Handling Incomplete and Erroneous Grid Topology Information for Low Voltage Grid Observability Applications

Grid topology information plays an important role in grid observability applications such as fault detection and diagnosis. For these applications, data from customer connections should be processed jointly with measurements from the distribution grid by Distribution System Operator (DSO) systems and also correlated to the LV grid topology. In practical DSO systems, the LV grid topology data is frequently included in their databases and may come from different systems such as Geographical Information System (GIS) or other asset management systems, which store a relevant part of the grid topology in a type-specific format. However, in most cases, the grid topology information is not utilized for grid observability applications due to several challenges such as lack of standard data models, complexities in extracting topology information, incorrect/incomplete topology information, dependence on multiple databases etc. Thus, this paper presents challenges and complexities faced by electrical utilities in extracting/using grid topology information for observability applications. The challenges are demonstrated using topology models from two real medium-sized distribution grid operators, which are currently being used in two different European countries.