Automatic restoration system

The reduce of the DEC (equivalent duration for set of consumers) and the FEC (frequency equivalent for set of consumers) index is a requesting of ANEEL (National agency of electrical energy) that are making the Brazilian utilities look for new automation technologies in distribution system, which help them to make their system more reliable without the need to reserve or route the additional capacity. This article will describe an automatic restoration system, with peer-to-peer communication and distributed intelligence, which dynamically tracks the system conditions (phase currents and voltages) and quickly restore unfalted circuits. In radial and open loop circuits using switches or sectionalizers alone, customer downstream of a fault are left without power. Using controls with local intelligence in each point of switching and the peer-to-peer communication between these controls, the system can determine the location of the fault, which alternate circuit will handle this load and which switches should operate. The automatic restoration system acts locally before breakers and reclosers lock out, and require no central monitoring or control. During storms or major system events, this system keeps as many customers in service as possible, freeing personnel to deal with other problems while minimizing customer minutes outages.