Dynamic Evaluation of Electricity Distribution Lines to Speed Up the Fault Repairs

Abstract

Natural disaster blackouts lead to dissatisfaction among electricity customers. When a natural disaster or high-impact and low-probability disasters like a storm or an earthquake happens, the electricity network assets may be damaged. To increase resilience, it is essential to prioritize damaged assets so that the lost loads, especially critical ones, can be restored faster. Predicting the number of repair teams during critical times contributes to restoring the network to the initial resilience level. This paper discusses the prioritization of electricity supply lines for evaluating the number of required repair teams. So, the economic value of distribution system lines has been considered a criterion representing the network’s sensitivity to hurricanes. The results show the lines located at the end of the network ranked lowest in the prioritization. Also, the relatively dispersed evaluation shows the necessity of attention to repairing teams, which must move fast to speed up the load restoration process. A list of line priorities for fault resolution is provided, in which the topology factor has a larger effect. The number of repair teams required to restore critical and essential loads is determined by this model. This modeling has been tested on an IEEE 33-bus network.

Keywords:

• resilience
• distribution systems
• asset evaluation
• restoration prioritization
• repair team

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leila Fayazi Rad

Leila Fayazi Rad ([email protected]) was born in 1995 in Ahvaz, Iran. She received her B.Sc. in electrical power engineering in 2017, and her M.Sc. in energy systems and environmental engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology in 2022. She has worked on numerous domestic books and articles in the fields of energy, electricity, crisis management, and resilience. Increasing power distribution network resilience is her current research goal.

Reza Dashti

Reza Dashti ([email protected]) holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Power from the University of Tehran and is a member of the Iran University of Science and Technology faculty. He has had many executives and managerial activities related to the electricity industry, as well as numerous articles and books in the fields of management of the electricity industry, including crisis management, optimization, hedging, etc. The aim of his studies is to develop, advance, and achieve higher levels of reliability and security in the Iranian electricity industry.

Rouhollah Ahmadi

Rouhollah Ahmadi ([email protected]) got his Ph.D. from Osaka University, Japan. Now he is an Associate professor at the School of Advanced Technologies, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. He investigates energy systems 4E analysis. The expertise fields are latent thermal energy storage, renewable energy, energy saving, and energy optimization.