An Extremely Simple Method of Determining Optimal Conductor Sections for Radial Distribution Feeders

This paper presents a novel nmthod for determining optimal conductor cross sections for radial distribution feeders, The aim of conductor grading is to design a feeder so as to minimise the sum of the capital investment and capitalised energy loss costs for the feeder. In finding such a design several factors such as non-uniform feeder loading, load growth, allowable voltage drop in the feeder, etc, have to be considered. The conductor grading problem being inherently a multi- stage decision problem, can be considered as a dynamic programming problem and has been solved as such, in the past. In this paper a direct solution procedure for conductor grading is proposed, thereby eliminating the complexity of the dynamic programming approach. The proposed solution technique is extremely simple, involves very little computation and needs very little computer storage. Several examples are presented to illustrate the proposed procedure and high-light its advantages.