Advanced Applications in an Advanced Distribution Management System: Essentials for Implementation and Integration

For more than a decade, the distribution utility industry has recognized and increasingly accepted the concept of an advanced distribution management system (ADMS). In a nutshell, an ADMS combines the functional domains of distribution supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, the outage management system, switching management, and distribution network analysis and optimization into a single seamless system. The distribution network analysis and optimization functions are referred to as advanced applications. However, surprisingly few distribution utilities have successfully implemented an ADMS with advanced applications. Even fewer have system operators making full use of such applications. Numerous small-scale pilot projects have been executed and completed where the value of such advanced applications as fault location isolation and service restoration (FLISR) and integrated volt/volt-ampere reactive optimization (IVVO) have been positively confirmed. Successful systemwide operational deployments of advanced applications, however, are much less common. There are multiple reasons for this, including insufficient numerical robustness of advanced applications to provide solutions under a wide variety of system conditions. Other reasons include model-magnitude, complexity, and data-quality issues.