Practical Method for Mitigating Three-Phase Unbalance Based on Data-Driven User Phase Identification

Abstract

Unbalanced operation of a three-phase distribution system could incur more power losses, compared with the balanced operation. So far, the phase information of users in low voltage areas is not recorded by power utilities and the three-phase unbalance degree is very significant in some low voltage distribution systems. Given this background, this letter presents an integrated method for solving related issues including user phase identification based on spectral clustering and three-phase unbalance mitigation, and a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is then formulated. Some actual cases in Zhejiang province, China, are utilized to verify the effectiveness of the presented phase identification algorithm, and simulation results show that the three-phase unbalance can be significantly mitigated.