The Optimal Circuitous Communication Route Search for Pilot Protection Based on Ant Colony Algorithm

Abstract

With the development of smart grid, the self-healing ability of protection device becomes much more important. Pilot protection is of good selectivity, but it needs a highly reliable communication network. Once the communication line between two devices is out of work, pilot protection will be forced out of operation. Since there are many ring structures in communication network, circuitous routes can be found to help pilot protection remain operational. In this paper, ant colony algorithm (ACA) are used to find the optimal circuitous route, and simulation results show the method is fast and accurate. To the actual communication network of power system, each node is just connected to a few other nodes, so the search process often come to dead ends. Use penalty functions can reduce the probability of coming to a dead end and improve the algorithm efficiency. The whole route accelerating penalty function is most efficient.