Identifying Network Topology Using Travelling Wave Reflections of the Test Signal

State estimation is an important part of control functions and power system management. Correct insight and interpretation of the network topology are a crucial step of any state estimator. In order to improve state estimators accuracy and speed, a new approach of determining network topology is presented. Presented method is based on reflection measurement of the injected test signal from the impedance discontinuities dependent on the topological state at a particular site in the network. Correct interpretation of the measured reflected signal gives possibility to determine the topological state at the reflection site. This article describes the methodology for topological recognition, while algorithm verification is done by using several cases of topology determination on the example of the test network. The results are given in graphical form showing simulated and expected reflection signal. Matching of simulated and expected reflected signal has proved the correctness of the topological recognition algorithm