Efficient connectivity identification of large-scale distribution network elements in GIS

This paper presents and compares the application of two methods to quickly find electrically connected Distribution Network (DN) elements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), based on their spatial coordinates. Although DN elements can be (visually) identified as connected in GIS models, when it comes to building an engineering network model out of the GIS data, the spatial coordinates of all elements need to be processed to distinguish connected and disconnected elements. The comparison between methods is tested in seven real distribution circuits in Costa Rica, ranging from 654 customers (with a total of 2185 elements) to 26395 customers (with a total of 86602 elements).