Practical State Estimation for Electric Distribution Networks

This paper discusses practical state estimation techniques for primarily-radial 3-phase distribution networks. For distribution operations, practical state estimation is considered to include any analysis of available data and information that assists the distribution dispatcher to better know the real-time topology and 3-phase electrical state of a distribution network with relatively little SCADA telemetry. The paper describes techniques and algorithms that are computationally efficient and reasonably simple to understand and implement and give reasonable and useful results, even though they may not necessarily be truly "optimal" in a mathematical sense. More specifically it describes algorithms based on iterative up-down tracing of the radial network, similar to the well-known ladder algorithm for load flow calculation on radial networks