Polygonal optimisation of topologies for LV network schematics

Low voltage (LV) network planning is a vastly detailed process mostly due to the sheer volume of network assets and the connected customers. As the number of low carbon technologies have gone up in recent years, a reactive planning of LV networks is no longer appropriate. Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) have already started looking into ways of modelling LV networks in analysis tools. However, the process is complex, and the geographic diagrams drawn in analysis tools are intricate. For planning engineers, it is a major problem to use these diagrams for network planning studies. This paper presents a novel algorithm (PolyDraw) where the nodes of the network are constructed as the vertices of recursive regular polygons in an efficient way to prevent overlap and clutter of densely populated network designs. We found that the PolyDraw algorithm works effectively on feeder diagrams that have lower-order edges. The algorithm may require further development and parametric design to account for more heavily meshed networks.