Digital Twin of Distribution Power Transformer for Real-Time Monitoring of Medium Voltage from Low Voltage Measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a digital twin model for distribution power transformers that enables real-time, accurate monitoring of medium voltage waveforms using low voltage measurements, reducing costs and operational disruptions.

Contribution

The work presents a novel digital twin approach that accurately reconstructs medium voltage waveforms from low voltage data, capturing harmonics and fault conditions without additional instrumentation.

Findings

Accurately reproduces MV waveforms from LV measurements

Captures all harmonic content and detects faults

Matches field data with simulation results

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of distribution systems has be-come necessary, due to the deregulation of electricity markets and the wide deployment of distributed energy resources. To monitor voltage and current at sub-cycle detail, requires, typically, major investment undertaking and disruptions to the operation of the grid. In this work, measurements of the low voltage (LV) side of distribution transformers (T/F) are used to calculate in real time the waveforms of their medium voltage (MV) sides, based on a mathematical model of said T/F. This model is, essentially, the dig-ital twin of the MV side of the T/F. The method calculates T/F MV waveforms of voltage and current, and active and reactive power as accurately as an instrument T/F, captures all harmonics con-tent, is unaffected by asymmetrical loading and identifies most sys-tem faults on the MV side of the T/F. The digital twin method en-ables monitoring of distribution T/F that avoids MV instrumenta-tion, does not suffer in accuracy and may be readily deployable. Field data from an actual MV-LV T/F, agree with simulation re-sults showcasing the efficacy of the digital twin method.