Statistical top-down approach for energy loss estimation in distribution systems

This work proposes a statistical top-down methodology for energy loss estimation in medium voltage (MV) distribution systems. A statistical model is used to adjust the load parameters (i.e., ZIP coefficients) of the aggregated load allocated to each secondary transformer along the MV feeder. This adjustment process also results in the estimation of the corresponding energy losses. The information required by the proposed methodology is limited to the feeder topology, conductors, rated capacity of the transformers, and the voltage and power measurements at the primary substation during the period of analysis. If available, additional information from meters installed along the feeder can be used to improve the estimation. To illustrate the approach, a real Brazilian 13.8kV feeder is used. The results, compared with other methodologies available in the literature, demonstrate the benefits of the proposed methodology.