A Multi-objective Approach for Optimized Monitoring of Voltage Sags in Distribution Systems

Voltage sags are among the most relevant power quality disturbances. Furthermore, they also have high occurrence rates. Their stochastic nature makes monitoring difficult and causes significant losses to power utilities and customers. This paper presents an approach to overcome the problem of allocating power quality monitors. To do so, our approach accounts for topological coverage, unmonitored voltage sags, and the total cost of required equipment. We used NSGA-II to build our approach due to its efficiency in dealing with combinatorial problems. We also used the Monte Carlo simulation method to model the time series in our approach due to the random nature of power quality disturbances. To evaluate our approach, we simulated the IEEE 13-, 34- and 37-bus distribution systems using the DigSILENT Power Factory 15.1 software. The evaluation results show that our approach supported cost reduction associated with the installation of power quality monitors, both in terms of identifying adequate number and position of the performance monitors.