Telecontrol for the auto-reclose protection of rural distribution schemes and the changing needs of the REC´s

High speed auto-reclosing controlled by microprocessor relays avoid permanent loss of supply for the vast majority of distribution network transient faults. However, in the event of a permanent fault, for all the sophistication of the relay, they cannot maximise the post fault restoration of supply without knowledge of the state of the circuit at other switching points. It is well known that possible improvements to a rural distribution scheme can be achieved by remotely controlling network switching points, and several schemes are already in existence. This paper considers some of the improvements, but concentrates on the emerging requirements of the regional electricity companies in the UK in the light of these recent telecontrol schemes