Outage Management of Distribution Systems Incorporating Information From Smart Meters

A critical function in outage management for distribution systems is to quickly detect a fault and identify the activated protective device(s). With ongoing smart grid development, numerous smart meters and fault indicators with communication capabilities provide an opportunity for accurate and efficient outage management. Using the available data, this paper proposes a new multiple-hypothesis method for identification of the faulted section on a feeder or lateral. Credibility of the multiple hypotheses is determined using the available evidence from these devices. The proposed methodology is able to handle i) multiple faults, ii) protection miscoordination, and iii) missing outage reports from smart meters and fault indicators. For each hypothesis, an optimization method based on integer programming is proposed to determine the most credible actuated protective device(s) and faulted line section(s). Simulation results based on the distribution feeders of Avista Utilities serving Pullman, WA, validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.