A Petri nets model for fast substation service restoration

This paper proposes a new Petri nets (PNs) knowledge representation scheme to quickly achieve the service restoration plan of a substation on-line. In accordance with the practical guidelines and the heuristic rules obtained by interacting with the dispatchers of distribution systems, a PNs model is first built to represent the related knowledge about the task of substation restoration. The PNs model built is then transformed into matrix forms, which are relied on to infer a restoration plan through simple matrix operations. Due to its graphic representation of the heuristic rules and parallel rule-firing manner via matrix operations, the human expertise on restoration can be advantageously expressed and exploited by means of the PNs knowledge-representing approach. The system is demonstrated on an exemplar substation. Flexibility and effectiveness of the PNs model have been validated to be used as a decision support for restoration scheduling