Impacts of Loop Restoration Strategy on distribution system reliability

Implementation of distribution automation (DA) in electric power distribution systems can result in customer satisfaction with improved reliability, consistent quality and high-tech services. Loop restoration strategy (LRS) is a special DA method in the feeder level which is used by electric utilities to improve distribution system reliability. The effects of the implemented LRS on the reliability indices of a given distribution system mainly depend on its automatic control system (ACS). Selecting the type of ACS of LRS by electric utilities relies on the level of improvement required at load points and system oriented reliability indices. A step by step evaluation procedure is proposed in this paper to quantitatively assess the impacts of two common types of ACS of LRS on reliability indices of a distribution reliability test system.