Development of methodologies for the integration of smart meters in Distribution Management Systems

Abstract

The recent technological advances dedicated to electric power systems have led to substantial investments in a supervised structure that explores the usage of measurement and monitoring devices and advanced telecommunication and control systems. These investments aim to improve the quality and reliability of electric power delivery as well as to decrease operational costs. With the advent of such technologies, the concept of smart grids has emerged. Additionally, new functions have been integrated to the traditional energy meters, which were originally used exclusively for billing purposes, allowing to access additional information in real time, such as voltage sag and swell and outages. More value can be added to this novelty as its functionalities are increased and these meters have been called smart meters. Until 2021, the Brazilian government intends to install about 63 million smart meters. In this context, this research project is based on the development of methods that explore functions present (or potentially present) in smart meters so that useful information can be extracted and more value can be added to this novelty that has been the focus of investments of several utilities. The proposed research is focused on the application of smart meters in important functions of the Distribution Management System such as Volt/Var control, fault location, reduction of non-technical losses and state estimation. (AU)