Guaranteed Phase & Topology Identification in Three Phase Distribution Grids

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for jointly identifying phases and topology in unbalanced three-phase distribution networks using voltage measurements, supported by a linearized power flow model and validated on IEEE test networks.

Contribution

It presents a novel joint phase and topology identification method based on a linearized unbalanced power flow model, applicable to networks with partial phase data.

Findings

Successfully recovers phases and topology in simulated networks

Outperforms existing methods in accuracy and robustness

Provides a theoretical foundation for future research

Abstract

We present a method for joint phase identification and topology recovery in unbalanced three phase radial networks using only voltage measurements. By recovering phases and topology jointly, we utilize all three phase voltage measurements and can handle networks where some buses have a subset of three phases. Our method is theoretically justified by a novel linearized formulation of unbalanced three phase power flow and makes precisely defined and reasonable assumptions on line impedances and load statistics. We validate our method on three IEEE test networks simulated under realistic conditions in OpenDSS, comparing our performance to the state of the art. In addition to providing a new method for phase and topology recovery, our intuitively structured linearized model will provide a foundation for future work in this and other applications.