2012 3rd IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe (ISGT Europe), Berlin
Consumer Phase Identification in a Three Phase
Unbalanced LV Distribution Network
H. Pezeshki, Member, IEEE, and P. J. Wolfs, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract — A new technique is presented for automatically
identifying the phase connection of domestic customers. Voltage
information from a reference three phase house is correlated
with voltage information from other customer electricity meters
on the same network to determine the highest probability phase
connection. The techniques are purely based upon a time series of
electrical voltage measurements taken by the household smart
meters and no additional equipment is required. The method is
demonstrated using real smart meter datasets to correctly
identify the phase connections of 75 consumers on a low voltage
distribution feeder.
Index Terms – Smart meter; Phase identification; Correlation;
Distribution Network; Unbalance.
I. INTRODUCTION
While utilities usually have precise documentation for HV
and MV networks, phase allocation information at the LV
consumer side of the network is often incomplete or missing.
Accurate knowledge of the phase connection at the household
level allows operational improvements such as rebalancing
three phase distribution transformers and feeders to reduce
system losses and reduce voltage unbalance factors. Selective
rebalancing will allow higher levels of rooftop PV generation
to be accepted into residential networks, [1]. Automatic phase
identification is the precursor to intelligent automated systems
that will detect unbalance issues and recommend optimal
reconfiguration solutions.
Unbalanced feeders have higher losses and voltage drops.
Additional copper losses will shorten the lifespan of the grid
assets such as transformers [2]-[9]. Another outcome for
phase identification is to facilitate introduction of distributed
energy generation [8] at the households. The excess energy
generated at the households can be injected back into the
network over one of the three phases. Hence the need to
determine phase is important to ensure a balanced infusion of
power into the grid.
The literature on phase identification at the household level
is limited. Chen [10] describes a system and method for phase
identification by measuring voltage phase angles on the
secondary side of underground distribution transformers to
determine the connecting phase of the transformers, works by
[11], [12] perform phase identification with suitably enhanced
automated meters that can detect phases based upon a unique
signal injected into the phase line.
H. Pezeshki and P. J. Wolfs are with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia,
(e-mail: houman.pezeshki@student.curtin.edu.au).
978-1-4673-2597-4/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
The disadvantage of both of the methods is that they
require enhanced hardware to transmit and receive special
signals at different points of the grid, increasing capital and
maintenance costs
Seal’s [13] work on phase prediction uses comparisons of
voltage magnitude and detects significant voltage changes.
The appearance of these changes at consumer connection
points is used to determine the phases of various loads in
respect to the distribution SCADA meter data.
Our paper relies on voltage observations and applies
correlation from a formal signal processing perspective. As
such it offers optimal solutions for both single and three phase
connected customers and is capable of identifying the phase
to which each customer is connected for large number of
residential customers (77 in this case).
This approach does not require any additional hardware
other than household smart meters. Moreover, there is no
requirement for interventions through signal injection or
physical access to record measurements. The technique is
based on the use of voltage data from the reference three phase
connected house. This data is correlated over time with
voltage data from other customer meters to assess the phase to
which each customer is connected.
II. THE PERTH SOLAR CITY PROJECT
Perth Solar City is research program funded by the
Australian Government Department of Climate Change and
Energy Efficiency. Western Power, the regional transmission
and distribution network services provider, is undertaking a
technical trial to quantify the impacts of high levels of PV
generation in the distribution network. The trial is based upon
a 440/230Vac three phase low voltage feeder, “Pavetta 1”, in
the suburb of Forrestfield. This is an aerial, multiply earthed
neutral (MEN) construction, supplied from a 200kVA
22kV/440V distribution transformer and includes 77
consumers, two council loads and street lights (Fig. 1).
Seventy five customers have smart meters. Of these, 31
consumers have roof top PV systems which have typical
ratings of 1.88kW. Total rated PV installation capacity is
58.28 kW representing a branch penetration of 29.14% (Fig.
3).
Load data, including energy consumption, voltage and
current is recorded by smart meters on the Western Power
network at the point of connection to each consumer
switchboard at 15 minute intervals (Fig. 2). Smart meter data
has been collected since July 2011, transformer data logging
system also from July 2011 at 5 minute intervals.
 2

x (t ) = X + ~
x (t ) (1)
i i i

Where Xi=1/T and T is our observation period.

y (t ) = Y + ~
y (t ) (2)
i i i

Where Yi =1/ and T is our observation period.

R (t )= x (t ) * y (t ) (3)
x y i i
i i

1 t (4)
R
x y
(t )=
T
∫ xi (t − τ ) yi (t )
i i 0

Where T is the observation time and it could be normalized as

Fig. 1. Perth Solar City High Penetration Feeder Site, image courtesy of follow:
Western Power.
R ~x ~y (τ )
−1 ≤ 1 ≤1 (5)
[ R ~x ~x ( 0 ) R ~y ~y ( 0 )] 2

R ~~ (0 ) R~~ (0)
Where y y and x x are the mean square values of the
signals y and x, respectively.

Correlation is the optimal technique for detecting a known

waveform in additive white Gaussian noise noise. The voltage
measurements contain a wanted component and a disturbance
component. In regard to the noise the resulting cross-
correlation is:
~
x (t ) = x (t ) + z ( t )
ω (6)
~
y (t ) = y ( t ) + z ′(t ) (7)
ω
Where x (t ) and y (t ) are the desired signals and z (t ) ,
ω ω
z ′(t ) are the Gaussian noise.

R~x~y (t )=R +R +R + Rzz′ (8)

Fig. 2. Pole Mounted Transformer and Data Logger under Study (Pavetta
TX1)
III. DESIGN METHODS AND TOOLS
This study is constructed on the hypothesis that voltage
profile of consumer is well correlated with the voltage profile
on the same phase of the adjacent houses. The correlation
between two signals (cross correlation) is a standard approach
to feature and signal detection [14]-[17]. In this paper we
consider the short time variation in the voltage signal, if the
reference three phase house voltage profile is x(t) and y(t) is
the consumer main voltage profile it could be described by:
x y x z′ y z
ωω ω ω
Impedance based voltage drops contribute significantly to
disturbances z(t) and ź (t) but a Gaussian component occurs in
any physical measurement (Fig. 3). The above formula does
R
converge to xω yω for increasing integration time, because the
other terms have an expected value of zero when the signal
and the noise sources are uncorrelated. It can be shown that
the effective noise power added by the system decreases with
1.5 dB for every doubling of measurement time [18], [19] and
can be reduced by as much as 50 dB [19].
 3

correlation is maximized when the target signal is aligned with

the same features in the received signal.
Fig. 4 illustrates the procedure to perform the cross
correlation, for the single phase load is a simple three way
correlation test with each phase of the reference three phase
house (Fig. 5.a). In case of the three phase load the cross
correlation will be performed on the six combinations shown
on Fig. 5.b and the three combinations with highest cross
correlation will be picked as the correct phases.

Fig. 3. Pavetta LV feeder diagram

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A. Phase Allocation Fig. 4. Simplified diagram of network under study
The correct phase of houses was not originally recorded by
the utility provider. There were eight home units in a multiple
occupancy dwelling (Fig. 3, loads 69-77), each with individual
smart meters mounted in a communal switch board, connected
to the distribution pole by one three phase overhead consumer
mains. The phase connections could not be determined
without access to the customers switch board. For these
reasons the phases of all meters had to be verified by a
combination of methods. Many connections could be
determined by manual inspection of the aerial network.
Further manual checks included matching the voltage profiles (a)
of each individual house along the feeder and verifying phase
voltages as against known phase voltages of the reference
three phase house (Fig. 4).
In order to compare the smart meter and the reference three
phase house voltage signal cross-correlation, the seven-day
voltage profiles of the 51 single phase houses and 24 three
phase houses were recorded. The average series voltage for
each phase of the reference three phase house over the seven
day was calculated, as well as their variance. Next, the signal
segments that contain the reference three phase house average
voltage sequence were extracted from the simultaneously
received smart meter voltage signals and were cross correlated
with variable signal of phase M1, M2 and M3 of the reference
three phase household.
The amplitude of each sample in the cross-correlation
signal is a measure of how much the received signal resembles
the target signal, at that location. This means that a peak will (b)
occur in the cross-correlation signal for every target signal that Fig. 5. Cross correlation of three phase and single phase house with
is present in the received signal. The value of the cross- reference three phase house
 4

The procedure was applied to all the 75 available houses. Table II. Allocation of the three phase houses
There are 77 houses connected to this feeder but at the time of
this work two meters had not been replaced with smart meters. House No Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Table I and Table II summarize the allocation of the 51 single 69 A B C
phase and 24 three phase meters respectively. Smart meters 44 A B C
load data was aggregated using the phase identifications to 49 A B C
determine the total transformer phase load as shown in Fig. 6.a 67 A B C
and Fig. 6.b for the period of one week (21st -27th January 66 A B C
2012) and the peak demand day (25th January 2012) 3 A B C
respectively. 9 A B C
32 A B C
In Fig. 6.a and Fig 6.b transformer actual phases A, B and 58 A B C
C are illustrated in red, green and blue colours respectively, as 38 A B C
the black line shows the estimation of these phases based on 52 A B C
the allocated phase groups. 25 A B C
26 A B C
Table I. Allocation of the single phase houses
House House House House 47 A B C
Group Group Group Group
No No No No 11 A B C
1 2 17 1 37 3 59 2 61 A B C
2 1 18 2 39 3 60 3
21 A B C
4 2 19 3 40 1 62 3
5 3 20 1 41 2 65 3 23 A B C
6 1 22 3 42 3 70 1 35 A B C
7 2 24 1 43 3 71 2 30 A B C
8 3 27 3 45 2 72 3
53 A B C
10 2 28 3 48 2 73 3
12 1 29 2 50 3 74 2 64 A B C
13 2 31 1 51 2 75 1 63 A B C
14 3 33 1 54 2 76 2 68 A B C
15 3 34 1 55 3 77 1 69 A B C
16 2 36 1 57 3
44 A B C

Fig. 6.a Comparison of aggregation of correlated meters with transformer Fig. 6.b Comparison of aggregation of correlated meters with transformer
reading, power and current (21st-27th January) reading, power and current (25th January)
 5

B. Measurement Setup and Errors Case 4: RMSE for the curren nt on each phase of the
transformer versus the aggregated sum of individual house
Consumer smart meters can record andd report periodic currents based on our best knowled dge of phase connections.
measurements of power consumed in watt--hours (Wh) over This is a combination of: the initial utility provided
time intervals of ∆t = 15 minutes. Governnment regulations information; voltage cross correlation using the distribution
require that the watt-hours reported by connsumer meters be transformer logger as a reference and
a physical observations
accurate, with a typical error class of 0.5% [220]-[22]. during recent site visit.
A smart meter records readings based on its internal clock Efforts were made to account for known imperfections. In
and this clock may be out of synchronism w with respect to the all of the above mentioned casees, the two three phase
true clock. For example if a meter reports tthat 100Wh were properties which were excluded fromm the trial where allocated
consumed from 9:00:00 to 9:15:00 PM and its clock lags the loads that are an average of the acctual observed load of the
true clock by 5 seconds, in reality the 100W Wh were consumed other three phase houses. The phasee connection of ten 250W
from 9:00:05 to 9:15:05 PM. Therefore even if all consumer High Pressure Sodium (HPS) streeet lights was identified by
meters are setup to report over the same tim me intervals, each physical inspection. Table III and Fig .7 summarise the
may suffer from a different clock drift and rreport Watt-hours comparison between RMSE valuess of the above mentioned
consumed over a slightly different time intervval. cases.
The data logger deployed at the transfoormers is a much
more capable device. Unlike consumer meteers, they measure Table III Comparison between RMSE
E values of the four cases
several parameters needed to monitor a trannsformer, such as RMSE Phase A Phase B Phase C
voltage, current, power factor, active and reeactive power, etc Case 1 15.81 18.63* 15.73 23.92* 19.53 20.72*
at finer time resolution. Typically the loggerrs publish average
values of parameters over small time intervaals. Therefore the Case 2 15.58 15.39 17.06
Watt-hours computed from these parameterrs for each phase Case 3 15.74 15.58 17.93
are estimates of the actual Watt-hours suppplied. (The real
power supplied by a phase can be compuuted as the time Case 4 15.04 16.85 16.93
average of the instantaneous voltage and cuurrent product). In * The block of 8 units were not aggregated in th
his scenario of case 1
addition, similar to a consumer meters, clockk synchronization
problems may also occur at the transformer ddata logger. he distribution transformer
The rated secondary current of th
Another source of variation is line lossses. These losses under study is 289 Amps, taking this value as the base the Per
primarily vary with the square of load. On thee highest load day Unit RMSE for these four cases are:
in our data series, the network losses were caalculated at 7.4kW
for a 172kW peak load. In the network underr study there were Table IV Comparison between RMSE valuees of the four cases (percentage)
also two properties with mechanical metters which were RMSE Phase A Phasse B Phase C
excluded from the trial and no recording w was available for Case 1 5.47% 6.45%* 5.44% 8.28%* 6.76% 7.17%*
street lights and two council loads (typically aamenities lighting
and public park loads) that were connected to this residential Case 2 5.39% 5.33
3% 5.90%
LV transformer. Case 3 5.45% 5.39
9% 6.20%
Four cases have been developed and Rooot Mean Square
Error (RMSE) were calculated, these cases arre: Case 4 5.20% 5.14
4% 5.86%
Case 1: RMSE for the current on each phase of the * The block of 8 units were not aggregated in th
his scenario of case 1
transformer versus the aggregated currrent based on
information supplied, at the trial commencem ment, by the local
utility on the houses phase connection. No pphase information
was available for the block of eight home units.
Case 2: RMSE for the current on each phase of the
transformer versus the aggregated currennt based on the
previous work of the authors [23] that usedd phase allocation
based on cross correlation between the voltaage profile of the
individual houses with transformer data loggeer voltage data.
Case 3: RMSE for the current on each phase of the
transformer versus the aggregated current bassed on the method
introduced in this paper. Phase allocation is made without
access to the transformer voltage data or thhe utility’s stated
street phase connection. A cross correlationn method between
single phase houses and the reference three phase house is
applied.
Fig. 7. Comparison between the RMS
SE Value of all the four Cases
 6

The phase allocation that was achieved using the cross
correlation method introduced in this paper had discrepancy
with the phasing allocation supplied by the local utility
provider (Western Power) for four of the 75 houses. These
discrepancies were investigated during a subsequent site visit
in June 2012. This showed that phase allocation determined in
this work using the cross correlation matched the physical
phase connection in the street for three of the houses. As for
the fourth house it was not possible to verify the historical
phase connection due to recent power pole replacement (Fig
.8) as mentioned earlier it is practically very difficult to
maintain an accurate knowledge of the street phase connection
due to normal network maintenance and recording errors.
phase unbalance in distribution feeder Pavetta shown in Fig. 9
was introduced because of the poor allocation of customer
loading among the three phases. For instance, The Power of
phase A is much less than phase B and C during day time peak
hours.
It is possible that most of the over and under voltage
incidences would be mitigated by reallocation of PV and load
[1]. Balancing of the network will reduce the occurrence of
voltage drop and reduce the instance of voltage rise at higher
PV branch penetration. Table V provides the summary of
differences in power losses of the transformer on a per phase
basis in unbalance versus balanced cases.

Fig. 8. Replaced wooden power pole

C. Unbalanced vs. Balanced Transformer Loading

The network under study is significantly unbalanced but
reflective of normal network conditions. The level of three
Fig. 9. Pavetta transformer power output, 21st-27th January 2012

Table V Energy Saved By Balancing the Transformer Loading

Energy Power

Max- Max- Max-

Pha A- Pha Pha Total-
Pha Pha Pha
Wh B-Wh C-Wh Wh
A-W B-W C-W

Day 1 -3308 1761 2692 1146 364 357 414

1540 630 204 187 289
Day 2 -1849 939

Day 3 -2191 1011 1882 702 392 256 506

Day 4 -3289 1623 2876 1210 593 438 697
Day 5 -3815 1297 3807 1289 515 250 633
Day 6 -4368 2089 3832 1554 476 301 503
Day 7 -3079 1954 2103 978 406 346 424

Per phase power losses in case of unbalance transformer for

Fig. 10. Per phase power losses in the case of unbalanced transformer
the period of 21st till 27th January 2012 is shown in Fig 10. By
balancing the transformer more losses would be incurred on
phase A due to the low initial loading of this phase but this
loss is more than offset by gains on phase B and C.

V. CONCLUSION
The contributions of this paper are:
• The establishment of a new method to determine the
phase connection of consumer loads on a LV distribution
network from smart meter voltage measurements alone;
• The adaptation of correlation as ann optimal signal
detection method to determine the phasse connection in a
computationally efficient way to support future
automatic phase balancing decision suppport systems;
• The demonstration of the detection metthod in a network
with representative complexity - 51 sinngle phase meters
and 24 three phase meters were correcttly allocated on a
residential LV feeder;
• The demonstration of the use of phasinng connections to
precisely estimate the resulting unbalancced phase loading
on a distribution transformer.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge the supply of cconsumption data
collected under the Perth Solar City trial whiich is a part of the
Australian Government’s $94 million Solarr Cities Program.
The authors also acknowledge the support oof Western Power
in supplying additional network data, models, technical reports
and photographs. This work is supported byy the National and
International Research Alliances Program o f the Queensland
Government.
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VIII. BIOGRAPH
HIES
Houman Pezeshki (S’07-M’09) received his M.Eng
in electrical and power engineering in 2009 from
Murdoch University y. He was employed as PV and
inverter test enginneer at Research Institute for
Sustainable Energy (RISE) for more than two years
and currently workking towards the Ph.D. degree in
electrical and com mputer engineering at Curtin
University. His cu urrent research interests include
Smart Grid technology especially in regard to
o distributed renewable resources,
power electronics applications and energy maanagement systems.
Professor Peteer Wolfs (S’79-M’80-SM’97)
holds the Westeern Power Chair in Electrical
Engineering at the Curtin University of
Technology, in Perth,
P Australia where he is the
Program Directo or for the Electrical Utility
engineering Prograam. He is the current Chair of the
Australian Comm mittee for Power Engineering,
(ACPE). His reseaarch interests include Smart Grid
technology especcially in regard to distributed
renewable resources and energy storage and their impact on system capacity
and power quality, the impact of electric veh hicles, the support of weak rural
feeders and remote area power supply. Professor
P Wolfs is a Fellow of
Engineers Australia and a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of
Queensland. He is the author or co-author off more than 180 technical journal
and conference publications in electrical engin
neering.