Investigation of Electric Distribution System Restoration Techniques

Abstract

The development of smart grids and the increasing concerns about the reliability of the electric network has led to the establishment of new methods of power system restoration.These methods aim to improve the self-healing capability in distribution networks by fully automating the process of restoration. This is achieved by utilizing smart control devices that has the ability to gather data, communicate with each other, take the required decisions and execute the necessary actions. One of the restoration methods that utilize such smart devices is the one based on multi-agent systems which consists of controllersdistributed along the distribution network that are called agents.The main advantage of using multi-agent systems is the ability of implementing decentralized controlstrategies that lead toa fast restoration process. In this work, two control strategiesare introduced for the restoration of radial distribution networks. These strategies are based on a multi-agent framework that utilizes an expert based algorithm. The main objective for both strategies is to restore as many out of service loads as possible following a fault in the network.The restoration process is achieved using a reduced number of switching to decrease the time of restoration and preserve the lifetime of the switches. In addition, thedifferent operational constraints of the network are taken into consideration to ensure acceptable operation after restoration. These constraints include the radial structure of the network, the voltage and current limits in the healthy and restored sections of the network.