Unified PMU Placement Algorithm for Power Systems

This paper presents a PMU (phasor measurement unit) placement algorithm that gives the optimal PMU placement location and minimum number of PMUs for any electric network while considering different approaches. Complete observability, complete observability with N - 1 redundancy, different depths of unobservability, multi-stage sequential placement, real-time monitoring of critical buses are the various PMU placement approaches considered in this paper. The required input for the proposed algorithm is system information and other key aspects like locations of existing PMUs, locations unsuitable for PMU placement, and knowledge of critical buses. Binary integer programming is used to find the respective PMU placement location and minimum number of PMUs. The algorithm is tested on IEEE 39-bus system, IEEE 118-bus system, and IEEE 300-bus system. The results suggest that the algorithm can be used on any power system network and the suitable PMU placement approach can be implemented for application.