Topology Identification of Distribution Networks with Partial Smart Meter Coverage

This paper presents a novel measurement-based approach for estimating the topology of low-voltage (LV) distribution networks containing different types of customer meters. The first type is smart meters that measure the voltage, and active and reactive power of customers with higher time resolution while the second type is energy meters (referred to as interval meters) that measure the net energy consumed by the customers at a lower time resolution. First, an optimization problem is proposed to estimate the network impedance models of distribution systems. A two-step topology estimation framework is then presented that first estimates the topology corresponding to the customers with smart meters and subsequently, identifies the location of the interval meters on the estimated topology. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated on multiple randomly generated networks with different numbers of customers, and the IEEE European LV Test Feeder.