King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Electrical Engineering Department

Fast Algorithm for Observability Analysis of Poer !ystem !tate Estimation
"etor#s

Dr$ %brahim Omar &abiballah

"ovember '(()
*able of +ontents
!ummary ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, -
'$ %ntroduction ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,$ .
/$ Assumptions & Definitions for Observability Analysis ,,,,,,,,,,,, 0
-$ Observability Analysis ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,$$ 1
.$ Preliminary 2esults ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 3
0$ +onclusions ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,$$ '4
Fast Algorithm for Observability Analysis of Poer !ystem !tate Estimation "etor#s
!ummary
This report proposes the development of a fast algorithm that determines the observability of a power
system state estimation network. It has the capability of identifying the unobservable areas in the system
network. The algorithm does not require any floating-point calculations for checking the observability of the
network. It does not require the existence of a spanning tree and matrix transformation or any sort of
combinatorial calculations to identify the availability of any unobservable area. It requires the establishment
of a symbolic integerjacobian matrix and the implementation of simple logic. ome preliminary results are
presented in this proposal.
Keywords: !bservability" power system" network topology" state estimation" measurement redundancy.
%$ %ntroduction
In order to process any power system state estimator reliably" it is necessary to identify beforehand if there
are any unobservable #isolated$ islands. Identification of such islands provides information of which
locations in the system network need more measurement meters. %nowing the type and location of the
measurements" it is possible then to improve the measurement set reliability by adding other measurements
that transform the existing critical measurements to redundant ones. The measurement redundancy is a
desire because it may guarantee the network observability even when some measurements are lost. This will
improve the reliability of state estimation process" and consequently simplify the detection and identification
process which follow the state estimation itself &'-(). *edundant measurements are also necessary in order
to identify gross errors in the state estimation process" because some gross errors #like these on critical
measurements$ are undetectable by the usual bad data detection routines &+-',).
The concept of identifying the isolated islands in state estimation sense is strongly related to network
observability theory. -onsequently the methods of identify these islands" which have been developed until
now" are based in theories on observability analysis. .owever" the computational requirements and low
processing velocity for many of these methods have limitations on real time applications. The computational
requirements by many of these methods are based on combinatorial processes" triangular factori/ation of the
gain matrix" or reduction of the measurement 0acobian matrix &'(-1').
In this report" the development of a fast algorithm for observability analysis is proposed. It has the
capability of identifying the unobservable areas in the system network. The algorithm does not require any
floating-point calculations for checking the observability of the network. It does not require the existence of
a spanning tree and matrix transformation or any sort of combinatorial calculations to identify the
availability of any unobservable area. It requires the establishment of a symbolic integerjacobian matrix
and the implementation of simple logic. ome preliminary results are presented in this proposal.
%%$ Assumptions & Definitions for Observability Analysis
/$'$ Assumptions
It is assumed that the power #flow and injection$ measurements are available in pairs of real and reactive
measurements. In this case it is sufficient to test the rank of the real power measurements only.
/$/$ Definitions
%& Matri56 This matrix is a symbolic one that contains non-/ero elements only. The si/e of %& matrix is
n5m" where n is the number of busses including the slack bus and m is the number of real power #flows and
injections$ measurements. If the row of the %& matrix is associated with a power-flow measurement T
ij
" then
we assign number 2'2 to column 2i2 and number 2-'2 to column 2j2 to indicate that this flow meter could be
used to connect bus 2i2 with bus 2j2. If the row of the %& matrix is associated with a power-injection
measurement P
i
and that bus 2i2 is connected to 2k2 busses" then we assign number 2k2 to column 2i2 and
number 2-'2 to every column associated with the 2k2 busses connected to bus 2i2 to indicate that this
injection meter could be used to connect bus 2i2 with any of the of the 2k2 busses around bus 2i2 but not all
the 2k2 busses.
%sland6 it is a group of one or more connected-busses. If there are more than one bus in the island" then
these busses are connected together within themselves by means of power-flow measurements" but they can
not be connected to any other island by any other power-flow measurement. This means that every power-
flow measurement will belong to one of the identified island #s$" but not every bus is connected by a power-
flow measurement.
%%%$ Observability Analysis
This section provide a sufficient condition that identify the existence of and isolated #unobservable$ island.
!ther sufficient conditions could exist. uch conditions along with the necessary condition will be studied
to identify any isolated island.
!ufficient +ondition6 If there exist any column" in the %& matrix" with 7ero non-/ero elements" say #'
columns" then the network is not observable and the rank of the %& matrix is 8n9':9#'.
Proof of the !ufficient +ondition6
If there exist any bus that can not be conneceted by any power-flow and3or power-injection measurement"
then it will appear in the %& matrix as a column with /ero non-/ero elements. If there are #' of such busses"
then there will be #' columns in the %& matrix each with /ero non-/ero elements. -onsequently" if #' is
greater than /ero" the system is not observable and the rank of the %& matrix is reduced by #'" i.e." it
becomes 8n9':9#'. This rank is not the final value because this is a sufficient condition.
4nd of the proof
%;$ Preliminary 2esults
E5ample '6
-onsider this +-bus network with + power-flows and 5 bus-injections and bus + as the slack bus.
The corresponding %& matrix is
%& 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
12
1 1 0 0 0 0
21
1 1 0 0 0 0
23
0 1 1 0 0 0
32
0 1 1 0 0 0
14
1 0 0 1 0 0
45
0 0 0 1 1 0
1
2 1 0 1 0 0
2
1 3 1 1 0 0
5 6 3 4 1 0
T
T
T
T
T
T
P
P

The number of non-/ero elements in every column of the %& matrix is calculated. ince column + has /ero
non-/ero elements" the rank of the system" is , with bus + #the slack bus$ as unobservable one.

' /
-
. 0 1


E5ample /6
-onsider this 7-bus network with ( power-flows and 5 bus-injections and bus 7 as the slack bus.

The corresponding %& matrix is
%& 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
12
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
23
0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
34
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
67
0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
76
0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
1
2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
2
1 3 1 0 1 0 0 0
3 4 3 1 2 2 2 0
T
T
T
T
T
P
P

The number of non-/ero elements in every column of the %& matrix is calculated. ince column 7 has /ero
non-/ero elements" the rank of the system #according to the sufficient condition$ is + with bus 7 #the slack
bus$ as unobservable one. If" however" we count the number of islands in this example" there are four
islands8 g
'
6 &'" 5" 1" ,) " g
/
6 &+" 9) " g
-
6 &()" and g
.
6 &7). !ut of these four islands" g
'
and g
/
are identified
by the power-flow measurements. Therefore" we need at least three measurement meters to connect these
four islands. :y inspecting the available measurements" we have either P
'
or P
/
that can connect island g
'
with island g
-
. -onsequently" islands g
/
and g
.
are unobservable ones" and the actual rank of the system
network becomes ( and not +. This proof the fact that we have to come up with other sufficient and
necessary conditions to identify all isolated islands.
/
'
0
1
3
-
.
)
E5ample -6
-onsider this +-bus network with 1 power-flows and ' bus-injections and bus + as the slack bus.

The corresponding %& matrix is
%& 6
' 5 5 ' 5 5
; ; ' ' 1 '
' ' ; ; ; ;
; ' ' ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ' '
+ ( , 1 5 '
5
(+
,(
'5

P
T
T
T
The number of non-/ero elements in every column of the %& matrix is calculated. ince there are no
columns with /ero non-/ero elements" the rank of the system #according to the sufficient condition$ is (. If"
however" we count the number of islands in this example" there are three islands8 g
'
6 &'" 5) " g
/
6 &," (" +) "
and g
-
6 &1) two of which are due to the power-flow measurements. -onsequently" we need at least two
measurement meters to connect these three islands. :y inspecting the available measurements" P
/
is the only
power-injection measurement available to connect island g
'
with island g
/
. -onsequently" the system
network is not observable with rank of , and island g
-
as an unobservable island. The detection of such
unobservable island requires further investigation of other sufficient and necessary conditions.
'
/ -
. 0 1
;$ +onclusions
This report has proposed a fast algorithm that checks the observability of power system state estimation
networks. It can identify the unobservable areas in the network. The method requires the establishment of a
symbolic integerjacobian matrix and the implementation of simple logic. The algorithm has been tested
successfully on several examples using a sufficient condition. <urther investigation of other sufficient and
necessary conditions will be conducted to identify all isolated islands in the system network"
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