With the current trend of the active distribution network and the integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) at the distribution level, distribution utilities need to precisely monitor power flows and grid constraint violations in order to guarantee quality and reliability of supply to the end customer.

Gaining visibility is an important step for utilities to become more efficient. However, massive installation of sensors is time-consuming, requires heavy maintenance, and is not always cost-effective. A common approach for utilities is to combine distributed sensors with Distribution System State Estimation (DSSE), which uses data and power flow equations as inputs to derive an approximation of the real-time state of the system, including non-monitored nodes.

For DSSE to work properly, the quality of the data and its time-synchronization are very important. In this article, we discuss the accuracy gain for DSSE using time-synchronized measurements.