Algorithms for drawing weakly meshed distribution substation areas

This paper presents an algorithm for one-line diagram generation of multiple interconnected, i.e. weakly meshed, feeders supplied by one distribution substation. The substation area is modeled with a mathematical graph, which is then prepared and drawn in multiple steps. A vertex propagation algorithm is applied starting at the substation vertex to traverse the whole graph and disconnect interconnected feeders at normal open points (NOP), thereby creating a graph without loops. In the second step, the optimal feeder ordering is determined by the genetic algorithm (GA) based on the analysis of NOPs. In the third step each feeder is visualized recursively, with respect to the sub-graph direction based on NOPs. In the fourth and last step the NOPs are reconnected with orthogonal edges, and by inserting artificial vertices wherever necessary. The algorithm was tested on multiple, weakly meshed distribution substation areas extracted from several different European-style distribution network models. It generated visually pleasing one-line diagrams for systems with more than 1000 objects. The quality of the generated one-line diagrams was assessed by a formula, which took into account different characteristics, e.g. diagram area, total edge length, number of crossings.