Managing volatility in distribution networks with active network management

The traffic light concept of the German Association of Energy and Water (BDEW) to coordinate and market power in the distribution system level defines different mechanisms to ensure network stability in dependence of the criticality of the system state. But what is a critical network condition and how is it possible to detect a critical network condition timely, effective, and possibly also at distinct locations? Especially when facing the insufficient number of measuring devices at medium and low voltage levels. A possible solution for this problem are modern techniques for network state estimation, which determine a realistic picture of the actual network conditions with the aid of a limited number of real time measurements. This paper shows how network state estimation can be applied to detect critical network states and how the right conclusions for grid stability can be derived with respect to the traffic light concept of the BDEW.