Developments in Robust Topology Detection under Load Uncertainty

This paper reports two extensions to the authors’ recent work on the design of an optimally robust topology detector for a power transmission circuit with uncertain loads. Such a detector was implemented as a linear discriminator for the IEEE 9-bus system to identify, with a sub-millisecond latency, the intact circuit, or any single open-circuited line, using only the phasor measurements at the generators’ terminals. The first extension aims to replace the previously required bounded uncertain load set by a load distribution that permits rarer measurement outliers. This problem is formulated and solved as a support vector classifier. The second extension explores the solvability of a linear discriminator for topology identification for larger power systems under a bounded uncertain load set. A measure of adequacy of the involved measurement network is introduced, under which a sensor placement problem is formulated for the addition of a minimum number of phasor measurement units to meet a prescribed level of topology identifiability. In this case, sensor placement, detector design, and detector performance and robustness are demonstrated on the IEEE 68-bus system.