Optimal placement of phasor measurement units using binary bat algorithm

The invention of phasor measurement unit (PMU) is considered to be one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of electrical grids monitoring and control. PMUs can be used to obtain accurate voltage and current phasors' measurements. The high cost of installation related to PMU limited its usage and increased the need for optimal allocation of PMUs. A binary bat optimization algorithm is proposed in this paper for solving the optimal PMU placement (OPP) problem to obtain a fully observable system. Simulations are carried on various IEEE bus test systems to ensure the algorithm's effectiveness and feasibility. A comparison is made between the obtained results and the other algorithms' results. The execution time of the proposed algorithm is also compared with other algorithms to illustrate the algorithm's ability to obtain the problem solution with lower execution time and better convergence curve.