Localizing loads in microgrids using high-precision voltage phase

Abstract

Losses stemming from energy theft and system faults are a major challenge to providing reliable electrical service in developing areas of the world. Managing these losses is a vital part of ensuring energy distribution system stability and maintaining a functioning microgrid. Despite this, even losses that are detected are often not addressed by microgrid operators due to the difficulty of locating unauthorized loads, especially in deployments serving hundreds or thousands of households. In this paper, we propose a method for the localization of unauthorized loads based on the fine-grained sensing of voltage phase across a microgrid. Unlike other approaches, the proposed method utilizes synchronous voltage sensing at smart meters and does not rely on expensive inline power metering. Voltage phase measurements feed a graphical model of a power distribution network, which yields the locations of loads as they connect to the system. We evaluate our method using a circuit-based approach in SPICE by simulating loads on a real-world microgrid topology. We then validate our simulation results on a laboratory microgrid testbed using real loads, showing that fine-grained voltage sensing can be effectively leveraged to localize unauthorized loads in microgrids.