Adaptive feeder load management and control during distribution power restoration based on DA and AMI systems integration approach

In order to ensure reliability and availability of power during emergency conditions like faults, power restoration schemes are incorporated in Distribution Automation (DA) systems. DA system restores power to loads that are not affected by fault through short-term feeder reconfiguration. During this reconfiguration process of switching additional loads to healthy feeders for power restoration purpose, it is critical to manage and control the feeder overall load and to compute and update over-current settings of breakers in corresponding feeder relays adaptively and accurately. This would avoid possible mal-operation of feeder relays due to overload violations, if any after restoration. In this paper for the first time in literature, we introduce a unique algorithm for accurate over current setting computation of feeder relays based on proposed load segmentation approach used for DA and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems integration. This method further helps DA in managing the feeder load adaptively during and after restoration based on AMI system capabilities, including smart meters priority based load curtailment and distributed generation management. A case study on standard RBTS 33kV distribution system is demonstrated.