Distribution network topology identification based on synchrophasor

A distribution system upgrade moving towards Smart Grid implementation is necessary to face the proliferation of distributed generators and electric vehicles, in order to satisfy the increasing demand for high quality, efficient, secure, reliable energy supply. This perspective requires taking into account system vulnerability to cyber attacks. An effective attack could destroy stored information about network structure, historical data and so on. Countermeasures and network applications could be made impracticable since most of them are based on the knowledge of network topology. Usually, the location of each link between nodes in a network is known. Therefore, the methods used for topology identification determine if a link is open or closed. When no information on the location of the network links is available, these methods become totally unfeasible. This paper presents a method to identify the network topology using only nodal measures obtained by means of phasor measurement units.