. The model is validated through simulation results on real power systems and IEEE test systems, demonstrating its performance compared to other existing models for PMU placement.