Ranking of design criteria to improve rural network performance

The evaluation of different design criteria to improve the performance of a rural distribution network requires a broad approach to be taken in comparing technical improvements that could be implemented, with the corresponding benefits obtained. This paper describes the examination of an existing rural 11 kV network in Northern Ireland in need of improvement in performance. The basic improvement aims are to halve (i.e. improve) the reported overall security and availability indices and to ensure that the security and availability on any particular circuit are maintained within a specified upper limit. The approach adopted was to model the performance of selected circuits, compare predicted performance with actual historical performance and provide a quantitative assessment of individual and combined improvement measures