State Estimation in Power Distribution Systems Based on Ensemble Kalman Filtering

In this paper, a past-aware state estimation (PASE) method (for static state estimation) is proposed for power distribution systems, which takes previous estimates into account to improve the accuracy of the current one, using an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF). Fewer phasor measurements units are needed to achieve the same estimation error target than snapshot-based methods. Furthermore, contrary to existing methods, the proposed approach does not embed power flow equations into the state estimator, thus making it a versatile technique. The theoretical formulation of the EnKF-based PASE presented in the paper has been validated considering a 33-bus distribution system and using power consumption traces from real households.