Application benefits of Distribution Automation and AMI systems convergence methodology for distribution power restoration analysis

Self healing mechanisms to minimize the impact of faults and outages on distribution grid are being considered as one of the critical requirements for smart distribution grid. Many automation technologies were being developed and proposed in order to meet these requirements. Power restoration techniques based on Distribution Automation’s Fault Detection, Isolation and Restoration (FDIR) technology at feeder level and Advanced Metering Infrastructure’s Outage Management System (OMS) at the LV distribution level are two such complementary technologies evolved over the past few years in order to locate, isolate the faults and restore the power quickly to as many loads as possible, which are not affected by the faults or outages. With the evolution of new system level paradigm, Distribution Automation (DA) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) System’s convergence, it is possible to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of power restoration schemes with AMI acting as a feedback system to the DA system supporting required communication latency, bandwidth and protocols. This paper illustrates the benefits of the distribution power restoration method based on DA–AMI convergence approach.