Resilience-oriented sectionalizing and tie switches sitting in distribution networks with complex topologies

Abstract

Sectionalizing switches (SSs) are one of the most important tools that play a fundamental role in reducing the outage time of customers in electricity distribution networks. According to the radial exploitation of distribution networks, placing tie switches in the network can reduce the number of blackouts and interruptions in the event of a fault and improve the resilience and reliability indicators of the network. In this article, a suitable solution for sectionalizing switch placement (SSP) is proposed to increase the resilience of the distribution system during extreme weather events. The SSP problem is formulated as a two-step stochastic optimization problem. Decisions about the location of SSs are made under budget constraints in the first step. Then, to minimize the costs, in the second step, the renewal of the network is used. Also, at this step, using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), scenarios are created to generate faults in random locations. The proposed model can also be implemented for networks that have multiple laterals and obtain the optimal position of tie switches and the location and type of SSs (i.e., remote or manual). The experimental networks studied, show the application of the presented model in improving the resilience and reliability indicators.