Electric power distribution network restoration: a survey of papers and a review of the restoration problem

This survey addresses the problem of supply restoration following an outage in an electric distribution system. Operator decision support for the restoration of supply after an outage is an active research area. This is significant for enhancing supply continuity and achieving better efficiency. It is important for operators to reach a feasible and speedily implementable restoration plan to restore the electricity service beyond the faulted zone. The restoration plan should satisfy objectives such as minimum number of customers without supply, minimum number of switching operations, and no overloaded components. Service restoration is therefore a multiple-objective problem with some objectives contradictory to one another. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the conceptual aspects as well as recent algorithmic developments for distribution system restoration. Several fundamentally different approaches are discussed in the paper together with the factors affecting the assumptions of the underlying concepts and the various criteria used in the different approaches are reviewed. The paper considers all areas of the restoration problem including the input data requirements, focusing on the methodological features of the systems reported in the literature. The survey starts with a discussion on the rationale of distribution restoration. It then introduces the postulates upon which the conventional restoration approaches are based. Finally, the different approaches are compared and related by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of restoration schemes as currently practised and recently reported. In conclusion, the review also points out the needs and directions for future research. Critical discussions of individual contributions to the development of the subject are presented only in as much as they treat specific matters of concept, principle or applicability. The question of interfacing to the SCADA system or control centre environment is also briefly discussed.