Description:
The bidirectional flow of electrical power has mandated the monitoring of the distribution system (DS) in real-time to overcome problems linked to grid stability, that can cause cascade failure. In wide-area monitoring DS, micro-phasor measurement units (µPMUs) play a vivacious role in providing synchronized measurements using global positioning system. The data gathered thereby is beneficial in determining the operational health of the DS. In the present article, a multi-objective optimal µPMU placement problem (µPPP) for DS is addressed for two conflicting objectives viz., minimization of µPMU installation cost and maximization measurement redundancy using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) and multi criteria technique called PROMETHEE-II under practical DS scenarios. The proposed solution methodology is validated on Indian 85-bus and standard IEEE distribution systems, to establish its superiority in locating Pareto optimal solutions (single/multiple solutions). Finally, cost analysis is done which indicates substantial cost saving when µPMUs with variable cost is considered