Achieving Acceptable Distribution System State Estimation Performance Through Telemetry and Operational Forecasting

Southern California Edison (SCE) is in the process of implementing Smart Grid applications as part of an ongoing grid modernization effort to improve reliability and asset utilization, avoid DER-caused problems, and timely demand response to market and/or other signals. How many sensors are needed, where to deploy them and what data do they need to provide are questions that have a considerable impact on the effectiveness of these applications and significant economic consequences for SCE and other utilities. This paper presents a stochastic methodology that allows utilities to quantify the accuracy of DSSE results for simulated sensor placement and operational forecasting scenarios. We applied this methodology to six real-world distribution circuits located in SCE's service territory to inform the deployment of sensors and operational forecasting that yield sufficiently accurate DSSE results with respect to achieving optimal and violation-free execution of the Volt-Var Optimization (VVO) Smart Grid application.