Three-Phase Power Imbalance Decomposition Into Systematic Imbalance and Random Imbalance

Uneven load allocations and random load behaviors are two major causes for three-phase power imbalance. The former mainly cause systematic imbalance, which can be addressed by low-cost phase swapping; the latter contribute to random imbalance, which requires relatively costly demand-side managements. To reveal the maximum potential of phase swapping and the minimum need for demand-side managements, this paper first proposes a novel a priori judgment to classify any set of three-phase power series into one of four scenarios, depending on whether there is a definite maximum phase, a definite minimum phase, or both. Then, this paper proposes a new method to decompose three-phase power series into a systematic imbalance component and a random imbalance component as the closed-form solutions of quadratic optimization models that minimize random imbalance. A degree of power imbalance is calculated based on the systematic imbalance component to guide phase swapping. Case studies demonstrate that 72.8% of 782 low-voltage substations have systematic imbalance components. The degree of power imbalance results reveal the maximum need for phase swapping, and the random imbalance components reveal the minimum need for demand-side management, if the three phases are to be fully rebalanced.