1300 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO.
5, MAY 2015
A Scalable Data-Driven Monitoring Approach
for Distribution Systems
Mohsen Ferdowsi, Student Member, IEEE, Andrea Benigni, Member, IEEE, Artur Löwen, Behzad Zargar,
Antonello Monti, Senior Member, IEEE, and Ferdinanda Ponci, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract— This paper introduces a new data-driven bottom-up
monitoring approach for distribution systems. In this approach,
local estimations of the subsections into which the system is
split are performed independently, thus leading to a scalable
architecture. The monitoring approach is focused only on the
estimation of voltage magnitude rather than the complete state
of the system. This reduces the measurement requirements sig-
nificantly, thus addressing economical and technical concerns for
existing systems, while staying open to accommodating further
incremental improvements in the available data and data quality.
The estimation of each section is realized via an artificial neural
network (ANN), for which a set of parameterizations is available
to cope with different operating conditions. The estimation
convergence is achieved even with relatively few measurements,
although accuracy varies depending on the available measure-
ments. At the Medium Voltage (MV) level, where reconfiguration
is common, a configuration identification unit chooses the right
ANN, the one trained for the actual network configuration. The
estimation process is computationally simple and can be executed
on low-cost hardware, as demonstrated in this paper by the
implementation on a BeagleBone Black board. To demonstrate
the concept, a prototype and a laboratory setup have been
developed. The experimental test results are presented both for an
Low Voltage distribution system and an MV distribution system.
Index Terms— Artificial neural networks (ANNs), hierarchical
systems, power distribution, power system monitoring, state
estimation.
I. I NTRODUCTION
D ISTRIBUTION system operators (DSOs) are responsible
for the secure operation and maintenance of their
systems, as well as for planning and performing necessary
upgrades and extensions to ensure their long-term ability to
meet the demand [1]. To fulfill these duties properly and
efficiently, DSOs need to be aware of the ongoing situation
within their distribution grids via monitoring systems.
In particular, using the data collected by the monitoring
systems, DSOs can identify issues, such as outages, excessive
voltage deviations, and overloads. With this information,
Manuscript received June 20, 2014; revised January 21, 2015; accepted
January 22, 2015. Date of current version April 3, 2015. The Associate Editor
coordinating the review process was Dr. Carlo Muscas.
M. Ferdowsi, A. Löwen, B. Zargar, A. Monti, and F. Ponci are
with the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, E.ON
Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 52062,
Germany (e-mail: mferdowsi@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de; aloewen@eonerc.
rwth-aachen.de; bzargar@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de; amonti@eonerc.
rwth-aachen.de; fponci@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de).
A. Benigni is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 USA (e-mail: benignia@
mailbox.sc.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2015.2398991
0018-9456 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
DSOs are able to take corrective actions and plan for
component upgrades and grid-extension investments.
Although monitoring is already widely used in High
Voltage (HV) transmission grids, applying the same
monitoring approach and equipment for distribution networks
is not feasible. The main reason is that the overall Medium
Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) electricity grids are
much larger than HV grids in terms of the number of nodes
and the total length of the lines. For example, the Italian
HV grid operated by the Italian transmission system operator
Terna is approximately 63 500-km long, whereas the total
length of MV and LV grids managed by Enel, Italy’s largest
DSO, is around 1 125 000 km [2], [3]. As a result, applying the
approach used in HV as it is to MV/LV grids would require so
much measurement and monitoring equipment that it would be
economically prohibitive. To tackle this problem, monitoring
systems should use few measurements, where the computation
should be light and incremental deployment must be possible.
Meeting these requirements may result in lesser performance,
which, however, at the moment may actually satisfy the
needs of the DSO. Performance can later be improved by
incrementally upgrading the original measurement system.
In recent years, the approaches to state estimation for
distribution networks presented in the literature mainly rely
on variations of the weighted least squares (WLS) method.
Singh et al. [4] present an optimization method for meter
placement that aims at satisfying specified target accuracy for
the state estimates. Pau et al. [5] describe a novel approach to
the integration of synchrophasor measurements. Liu et al. [6]
present the use of a heterogeneous set of measurements,
including smart meters, PMUs, substation measurements, and
pseudo and virtual measurements, together with an optimiza-
tion method to identify the best measurement configuration.
In [7], it is shown that correlation of measurements and
pseudomeasurements may have significant impact on the
estimation accuracy in some cases and must, therefore,
be accounted for. Concerning dynamic measurements in
distribution grids, Castello et al. [8] define a new algorithm
for synchrophasor measurement that satisfies both P and M
accuracy classes as defined by the IEEE Standard C37.118.1
and the results apply particularly well to distribution grids.
The focus of this work is on the accurate estimation of the
amplitude and phase angle of voltage and current, which
enables the accurate estimation of the power flows, possibly
even under dynamic conditions.
These types of state estimation approaches are becoming
increasingly sophisticated and yield highly valuable
knowledge. However, they require the availability of a system
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH
model, a significant number of measurements [9]–[12],
and a significant computational effort. Consequently, the
application of WLS state estimation to distribution networks
faces a considerable cost barrier and, hence, wide deployment
of these techniques is not to be expected in the near future.
Instead, if less information on the status of the grid is
sufficient, and less accuracy is acceptable, at least in the
current transition phase toward future distribution system
automation, it is possible to use alternative approaches. This is
the case, for example, if the DSO is mainly interested in esti-
mating only the voltage magnitude of the buses in the system,
to detect possible violation of permissible voltage magnitude
limits, i.e., undervoltages and overvoltages to comply with
power quality standards, such as EN-50160 or IEC 61000,
for which the phase angle is not relevant; or if the control
countermeasures, in response to violations detected by the
monitoring system, have fairly coarse granularity. In these
cases, the accuracy requirements are significantly reduced.
Besides, the features of the estimation that we propose may
fit the requirements of other new monitoring and control
services, which are still in development for the active
distribution networks of the future.
The use of an artificial neural network (ANN) for state
estimation is a viable alternative to the classical model-based
state estimation. An ANN is a data-driven approach and,
therefore, it does not need any physics-based model of the
system. It has an extremely light computational cost, making it
executable on very low cost hardware, and it requires few mea-
surements (with loose requirements in terms of accuracy and
synchronization). Such ANNs, when trained, accept substation
measurements as inputs and provide node voltage magnitudes
as outputs. The knowledge of the behavior of the distribution
grid is captured by the ANN coefficients and it is extracted,
during the training, from known load profiles and related
voltage profiles. Such data can typically be taken from load
flow solutions produced by the DSO (e.g., when assessing
hosting capacity in response to a request to connect new
generation or load), although other sources of information can
equally easily be exploited. Note that training the ANN with
selected data, such as working days only or peak hours, allows
different sets of coefficients of the ANN to be determined and
appropriately used in the different day/time or other situations.
Each such ANN computes the output for the portion of the
grid connected downstream to the substation. Even a sparse
deployment provides insight into the status of some areas of
the network, although, in this case, partial but supportive of
substation-level decision making. Hence, what we propose can
be a cornerstone of the new monitoring and automation system
for distribution.
In [11], a state estimation technique based on ANNs for
distribution systems is proposed. This technique, however,
does not provide a modular and scalable structure. In some
cases, ANNs have been used in conjunction with WLS esti-
mation techniques, as in [13]–[15], where the ANN is used for
the generation of the pseudomeasurements, thus constituting
a totally different application from what is proposed here.
Ferdowsi et al. [16] presented the initial version of this
data-driven bottom-up monitoring approach based on an ANN
1301
for the estimation of voltage magnitudes. It makes no use
of the typical state estimation equations and is flexible with
regard to the number of input measurements. Depending on
the available measurements, the estimation accuracy may vary,
but there are no convergence issues. Furthermore, rather
than performing centralized voltage estimation for the entire
system, this approach proposes a hierarchical bottom-up archi-
tecture to build up the overall picture. Moreover, the estimation
process is computationally simple and can be executed on a
low-cost hardware. Ferdowsi et al. [16] provided a demon-
stration by implementing a prototype for embedded execution
using a single-board computer (BeagleBone Black) and testing
it in real time using data from a simulated LV feeder. In this
paper, we extend the work in [16] by introducing a new
stage in the state estimation process that handles changes in
the network configuration, which are common in MV level.
Furthermore, we discuss the scalability of the proposed
approach and present new test cases for configuration identifi-
cation (CI) and voltage magnitude estimation in the MV grid.
In Section II, the monitoring approach is described.
Scalability aspects are explained and considerations presented
for the design of local estimator and the ANN-based voltage
estimator, CI unit, and data acquisition, transmission, and
visualization. Section III introduces the prototype and
the laboratory setups. Next, in Section IV, the approach is
demonstrated on two test case systems. Finally, the conclusion
is presented in Section V.
II. A PPROACH
The underlying idea in our approach is to have a scalable
and low-cost solution that can unlock the door to the
development of monitoring and automation in distribution
systems imposed by the cost barriers associated with the
implementation of classical approaches. Rather than providing
a very detailed picture and accurate estimation, our approach
enables the operator to have a rough understanding of the
ongoing conditions and, above all, to determine if there is a
voltage violation at all, and in the second instance to detect
the weakest points of the network without heavy investments.
In this respect, our solution can constitute an intermediate
but affordable step in the long-term process of automation
of distribution systems. The follow up is envisioned as
incremental deployment of these local estimators until
the full distribution grid is monitored, integration of new
measurements and full integration of the standalone Hardware
that embeds the estimator into the future standard substation
automation architecture. Estimation of the voltage phase
angles is intentionally excluded from the monitoring problem
as it is currently of little practical importance for DSOs in most
cases. The information provided by such a monitoring system
is beneficial both for the utility and the consumers: the utility
can use the information not only to better identify operational
limits of the network and take necessary corrective actions but
also to make better decisions about network reinforcement.
All this is expected to improve power quality for consumers.
The bottom-up approach is realized by splitting the distrib-
ution system into smaller parts, herein referred to as sections,
and estimating node voltage magnitude within each section via
1302 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015
Fig. 1. Scheme of the bottom-up hierarchical data-driven distribution monitoring approach.
an ANN. The idea is then to build the overall system picture
by integrating the individual estimation solutions. The ANN,
as mentioned above, is trained with the data already available
to the DSO from previous load flow calculations and by any
additional real-time measurements that may be available, from
smart meters, for example. This training results in an ANN that
mirrors the distribution system in terms of relation between
voltage magnitude profile and load profile. In reality, though,
measurements are affected by uncertainty. To incorporate this
aspect, that is to link blurry input data to the same output, the
ANN is trained with inputs corrupted by random noise.
The first step in splitting the system is to consider each
portion of the LV grid downstream of an MV/LV transformer
as a separate section for estimation and monitoring. In the
event that different LV sections could be connected via
a reconfiguration switch, these sections must together be
assigned one single local estimator. Similarly, at MV level,
a portion of the system that exchanges power with other
portions of the grid only via transformers could be considered
as a separate section, meaning that the MV feeders that could
be connected via reconfiguration switches, as shown in Fig. 1,
should be collectively considered as a single section. Next,
each local estimator, either at LV or MV level, estimates the
voltage magnitude of all nodes in its assigned portion of the
grid using its ANN-based estimation unit.
As a general rule, each local estimator needs voltage
and current measurements at the secondary side of the
transformer(s) feeding the section. Depending on the com-
plexity of the section topology and whether or not significant
distributed generation (DG) units are present, one or more
additional measurements may be needed to ensure reasonable
estimation accuracy. The local estimator in the implementa-
tion presented in this paper is predominantly designed for
performing estimations in passive networks. Nevertheless, this
estimator is still able to work reasonably well with relatively
low penetration of DG units. To illustrate this, in Section V,
we present the performance of the local estimator designed for
a passive LV system in the presence of DG units. In [17], it is
shown that the presence of long side branches or considerable
power injection along the feeder from DG units could lead
to very different voltage profiles, which all result in almost
identical voltage and current measurements at the substation.
In such cases, it is necessary to provide the estimator with
additional voltage or current measurements to capture the
major voltage magnitude deviations. However, for most simple
network configurations, additional measurements are usually
not necessary. On the other hand, the estimator has the
possibility to incorporate new measurements (e.g., smart meter
data), when available, to improve its estimation accuracy by
changing only the ANN code and without any need to change
its hardware implementation or the architecture of the mon-
itoring system. Therefore, the estimation accuracy may vary
depending on the number, location, and accuracy of available
measurements and depending on the complexity of the section
topology. Finally, in presence of DG units, the inclusion of
weather data (solar irradiation, wind speed, and so on) among
the inputs of the ANN may enable it to differentiate among a
variety of different scenarios that can give rise to similar volt-
age and current measurements. Therefore, by having access
to weather data, the ANN may perform a more or equally
accurate estimation with less demanding requirements both in
terms of number and accuracy of measurements.
The estimate of the voltage magnitudes of the downstream
nodes makes it possible for the LV local estimators to detect
voltage-limit violations in their sections and issue necessary
alarms. These data can be made available locally and be also
shared periodically, e.g., on a 1 min basis, with the data
collector. The data collector should preferably be located in the
DSO control center: this enables it to monitor all LV sections
that are equipped with a local estimator. In a similar way,
at the MV level, MV local estimators use the current and
voltage measurements at MV/LV transformers along with the
measurements available directly at the MV level to estimate
the voltage profile of the MV grid. Therefore, in a bottom-up
way, it is possible to reconstruct the overall picture of the
distribution system. This concept is shown in Fig. 1. It should
be noted that the estimations in the LV sections are not
used as input to the estimation at the MV level because the
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the local estimator execution.
measurements at the MV/LV transformer, i.e., the measured
current and voltage values, fully represent the downstream
network from a circuit analysis point of view to the MV level.
A. Architecture of the Local Estimator
Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of the local estimator.
The main functions are as follows:
1) acquisition of the measurement inputs;
2) solution of the ANN-based estimation problem;
3) transmission of the measured and estimated values to
the upper level and to the data collector, respectively.
The block actual configuration is needed only when the
section may be reconfigured, which is usually the case only
at MV level. It should be stressed that this step is merely
responsible for the selection of appropriate ANN weights
corresponding to the actual configuration of the section based
on the output of the so-called CI unit, which will be described
in Section II-C, and does not deal with a physical model
of the section. The date and time block is used if different
ANNs are trained for different operating points, as described
in the previous sections. Therefore, if all loads in a section
are of the same type, for example, if they are all residential, a
single ANN can usually adequately perform the estimations at
different times and no time and date input would be needed.
The input measurements can be also heterogeneous in type
(e.g., voltage, current, active and reactive powers, as well as
meteorological data like temperature, irradiation, and wind
speed).
B. ANN Structure and Training for Voltage Estimation
The training procedure tunes the weights and biases of the
ANNs to capture the relation between loads and node voltages
in a compact form (in the form of a few weights and biases).
In [18], the main architectures, fundamental equations, and the
most common learning techniques for ANNs are presented.
In our application, a feedforward ANN with one hidden layer
was chosen for both the LV and MV local estimators. The
Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm was used to train the ANN.
This algorithm is a fast and efficient second-order method [18]
and it is available in the MATLAB Neural Network Toolbox,
1303
which was used for the training purpose in this paper. The
number of inputs to the ANN is equal to the number of
measurements collected from the grid, e.g., two and six for
the LV and MV grids in our test cases presented in Section IV.
The number of ANN outputs, i.e., output neurons, equals the
number of nodes for which the voltage magnitude is to be
estimated (9 and 14 nodes for our test LV and MV grids,
respectively). In addition, as explained in detailed in
Section IV-C, the hidden layer contains two neurons. For
the hidden and output layers, sigmoid and linear activation
functions were considered, respectively.
To train the ANNs, either archival load flow results, which
the DSOs usually already possess from network planning
studies, or a set of new power flows, obtained from the
network model, could be used. The elements which need to
be extracted from the load flow data are a set of input and
output pairs that form the required data samples. The inputs
are the same quantities that the trained ANN will use to
perform estimations and the outputs are the quantities that are
expected to be estimated. Thus, the ANN inputs are the voltage
and current magnitudes at the substation and, if needed, the
additional current and voltage magnitudes from other branches
and nodes. Similarly, the voltage magnitudes of all nodes of
interest are also extracted and used as the ANN output in the
training process.
The number of collected samples must be large enough
to cover the whole span of possible load combinations and
result in a comprehensive training data set. Therefore, a higher
number of samples may be required as the network complexity
increases in terms of topology and the type of connected
elements (the profile of loads, the presence of DG units,
and so on). The training of the LV ANN must comprise
a wide range of values for the load demand of each node
(e.g., between 0% and 100% of the peak power at any given
time), and, in fact, as each node represents only one or
a few customers, the variability of operating conditions is
fairly broad. For the MV grid, however, the load demand
of each node, assumed to be centered around an expected
value known from the load profile of that node, presents a
relatively small deviation (e.g., within a ±10% of the expected
value) for any given time interval, since each node usually
represents an aggregate of several loads. Another important
consideration is that if a section can be operated under
different configurations (such as the MV system presented in
Section IV), its voltage profile would follow different patterns
and, as a result, dedicated ANNs must be adopted for each
configuration. Furthermore, if all the loads in a given section
have similar load profiles (e.g., all are residential as is the case
for the LV system presented in Section IV), only one single
ANN for different hours of the day may be sufficient as it can
be assumed that demand of all nodes undergo similar changes
during the day. This is, however, not the case if different
nodes have different load profiles that follow various patterns
with time.
Once trained offline, the ANNs are computationally
simple and may be implemented and deployed on a low-cost
hardware. There is also the possibility for retraining the ANN
upon availability of new data, which could be done remotely.
1304 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015
Fig. 3. Diagram summarizing different modes of operation of the CI unit, the events triggering transition from one mode to another, and the choice of ANNs
in each mode.
It should be pointed out that the location and type of available
measurements must be known for the initial ANN training.
If some measurements are suddenly unavailable in runtime,
the estimator will have to switch to an ANN that requires
fewer input measurements if possible, or issue an alarm
indicating that the estimator is missing some essential input
data, and therefore, its output is not reliable. In practice, the
implementation on a low-cost device and the possibility to
initially avoid further investments in measurement devices
could make this solution economic and attractive for utilities.
For the implementation of the ANN-based estimation unit,
a dedicated solver was used. Since the training is performed
offline, the estimation is characterized by extremely low
computational cost, which allows very cheap and relatively
slow processors (<1 GHz) to be used.
C. Configuration Identification
Unlike LV distribution systems, reconfiguration is common
at MV level. More precisely, radially operated ring or meshed
networks allow for feeding the loads through alternative paths
in the event of permanent faults. Considering the possibility
of various fault locations and corresponding reconfigurations,
it is important to ensure that MV local estimators can maintain
their estimation accuracy in reconfigurations.
The appropriate CI approach for a given distribution section
depends strongly on its level of automation. In the presence of
advanced outage management systems, such as fault location,
isolation, and service restoration (FLIR), the information
from protective relays or fault passage indicators provides
the opportunity to locate and isolate the faults. Based on this
information, the operator or the automated FLIR function
executes the required switching steps to restore the loads in
the sections not affected by the fault [19], [20]. Therefore, the
MV local estimator is able to directly update its selection of
the MV system configuration according to the actual network
configuration as reflected in the FLIR and implemented by
the operator in the control center or the automated FLIR
function. In practice, even in distribution systems with trouble
call-based outage management system, the operator enters
the connectivity changes into the distribution management
system (DMS) network model [20]. As a result, even in such
cases, the actual network topology is available via the DMS.
If the information about the current network configuration
is not available or accessible either directly from the FLIR
system or the DMS at the control center, the CI unit would
have to detect the configuration itself. To this end, as the first
step, the CI must differentiate among three operating modes, as
shown in Fig. 3. The first mode is the normal operating mode
in which all reconfiguration switches, as shown in Fig. 1, are
open and feeders are fed in a radial way; the second mode
corresponds to grid conditions in which part of the network
is deenergized as a result of a system fault and opening of
circuit breakers. In the third mode, which usually follows
the second mode, the faulty section of the system is isolated
by means of load break switches and an alternative path is
provided to supply the disconnected loads by closing one of
the reconfiguration switches.
To detect the mode in which the grid is currently operating,
the CI unit relies on the status information collected from
the reconfiguration switches, the current measurements from
feeders, which are compared with the expected values from
historical data, and the detection of the sudden changes
in the feeder loading level. The normal operation mode is
characterized by all reconfiguration switches being open and
the feeder currents having no unusual deviation from historical
data known at each time interval. Transition to mode 2 can be
detected by a sudden drop in the load of a feeder in which
a fault occurs, as a result of operation of circuit breakers.
In this mode, the loading level of other feeders does not
undergo a similar change and the reconfiguration switches
are still open. Transition to mode 3 is detectable from the
sudden increase in the overall MV section load back to the
expected range for that time interval as a result of the provision
of an alternative supply path to part of the feeders with
an isolated line segment through one of the reconfiguration
switches. During the transition from mode 3 back to mode 1,
a simultaneous step increase in the loading of one feeder and
a load decrease in another feeder is observed followed by the
opening of reconfiguration switches.
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH
If the grid is operating in mode 2 or 3, the CI unit
will then proceed with identifying the deenergized part
(which could consist of several branches and nodes) or
the isolated line segment of the section to determine the
actual configuration. For this task, the CI unit is equipped
with a library of ANN-based classifiers trained for different
hours of the day and months of the year. Training of these
ANN-based classifiers relies on the assumption that each load
on the MV usually represents a group of customers whose
aggregated demand follows standard load profiles (which vary
for different times of the year as well as weekdays and
weekends).
The CI unit also benefits from the current and voltage
measurements available from the LV estimation units in deter-
mining the actual mode of operation and identifying which part
of the section may be isolated. In this sense, for example, zero
current and voltage at the secondary of MV/LV transformers
could be a potential indicator of isolation of the MV node
from which the MV/LV transformer is fed. Furthermore, if the
secondary substations have transformers with off-load tap
changers, whose tap settings are usually adjusted on a seasonal
basis, the voltage measurement on the LV side can be used
to directly calculate the voltage magnitude on the MV side.
Such information can serve as additional information for the
MV local estimator and its CI unit and significantly simplify
their task, if not completely remove the need for them, and
improve the accuracy of their estimations.
It is also worth noting that the CI function described above
could be mapped to the topology process function in classical
state estimation.
D. Data Acquisition, Transmission, and Visualization
For measurement acquisition, the local estimator must
be able to utilize a variety of technologies: in compatible
substations, the IEC 61850 protocol could be used to acquire
sampled values signals over the process bus or the input
could be acquired from other intelligent electronic device
over the substation bus. In substations not compatible to the
IEC 61850 standards, analog signals can be used for locally
connected sensors, while remote measurements may come
in via power line communication or wireless technologies.
To create a flexible and low cost device, the local estimator
hardware core can be built independently from the specific
communication media as a computational unit that offers
basic interfaces like USB for the connection of a wireless
communication device or an Ethernet port for communication
with a local network or gateway. For the transmission of
the estimated values, a modular approach similar to the one
applied for the measurements acquisition can be used. Further
details can be found in [16, Sec. II-B].
Even though the logical flow of information suggests direct
communication of the computed values to upper levels, it may
be more practical for each device to contact a cloud service
to deliver measurement data to the data collector and to
fetch data from the lower level measurement devices. Such
an approach would be also in line with recent trends in the
application of future Internet (FI) concepts for smart energy
systems, which have been investigated and are being trialed in
1305
Fig. 4. Laboratory setup.
several European projects including FI for smart energy [21]
and FI smart utility services [22]. To this end, the central
cloud service is realized as a web service on a regular web
server where the data is stored in a database. This approach is
expected to reduce the amount of data transfer as well as the
connection time of the individual measurement or estimator
devices.
For data collection and visualization, a web-based ad hoc
solution is developed. This visualization is useful not only
for development and field test, but also for maintenance, as
it is independent of any existing visualization system. As a
consequence, the field tests could be set up and carried out in
a nonintrusive manner. The visualized measurements and esti-
mations are available through the web-based interface locally
at the substation for the section where the local estimator is
working on, as well as globally in the control center for an
overall picture. In this respect, the local visualization shows a
chart with real-time measurements used by the estimator and
the resulting estimations. The global visualization shows the
scheme of the grid model and the estimations or measurements
where available for each node. The voltage level is
indicated by color coding ranging from green (normal) to red
(limit exceeded). If the permissible voltage limits are violated,
alarms will be issued.
In parallel to the described web-based visualization,
an interface could be implemented to transmit data to a
supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system
using protocols like IEC 61850 or DNP3. The connection to a
SCADA system would be also available locally and globally
from the cloud service.
E. Scalability Aspects of the Proposed Approach
The proposed monitoring approach is scalable in terms of
the following aspects.
1) Modularity: The overall monitoring system is composed
of a number of estimation modules, namely, local
estimators, communicating with a central data collector.
1306 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015
Each local estimator is responsible for a separate
section of the system and acts independently from
other modules located at the same level. In this respect,
transformers act as decoupling points between different
sections. The number of monitored sections can be
increased or reduced to monitor a larger or smaller
part of the overall distribution system by the addition
or removal of estimation modules without any change
in the overall architecture of the monitoring system.
Furthermore, as mentioned before, this approach has
the possibility for partial deployment and providing
monitoring in selected parts of the grids in the first
stages thanks to its modular architecture.
2) Extensibility: The same local estimator can be used
regardless of the number of the nodes and complexity of
the network of interest. The only difference may be the
need for a higher number of measurement inputs in case
of increased complexity in network topology, number of
nodes, or the presence of significant DG. As described
in [16], it is also possible to design the local estimator
to seamlessly switch from its normal ANN to a
more basic ANN if one of the input measurements
is suddenly disconnected. In such a case, the local
estimator must issue an alarm indicating that the
accuracy of the estimations may be degraded compared
with the normal case. Furthermore, this solution is
extensible in the sense that its estimators can integrate
new measurements upon availability. In such cases, only
the ANN code must be updated in a remote way. Since
computation of the ANN outputs is very fast (around
0.5–1 ms for the heaviest cases in our tests for the both
LV and MV systems; this is explained in more detail
in Section V-D), the same hardware could handle much
larger grids involving a higher number of ANN inputs
and outputs. In case the section can be reconfigured by
means of reconfiguration switches, as shown in the MV
level of Fig. 1, the local estimator should be equipped
with a CI unit, as discussed in detail in Section II-C.
F. Applicability of the Proposed Approach
It should be emphasized that the proposed approach as
presented in this paper is applicable to networks with no or
a relatively low penetration level of DG units. Furthermore,
only radial or radially operated ring and mesh networks are
covered in this paper. Both voltage and current values at the
secondary side of the transformers also need to be measured
and made available to the local estimators in all cases (further
measurements may be required depending on the topological
complexity). In Section V-A, the performance of the ANNs
trained for the operation in a test LV network with no DG units
is presented when a DG unit is connected to the system. It is
shown that the estimation error increases with an increase in
the injected power from the DG unit. However, depending
on the accuracy requirements of the application, the increased
estimation error may still be acceptable and the estimator may
be still used without adaptation for DG units.
III. P ROTOTYPE AND L ABORATORY S ETUP
A. Prototype
The prototype of the local estimator was implemented on a
BeagleBone Black, which is a single-board computer equipped
with a 1-GHz ARM CPU and 512 MB of RAM. Among the
many similar boards available on the market, including its very
well-known competitor Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone Black
was chosen mainly for two reasons, namely, the presence of
an embedded storage of 2 GB and the capability of directly
acquiring analog signals. The embedded storage of 2 GB
together with a network booting system will considerably
simplify future tests involving several local estimators. The
capability of directly acquiring analog signals is extremely
useful since input analog signals generated by a real-time
digital simulator (RTDS) are used as measurements in the
tests. To send the estimated values to the data concentrator,
the prototype is equipped with a 3G stick (Huawei E3131).
The ANN-based estimation is performed using a custom-made
solver executed on the BeagleBone Black.
B. Laboratory Setup
Fig. 4 describes the laboratory setup realized to test the
proposed approach. The setup comprises RTDS, a commercial
tool for real-time simulation of power systems, the local
estimator prototype, and a web server implemented on a
normal PC. The distribution network model is implemented
in RTDS. The prototype of the local estimator receives its
measurement inputs through analog output board of RTDS.
The estimate is then sent out via 3G-based communication to
the web server.
IV. T EST C ASES
In this section, the capability of the proposed ANN-based
system to accurately estimate the voltage profile at different
voltage levels of two typical European distribution systems is
investigated. The absolute value of the error in the voltage
magnitude estimation in the node with the largest error is
determined in each case. Furthermore, the ability of the ANNs
to detect voltage magnitude violations for each of the test
systems is studied.
A. Test Distribution Systems
The tests are performed on one LV network and one MV
distribution system shown in Fig. 5, which are obtained by
slight modifications of the networks detailed in [23] and [25].
The LV section represents a system supplying residential
customers with a peak load demand of 258 kVA and a
load profile ranging between 20% and 100% of the peak
value during the day. The system is fed from a 300-kVA
transformer and underground cables are used to distribute the
power to the loads. The MV section is derived from a German
distribution network and is composed of two subnetworks,
as detailed in [25]. Each subnetwork is supplied through
a transformer with a rated power of 15 MVA with most
connections made via cables. The loads are a combination
of residential and industrial loads. The peak demands of
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH
Fig. 5. Topology of (a) test MV distribution system [25] and (b) LV residential feeder [23], [24].
TABLE I
S UMMARY OF I NPUTS AND O UTPUTS OF THE ANNs
FOR LV AND MV L OCAL E STIMATORS
residential and industrial loads in subnetwork 1 equal 58 and
28 MVA, respectively, while in subnetwork 2, the loads have
peak values of 4.5 and 23 MVA, respectively. The ranges
of the load profile for residential and industrial loads in the
MV system are from 20%–100% and 30%–100%, respectively,
as presented in [25].
B. Training Data for ANN-Based Estimators
For the above LV section, it was shown in [16] that two
measurements from the section, i.e., the voltage and current
values at the LV side of the MV/LV transformer are adequate
to perform a sufficiently accurate estimation of the voltage
magnitude at the nodes of interest. This is due to the relatively
simple topology of the system that does not have long side
braches and the lack of a significant share of the installed DG.
For the MV section, the voltage and current values at the
MV side of the feeder transformers as well as the current
measurement in line L 3−4 and line L 3−8 are the required
inputs for the voltage profile estimation in the MV network
assuming that the actual network configuration is known.
Table I summarizes these measurement inputs and the voltage
1307
magnitudes, which are expected to be estimated for each of
the LV and MV networks.
In the ANN training phase, these measurement inputs form
the ANN input vector and the desired estimator outputs form
the ANN output vector.
For the LV network, 40 000 different samples were
generated. The load demand of each node in each sample was
considered to be a random number with a uniform distribution
from 0 to the peak demand of that node, as detailed in [16]. For
the MV system, considering different possible configurations,
dedicated ANNs were trained for each envisaged case.
For each configuration, 40 000 samples were generated to
train the ANN. The deviation of the load demand from the
expected value at each time interval was assumed to be ±10%.
To tackle the measurement uncertainties faced during the
hardware implementation, random noise with a normal dis-
tribution was, as mentioned in Section II, added to each
input measurement of each generated sample. The accuracy
of voltage measurements was assumed to be 1% of the full
scale of the measurement device, which is considered to
be equal to the maximum value of the voltage. Therefore,
the added noise had an expected value of 0 and a standard
deviation equal to 0.33% of the maximum value of the voltage.
For the current measurement, the accuracy class of 1% was
assumed and it was assumed that this accuracy depends on the
reading value. More precisely, the current (ratio) errors were
assumed to be 1%, 1.5%, and 3% of the reading value for
the current measurements at 100%, 20%, and 5% of the full
scale of the current transformer, respectively [26]. As a result,
depending on the value of the current in each sample, noise
with appropriate standard deviation was added to it. This was,
however, an example, and in the general case, the uncertainty
1308 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015
model and its associated parameters including the standard
deviation could be modified based on the expected uncertainty
in the field implementation [27].
C. ANN Selection and Training
The ANNs with feedforward structure were selected and
trained with different numbers of neurons in the hidden
layer. It was observed that the best results in terms of the
ANN estimation accuracy and generalization capability were
achieved when 2 neurons were used in the hidden layer for
both LV and MV grids. Inclusion of more neurons led to
overfitting of the ANN. However, in general, a higher number
of neurons may be needed in the hidden layer to ensure
acceptable estimation accuracy. This might be the case, for
example, when the number of required measurement inputs
for the ANN increases as a result of increased topological
complexity of the network or significant local generation.
To figure out the optimal number of neurons in the hidden
layer, the general procedure is to consider two neurons in
the first place and only if the accuracy of the estimation
is not high enough and to increase the number of neurons
until a reasonable accuracy is achieved without compromising
the ANN generalization capability. However, the number of
neurons should be kept as low as possible to maintain the
ANN generalization capabilities [28].
The ANNs with the aforementioned ANN structure
were trained using the generated training data in the
MATLAB Neural Network Toolbox. The data samples
(40 000) were divided into training, validation, and test sets
(50%, 25%, and 25%, respectively). The training set is used
directly to tune the weights and biases of the ANN, while the
validation set is used to check the ANN during the training
phase to ensure that the generalization capability of the ANN
is maintained. To assess the performance of the trained ANNs,
the test set (10 000 data samples), which was not used in the
training process and therefore could be regarded as a new data
for the ANN, was used. Two performance indicators, namely,
the regression value, i.e., the correlation coefficient (R), and
the mean square error (MSE), were calculated. The R values
measure the correlation between the ANN estimates and the
output elements corresponding to different input elements in
the data sample, namely, the target values (each data sample
consists of an input element and its corresponding output).
It can be shown that for a linear regression, the correlation
coefficient (R) can be obtained from the following:
 used for the MV voltage estimation and five hidden neurons
ss 2yz
R= . (1)
ss yy ss zz
In this equation, ss yz is the unbiased estimation of the
covariance of the ANN outputs and the corresponding target
values, and ss yy and ss x x are the unbiased estimations of
the variances of the ANN outputs and the target values,
respectively [29]. The MSE can be also calculated from the
following:
1 
N
MSE = (yi− z i )2 (2)
N local estimators will be as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
i=1
TABLE II
R ECONFIGURATION S WITCHES , L INES S EGMENTS C OVERED BY E ACH OF
T HEM , AND THE C ODE C ORRESPONDING TO E ACH L INE
where N is the total number of target values in the data set
(i.e., total number of target voltage magnitudes for all nodes
and for all data samples) and yi and z i are the values of the
ANN estimates and the corresponding target values (for each
node and each data sample), respectively [29].
These values are reported in Sections V-A and V-C for each
of the trained ANNs used for the LV and MV networks.
D. Realization of the CI Unit
In mode 2, considering that no configuration switch is
closed and considering the radial operation of each feeder of
the MV section, the amount of load drop detected by current
measurements provides a means for estimating the parts which
are deenergized as a result of operation of a circuit breaker.
In mode 3, the first step for realization of the CI unit
is to understand the possible grid configurations that the
CI unit needs to differentiate between and classify. This means
determining all possible configurations after the isolation of
the line segment due to the fault and closure of the reconfigu-
ration switch. For this purpose, various line outage scenarios
that require grid reconfiguration via closure of each of the
reconfiguration switches are identified and listed, as shown
in Table II. For simplicity, a code has been assigned to the
line segments in each scenario.
As mentioned earlier, it is assumed that the CI unit
receives information regarding the status of the reconfiguration
switches. This could be realized either through direct input
by the operator or by means of additional measurements
monitoring the status of these switches, since the measure-
ments used for voltage magnitude estimation are not adequate
for identifying the closed reconfiguration switch. Knowing
which reconfiguration switch is closed, the CI proceeds with
identifying the line code where the fault has occurred. This is
realized by using a dedicated ANN for each of the reconfig-
uration switches. The ANN used for this purpose also has
a feedforward structure with the same six inputs as those
and one output. The output of the ANN is a real number
that is then rounded to an integer value representing the line
code as defined in Table II. In this example, since current
measurements are placed to directly measure the currents of
lines L 3−4 and L 3−8 , their isolation can be directly detected,
and therefore, there is no need to use the estimation process
to detect the isolated line. As a result, if S2 or S3 are closed
and the isolation of L 3−4 and L 3−8 is not detected, the CI
only needs to differentiate among three the line segments.
Based on the above-mentioned considerations, the block
diagram of the hardware implementation for the LV and MV
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH 1309

Fig. 6. Block diagram of the hardware implementation of the LV local estimator.

Fig. 7. Block diagram of the hardware implementation of the MV local estimator.

Fig. 8. Comparison of measured and estimated values for the LV section with (a) light, (b) medium, and (c) heavy load scenarios.

V. R ESULTS
The LV and MV grids were simulated in RTDS and the
voltage of each node in the feeder was recorded. At the same
time, through the giga transceiver analog output cards of the
RTDS, the measurements were fed into the local estimator.

A. Voltage Estimation at LV Level

For the LV system, the trained ANN was first tested
with 10 000 sample data and its outputs (i.e., the estimated
node voltages) were compared with the target values
(i.e., the measured node voltages). The MSE and correlation
coefficient (R) were found to be 0.5538 and 0.96767, which
indicate that the trained ANN can accurately perform voltage
magnitude estimations. Then for the hardware test, three
scenarios of light, medium, and heavy load with total loads of
83.6, 161.1, and 237.2 kVA, respectively, were considered, as
Fig. 9. Estimation error of the LV local estimator in the presence of power
injection from a DG unit installed at the end of the LV feeder.
detailed in [16]. In Fig. 8, a comparison between the measured
voltage magnitudes and the values estimated by the local
estimator are provided at different nodes. It was observed that
the estimation accuracy is very high (error ≈ 1%) for all the
cases. It should be also noted that the increase in the voltage
1310 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015

Fig. 10. Comparison of the actual and estimated line codes before rounding for the case of reconfiguration by the closure of switches
(a) S1, (b) S2, and (c) S3.

magnitudes in the middle of these graphs does not indicate

an increase in the voltage along the feeder but because on
the x-axis of the figures, bus 15, located at the end of a side
branch, is placed before bus 6 on the main feeder. It should
be noted that the estimator has also properly estimated the
violation of the voltage magnitude in the third scenario.
The horizontal line shown in these figures indicates the
lower limit of the permissible voltage for the LV feeder.
According to the standard IEC 61000, under normal system
operating conditions, the voltage magnitude variations at a
network user’s supply terminal in the public LV and MV
distribution networks must be within 10% of the nominal
voltage. However, this variation range includes voltage drops Fig. 11. Comparison of the actual and estimated line code before rounding
for the case of reconfiguration by the closure of switch S1 when the load
or rises in the HV/MV transformer, MV network, MV/LV in node 13 (connected to its neighboring nodes by lines represented by
transformer, and LV network collectively. Different operators codes 3 and 4) is very small.
may allocate this permissible range differently to each of these
four parts. In our tests, the allocation of voltage variation range TABLE III
is done based on [30], thus considering 7% voltage drop for P ERFORMANCE OF THE T RAINED ANNs IN E STIMATION OF 10 000 T EST
each of the MV and LV networks together with their feeding D ATA FOR E ACH S AMPLE S CENARIO
transformers (assuming that the voltage at the HV side of the
HV/MV substation is about 3% higher than the nominal value
to allow for higher voltage drop at MV and LV levels). It is
also assumed that the voltage at the MV side of the MV/LV
transformer is 19.4 kV for all the three scenarios as a result
of 3% voltage drop in the MV network. Thus, the voltage at
the LV side of the MV/LV transformers would be 223.1 V if
the transformer would not cause any voltage drop. However,
due to the presence of transformer equivalent impedance, it can
be observed from Fig. 8 that the voltage at the beginning
of the LV feeder decreases as it becomes more heavily
loaded. estimation error in the system as the DG power injection
To assess the performance of the above estimator, which was increases from 0 to 80 kW is shown. On the x-axis, the injected
trained to estimate in a purely passive network, in the presence power from the DG unit is also specified as a percentage of
of DG units, a test case was studied: a DG unit was assumed the load at node 18, which was assumed to be 22.04 kW in
to be installed at the end of the LV feeder, i.e., node 18 and the light-load scenario [16].
the light load scenario as described in the previous example As shown in the figure, the estimation error increases with
was considered. This combination of DG location and loading the increase in the injected power from the DG unit. Although
scenario was selected to present a case in which the power the increased estimation error is not a desirable outcome,
injection from the DG unit has a relatively high impact on a certain level of estimation error may be still acceptable
the voltage profile [31] and therefore causes possibly higher depending on the application. Thus, the estimator with the
estimation errors. The DG unit was assumed to inject only same ANN may be still usable in the presence of a certain level
active power. In Fig. 9, the absolute value of the largest of power injection DG units depending on the application.
FERDOWSI et al.: SCALABLE DATA-DRIVEN MONITORING APPROACH 1311

Fig. 12. Comparison of the measured and estimated values for the MV level for (a) normal operation with all the three configuration switches open,
(b) when line L 1−2 is disconnected and S1 is closed, (c) when line L 8−9 is disconnected and S3 is closed, (d) when line L 13−14 is isolated and S1 is closed,
(e) when line L 4−5 is isolated and S2 is closed, and (f) when the transformer of subnetwork 1 is isolated and S1 is closed.

B. Configuration Identification
Fig. 10 presents the raw output of the ANN used in the
CI unit before rounding for a number of different loading
scenarios and for all the thee cases of reconfiguration realized
by the closure of S1, S2, or S3. As shown in the figure, the
isolated line is correctly estimated in all the three cases.
It is possible that instead of the isolated line, one of the
lines next to it is identified by the CI as the isolated one.
In general, this could happen when the loading level of one
or more of the loads, whose total current is measured by
a single current transducer, is considerably smaller than the
others. In such case, these nodes have very little impact on
the overall measured current. As a result, considering that the
actual loading of all nodes is uncertain, using the sum of the
currents of the nodes, it is not possible to accurately guess if
the nodes with relatively small currents are contributing to the
measured current value or not.
To illustrate this, consider the case that a fault has occurred
in subnetwork 2, the faulty line segment has been isolated,
and S1 is closed to provide an alternative path to feed the
loads that are not fed through substation 2 anymore. Let us
assume that nodes 12, 13, and 14 have a similar load profile,
but the peak demand at node 13 is only 10% of the peak
demand at nodes 12 and 14. It is also assumed that the load
demand at each node at any given time interval is centered
around an expected value with a ±10% deviation. As a result,
the current measurements at substation of subnetwork 2 and
line L 3−8 cannot clearly indicate if node 13 is supplied
through substation 2 or substation 1 (via S1). Therefore, the
CI unit may not accurately determine which line segment in
subnetwork 2, namely, L 12−13 or L 13−14 , is isolated. The
estimated line code by the CI unit before rounding in such
a scenario is shown in Fig. 11 for 100 tests corresponding to
each line code.
The consequence would be that a slightly different configu-
ration is considered in which the estimated voltage magnitude
of one node may deviate significantly from its actual value,
because it is considered to be fed from a path other than the
real one. Such errors could be detected and fixed manually
by comparing the actual configuration with the one estimated
and used by the CI that is available to the operator through
the visualization system explained in Section II-D.
C. Voltage Estimation at MV Level
For the MV system, six scenarios were considered for a
fixed loading condition in which subnetworks 1 and 2 had
1312 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 2015
total loadings of 6.9 MVA and 6.2 MVA (about 80% and
90% of their peak loads), respectively. In the first scenario,
the system was in a normal operating mode with all the
reconfiguration switches open. In the second scenario, it was
assumed that line L 1−2 had been disconnected due to a fault
and switch S1 was closed, allowing part of the loads on feeder
1 to be supplied through feeder 2. In scenario 3, line L 8−9 was
assumed to have been disconnected and switch S3 was closed
to provide an alternative path for the loads originally supplied
via line L 8−9 . Similarly, in the fourth and the fifth scenarios,
line segments L 13−14 and L 4−5 were assumed to be sec-
tionalized and switches S1 and S2 were closed, respectively.
The sixth scenario illustrates a case where the transformer
of subnetwork 1 was disconnected and S1 was closed to
provide an alternative path for all the loads in subnetwork 1.
The ANNs used for each of these scenarios were first
checked using 10 000 test data in MATLAB. The correlation
coefficient (R) and the MSE values, which compare the ANN
outputs and the targets values, are provided in Table III.
As Table III shows, the trained ANNs are capable of
estimating the node voltage magnitudes with high accuracy.
Next, the ANN were implemented on the laboratory setup
and tested for one arbitrary operating point in each of these
six scenarios. The actual values of the voltage magnitudes
were compared with the values estimated by the MV local
estimator and the lower limit of the voltage in Fig. 12. It is
can be observed that the estimations are highly accurate (with
the maximum error not exceeding about 1% in most cases).
Furthermore, violation of voltage limits in the last scenario is
detected properly in scenario 6.
D. Execution Time
Although the presented ANN-based approach is not
directly comparable with WLS method, in the sense that it
only estimates the voltage magnitude rather that the full state
of the system and requires only very few measurements,
it would be insightful to provide a rough comparison of the
two techniques here. In our tests, the execution time of the
ANN-based estimators was observed to be around 0.5–1 ms
for both LV and MV test systems. In [5], the execution time of
WLS method for an 18-bus system, which is exactly the same
size of the LV system used in our test case, has been reported
to be between 2.0 and 6.7 ms depending on the state model
(polar or rectangular) and the measurements (type 1 or 2).
The hardware used in this reference is an Intel Dual Core
3.17-GHz CPU (Core 2 Duo E8500, >30 000 DMIPS), which
is at least 15 times faster than the 1-GHz ARM Cortex-A8
CPU (2000 DMIPS) of Beaglebone Black. This means that if
the WLS method were run for the 18-bus system described
in [5] on the Beaglebone Black, it would take 15 times longer
to execute, which means 30 to 100.5 ms (assuming similar
measurements, this should be also the approximate time for
running the WLS method for our LV system).
Although, according to the above comparison, the ANN-
based method is considerably faster than the WLS technique,
it should be stressed that the main advantage of the ANN-
based method is that it requires only very few measurement
orders to provide valuable insight into the system status.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper presents a novel solution for monitoring
distribution systems based on a data-driven bottom-up scalable
approach that uses ANNs for its estimations. Using experi-
mental tests, it was shown that ANN-based local estimators,
which are the main building blocks of the proposed monitoring
system, are capable of estimating the voltage profiles of
LV and MV sections of a distribution system when only a
few measurements are available. To improve the accuracy of
the estimation in the presence of measurement uncertainties,
the ANNs are trained with artificially degraded data. In the
presence of reconfiguration switches, an add-on CI unit detects
the actual configuration of the system and loads the cor-
responding ANN in the local estimator. The realization of
the CI unit requires the determination of possible scenarios
of grid configuration in advance and the use of a classifier
to differentiate among them in the real-time operation.
Various scenarios of CI implementation are described and a
web-based visualization approach for the monitoring system is
introduced. The modularity, extensibility, requirement of only
few measurements to provide valuable insight into system
operating status, and the possibility for low-cost hardware
implementation makes this approach stand out as a very practi-
cal solution for DSOs to monitor their systems at a reasonable
cost compared with other proposed solutions such as PMUs.
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Mohsen Ferdowsi (S’14) was born in Esfahan, Iran,
in 1984. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in
electrical engineering from the University of Tehran,
Tehran, Iran, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. He is
currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with RWTH
Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
He was a Research Associate with the Technische
Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, from 2009
to 2011. Since 2012, he has been a Research
Associate with RWTH Aachen University.
His current research interests include application of
data-driven approaches to power system monitoring, co-simulation of power
and communication systems, power quality, power system dynamics, and
grid integration of renewable and distributed energy resources.
1313
Andrea Benigni (S’09–M’14) received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Politecnico
di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2005 and 2008,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from RWTH
Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 2013.
He was a Research Associate with the Institute
for Automation of Complex Power System, E.ON
Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University,
from 2009 to 2013. He is currently an Assistant
Professor with the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC, USA.
Artur Löwen completed his three years of training
as a Computer Science Expert for Application
Development. He was with Stöhr+Sauer, Würselen,
Germany, where he was involved in database-
powered CAD applications and 3-D visualizations,
before joining the Institute for Automation of
Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen
University, Aachen, Germany, in 2013, where he is
currently involved in multiagent systems, embedded
systems, data protocols, and data processing
automation.
Behzad Zargar received the B.Sc. degree in elec-
trical power engineering from the Islamic Azad
University of Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran, in 2009. He is
currently pursuing the M.Sc. degree in electrical
power engineering with RWTH Aachen University,
Aachen, Germany.
His current research interests include power sys-
tems monitoring, grid integration of renewable
energy, and control of power systems.
Antonello Monti (M’94-–SM’02) received the
M.Sc. (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in elec-
trical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano,
Milan, Italy, in 1989 and 1994, respectively.
He started his career with Ansaldo Industria,
Milan, and joined the Politecnico di Milano as an
Assistant Professor in 1995. In 2000, he joined
the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA, as an
Associate Professor and then a Full Professor. Since
2008, he has been the Director of the Institute for
Automation of Complex Power System with the E.ON Energy Research
Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. He has authored or
co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and
proceedings of international conferences.
Dr. Monti is an Associate Editor of the IEEE S YSTEM J OURNAL.
Ferdinanda Ponci (M’00–SM’08) received the
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy,
in 1998 and 2002, respectively.
She joined the Power and Energy Research Group,
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA, in 2003, as an
Assistant Professor, and was tenured and promoted
to Associate Professor in 2008. In 2009, she joined
the Institute for Automation of Complex Power
Systems, E.ON Research Center, RWTH Aachen
University, Aachen, Germany, where she is currently an APL Professor.