Optimization of the power quality monitor number in smart grid

One of the most important features in smart grid is power system self-healing and power quality improvement. Power quality monitoring is essential to realize this feature. Installing power quality monitors (PQM) in every component of the power network is not feasible due to economic reasons. So how to find the optimal number and locations of power quality monitors while maintaining system observability becomes an important problem. The major contribution of this paper includes providing the model for PQM optimization problem considering both system observability and fault location constraints. The model is then formulized as an integer linear problem and reduced to a group of k-median decision problems. A local search algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. The IEEE 14 bus network is utilized as a case study. Algorithm efficiency is evaluated using Matlab tools and compared with an existing branch and bound algorithm. Experimental results show that proposed algorithm is more than an order of magnitude faster than current algorithm while maintain the accuracy of results.