Optimal trade-offs in distribution protection design

The number, type and location of the protective devices on a distribution feeder have a direct effect on the system reliability. In earlier work, a technique was developed to design a protective system in order to minimize the SAIFI index. This paper extends earlier results by using a goal programming approach to achieve compromises among various engineering objectives. The design goals are: (1) to minimize the SAIFI and ASIFI indices by identifying types and locations of protective devices; and (2) to achieve a reasonable trade-off between a decrease in the SAIFI index and an increase in MAIFI index by identifying where a fuse saving scheme should be applied. Numerical examples highlight the approach.