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Quantitative Decision-Making Model for Distribution System Restoration

Wen-Hui Chen, Member, IEEE
AbstractDistribution system restoration is a process of nding backup feeders to restore the load in out-of-service zones by switching operations. A feasible restoration plan must satisfy some practical objectives under operational constraints. Since there may be a tradeoff between objectives, and decision preferences vary from one situation to another, how to evaluate and choose a suitable restoration plan under system emergency has become a real challenge in modern power system operation. Conventional approaches can nd feasible restoration plans but fail to identify their relative performance as it is unable to make a quantitative comparison among them. In this paper, we propose a quantitative evaluation framework for ranking restoration plans with their performance indexes, using the analytical hierarchy process-based fuzzy-grey approach. Experimental results showed that the proposed method was effective and helpful in assisting operators during the restoration process. Index TermsAnalytical hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy systems, grey relational analysis (GRA), performance index, service restoration.

I. INTRODUCTION

OMPLEX and widespread power distribution networks play an important role in delivering electricity to customers. When a fault occurs in distribution networks, the associated circuit breakers will be tripped to isolate the fault for protecting power equipment, which causes a power outage. In the meantime, system operators are responsible for restoring the electricity in out-of-service zones as quickly as possible. The restoration process involves nding suitable backup feeders and laterals to transfer the outage loads using operational criteria through a series of switching operations. The criteria may differ from utilities to utilities. Some of them are the amount of restored load, the number of switching operations, and the degree of load balance. Choosing a restoration plan is a process of looking for a combination of switching operations that satisfy multiple objectives under certain constraints. As such, distribution system restoration can be considered as a multiobjective decision-making problem. Different restoration plans lead to different system congurations, which may affect the service quality of power utilities. In addition, restoration tasks are normally performed

Manuscript received November 14, 2008; revised May 16, 2009. First published December 22, 2009; current version published January 20, 2010. Paper no. TPWRS-00906-2008. The author is with the Graduate Institute of Automation Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan (e-mail: whchen@ntut. edu.tw). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2009.2036811

in an emergency, so it is time limited for operators to nd a suitable restoration plan. Therefore, a computerized information system that supports decision-making activities is crucial to help operators evaluate quickly restoration plans during the restoration process. The problem of distribution system restoration becomes more and more difcult when the distribution network is growing in complexity. Various methods have been developed for the restoration problem in the past. Earlier research tends to use expert systems or heuristic search approach to solve the problem [1][4]. A summary of modern heuristic methods for restoration problems can be found in [5]. Recent research tries to nd a better solution by applying soft computing algorithms [6][11]. However, most of the approaches focus on nding the restoration plan that best ts some criteria rather than make quantitative comparisons to different plans. In general, decision criteria vary from one situation to another, and operators may have their own preferences under different situations. Hence, as a decision-support system, the decision itself is not about choosing the best plan but to provide decision makers with enough information for them to choose. Therefore, it is better to provide operators with relative performance of each feasible restoration plan so that operators can choose their favorite among all alternatives by themselves according to the current situation. In [12], the author used grey decision approach to select restoration plans and used simple proportion calculation to normalize objective functions. Although it can nd the relationship quickly among restoration plans, the result could get worse when the compared values become diverse. In addition, it lacks of capability to handle uncertainty that existing in operators heuristic rules. In [13], the author incorporated fuzzy set theory to improve the problem and preprocess the data on a scale of 0 to 1 at the rst stage of grey relational analysis (GRA). However, the fuzzy-grey approach did not consider a numerical weight or priority of each objective function in a rational and consistent way, which is impractical for industrial use. In this paper, the developed approach has overcome the aforementioned difculties and provides unique advantages where important attributes of the decision are difcult to quantify or compare. The proposed approach can provide operators with a set of alternatives or restoration plans in order from most to least desirable. It can also help operators determine the relative merit of a set of restoration plans, as opposed to selecting a single one. This is useful for operators to make a right decision under emergency. In restoration problems, the difculty of comparing different restoration plans arises from a tradeoff among objective functions and individual subjective preferences. In this paper, we developed a quantitative and systematic approach to evaluating

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To restore the outage loads, operators need to nd backup feeders with enough load margins to support them. The restoration task is achieved by a series of switching operations that satisfy some operational criteria. The criteria can be described as the following objective functions and system constraints. A. Objective Functions 1) Number of Switching Operations:

(1) is the status of switch , and where switches in the restored system: is the number of

Fig. 1. Concept of the proposed RDSS.

if the status of switch has been changed otherwise. Switching operations are one of the key attributes to evaluate the performance of a restoration plan. The greater the number of switching operations, the more time it will take to nish restoration. In addition, it needs extra maintenance work on frequently operated equipment. Therefore, it is desirable that the number of switching operations is minimized so that the operational cost can be reduced. 2) Maximum Loading Among Backup Feeders:

(2) where denotes the load current of the backup feeder after switching operations, and represents the number of backup feeders. During the restoration process, the out-of-service loads in unfaulty zones will be transferred to backup feeders by switching operations. This calculation will pick out the most loaded backup feeder and reect its remaining load margin. Therefore, less value in is preferred. 3) Maximum Loading Among Backup Laterals:

Fig. 2. Simple model distribution system.

the performance of each restoration plan by quantifying it with a performance index. A performance index here refers to an index that measures how well a restoration plan is. Once the performance index has derived, operators can easily obtain the ranking of each restoration plan and choose the favorite one according to the situation they encounter. Fig. 1 shows the concept of the proposed restoration decision-support system (RDSS). Detailed descriptions about each function block of RDSS will be given in the remaining sections. II. RESTORATION PROBLEMS A model system, as shown in Fig. 2, is employed to illustrate the concept of restoration problems in distribution systems. The model system contains three main feeders and eight laterals, which is part of an 11-kV distribution system. Suppose that a fault occurs at a point of the feeder F2, the circuit breaker CB2 will be tripped to isolate the fault. Consequently, the loads connected to F2 and laterals LAT2, LAT3, LAT5, and LAT7 are out of service.

(3) where denotes the load current of the backup lateral after switching operations and represents the number of backup laterals. The out-of-service loads in unfaulty zones can also be transferred to adjacent backup laterals if the backup feeder does not have enough margins to support them. This objective function evaluates the most loaded backup lateral. In the same sense, less is preferred. value in 4) Unbalanced Loading of Feeders:

(4)

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where

is the percentage load level of the feeder FDi, and is the percentage reference load level. The denition of is given by

III. QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION MODEL The quantitative evaluation model (QEM) is used for evaluating the relative performance of each restoration plan, as shown in Fig. 3. It is composed of three computational parts, which will be described shortly. A. Fuzzy Multicriteria Evaluation Fuzzy multicriteria evaluation (FMCE) consists mainly of a rule base, membership functions, and an inference engine. The rule base is formed with fuzzy rules according to operators knowledge. These rules, which describe relationships in a linguistic sense, are written as antecedent-consequent pairs of IF-THEN statements expressed in the following forms:

(5)

where and represent the load current and the rated , respectively. current of the feeder This objective function is employed to evaluate the degree of unbalanced loading of feeders. Note that the smaller the unbalanced loading of feeders, the better the system performance is. 5) Unbalanced Loading of Laterals:

(6) where and of is the percentage load level of the lateral , is the percentage reference load level. The denition is given by

In the antecedents, all objective functions are described with the use of three fuzzy sets: low, moderate, and high. In the inference procedure, the real value of each objective function is rst calculated to get the ring strength in fuzzy IF-THEN rules. Consequently, the weighted average described in (8) is employed to derive crisp defuzzication values:

(8) (7) and are the ring strength of antecedents and the where fuzzy singleton of the consequence part in the th fuzzy rule, rerepresents the number of fuzzy rules. The values spectively. represent the tness degree of objective functions . of B. Analytic Hierarchy Process The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) provides a systematic approach to processing the subjective and personal preferences of an individual in making a decision [14] and has grown in popularity as a useful decision support methodology [15]. In this study, the AHP is adopted to assess the weighting factors of each objective function in a rational way. The procedures of the AHP are described as follows. 1) Create Pairwise Comparison Matrix: Let be the set of objective functions (where is the number of objective functions). The pairwise comparison matrix can be represented by the following -by- matrix:

and represent the load current and the rated where current of the lateral , respectively. This objective function is employed to evaluate the degree of unbalanced loading of laterals. Therefore, less value in is preferred. B. Constraints Restoration problems can be formulated as multiobjective decision-making problems with satisfying operational constraints, such as line current capacity, voltage limit, transformer capacity, and radial network topology. In Taipower, automation project for distribution systems in rural area only reach substation level for cost-effect consideration. Therefore, not all data are available online from SCADA systems. Line currents are the most commonly used real-time data for network reconguration in automated substations. For this reason and in order to make comparison with other approaches in Section IV, we do not take voltage limit into consideration. The constraints used in this study are stated as follows. 1) All Feeders and Laterals Must Operate Within Their Line Capacity: This is a basic requirement in distribution system operations. 2) The Topology of Radial Network Structure Needs to be Retained: After switching operations, the radial structure of distribution networks must be kept.

. . . where and . The entry judgment on a pair of objectives

. . .

..

. . .

represents the quantied and is dened as the

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Fig. 3. Flow chart of the proposed QEM. TABLE I FUNDAMENTAL SCALE FOR PAIRWISE COMPARISONS

relative importance of two objectives, as shown in Table I [16]. This allows expressing the comparisons in verbal terms, which are then translated into corresponding numerical values. In this study, we have ve objective functions, so the pairwise comparison matrix can be rewritten as

The value of each entry in the matrix is determined by judging the importance of each pair of objectives . For example, can be derived by comparing the importance of the entry objective (the number of switching operations) and (maximum loading among backup feeders) according to Table I. and Its Corre2) Calculate the Largest Eigenvalue : In this step, the largest sponding Normalized Eigenvector eigenvalue and the corresponding normalized eigenvector of the comparison matrix are calculated. The weighting values for all objective functions are derived from the components of the normalized eigenvector. 3) Verify Consistency of the Comparison Matrix: The consistency of the comparison matrix should be veried by the before selecting the weighting values consistency ratio is the ratio of conaccording to pairwise judgments. The and the corresponding random index sistency index dened as follows:

. . .

. . .

..

. . .

(9)

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TABLE II ORDER OF COMPARISON MATRIX AND RI

Let denote the GRG for the compared sequence . It repand , which is resents the strength of relationship between given by

(14) where is the deviation of the maximum eigenvalue from the number of criteria used in the comparison process, which . Table II lists the values of and is , the evaluated the order of the comparison matrix. If weighting value is considered acceptable. where is the weighting factor of the th objective function and satises (15):

(15) C. Grey Relational Analysis The grey system theory was rst proposed by Deng [17], [18] in 1982. The GRA is an important part of grey system theory and widely used for applications of evaluating alternatives with respect to decision criteria. Up to now, it has been employed successfully in many elds [19][22]. As a tool of quantitative analysis, the GRA can be used to measure the relationship between two sequences by calculating their correlative degrees, known as grey relational grade (GRG). The GRG is a real number ranging from 0 to 1, which can be calculated through the grey relational coefcient (GRC). The concept of the GRA applied to this study is briey described shortly. For each restoration plan, the tness degrees of objective functions derived from (8) are compiled as a discrete sequence , called compared sequence, denoted by where is the number of restoration plans. For each objective among all compared function, select the largest value of sequences to construct the reference sequence, denoted by . The GRCs are calculated to express the relationship between the ideal reference sequence and the compared sequence, which can be expressed as [23]: (10) (11) (12) (13) where GRC of with respect to ideal reference sequence at the th entry; compared sequence at the th entry; absolute difference value between the ideal and each compared reference sequence sequence largest value among smallest value among All the weighting factors of objective functions are determined by the AHP. A compared sequence (compared restoration plan) with higher GRG is preferred since it resembles more the reference sequence (the most preferred restoration plan). Hence, the GRG can be used as the performance index. In Fig. 3, the procedures to obtain performance index of each restoration plan using the proposed QEM are summarized as follows. Step 1) Generate feasible restoration plans according to preference setting and operational constraints. Step 2) Use (1)(7) to compute the values of objective functions derived from Step 1. Step 3) Use AHP to derive a numerical weight of each objective function for the use in GRA. Step 4) Use FMCE to evaluate the values obtained from Step 2. Step 5) Use the results from FMCE and AHP as the input of GRA to calculate the performance index of each restoration plan. Step 6) Rank the restoration plans in order according to their GRGs.

IV. CASE STUDY To verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the example used in [24] is adopted for comparison purpose. The test system is assumed to be balanced. In this study, load transfer has been achieved only on a three-phase basis. This study is concerned with evaluating feasible restoration plans and ranks them in a quantitative way. Fig. 4 shows the conguration of the test example. As shown in Fig. 4, the feeder YD28 is connected to nine laterals: LAT1, LAT2, LAT3, LAT4, LAT5, LAT6, LAT7, LAT8, and LAT9. Each lateral has its supporting lateral (LAT10, LAT11, LAT12, LAT13, LAT14, LAT15, LAT16, and LAT17) as a backup via a normally opened switch. Suppose that a fault occurs at a point of feeder YD28, the circuit breaker CB2 will be tripped following the fault, leaving all laterals connected to feeder YD28 out-of-service. Assume that the fault has been identied and isolated by opening the switch S0. How to restore the power supply service by a series of switching operations is the major concern of this work.

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TABLE IV FEASIBLE RESTORATION PLANS AND RELATED LOAD CURRENTS ON FEEDERS AFTER RESTORATION

Fig. 4. Typical distribution system.

TABLE III PREFAULT LOAD CONDITIONS

TABLE V LOAD CURRENTS ON SUPPORTING LATERALS AFTER RESTORATION

To maintain the radial system structure, the normally closed switch at the head of lateral must be opened when the coris closed. For comparing responding normally open switch with [24], the constraints are set as follows: 1) maximum allowable feeder current: 463A; 2) maximum allowable lateral current: 104A; 3) less than eight switch operations. Table III gives the prefault load conditions. All units in the tables are in amperes. Tables IV and V list all the feasible switching operations and the load currents on supporting feeders and laterals after restoration. Conventional approaches focus on searching the best restoration plan from solution space. The trouble is that each approach claims that it is the best. For example, in the test case, the suggested restoration plans obtained in [24] and [25] are different. Table VI summarized the restoration plans obtained in [24] and [25]. In the absence of quantitative evaluation of each restoration plan, it is difcult to tell how good the selected restoration plan is. In this situation, operators have no choice but rely only on the result decided by computer programs. In addition, in practical operation, operators need some backup plans as there may be unexpected events that can occur when the selected restoration plan is being performed. For example, the switch

TABLE VI RESTORATION PLANS OBTAINED BY DIFFERENT APPROACHES

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TABLE VII OBJECTIVE FUNCTIONS AND CORRESPONDING DEFUZZIFICATION VALUES

Fig. 5. Membership functions of the objective function f .

may break down unexpectedly on the repair crews who have been dispatched to operate it, making it impossible for the selected restoration plan to be implemented. In this case, instead of merely selecting a plan for operators, it would be helpful to provide operators with relative performance of each restoration plan so that they can choose the preferable one among all alternatives by themselves. B. Analytic Hierarchy Process V. APPLICATION OF THE PROPOSED APPROACH The relative performance of each restoration plan can be derived by applying the proposed quantitative evaluation model to the test case, which will be described as follows. A. Fuzzy Multicriteria Evaluation As shown in Fig. 5, the membership functions of fuzzy sets used for this example are assigned as follows. 1) Number of switching operations Then we can derive its largest eigenvalue and the corresponding normalized eigenvector as follows: 2) Maximum loading among backup feeders The AHP is employed to assess the weighting factors of each objective function. According to the relative importance of each objective function, the pairwise comparison matrix used in the study is chosen as

3) Maximum loading among backup laterals

The following are the procedures for verifying the consistency of the pairwise comparison matrix. From (9)

4) Loading unbalance of feeders

5) Loading unbalance of laterals i.e., In the consequence, the singleton fuzzy sets good, moderate, and bad are crisply dened as 1, 0.5, and 0, respectively. This can simplify the computation process and meet completely the needs of this study. The values of the ve objective functions and the corresponding defuzzication values are summarized in Table VII.

Since the is less than 0.1, the assessment is regarded as an effective process.

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TABLE VIII GRGS OF EVALUATED PLANS

2) The hybrid fuzzy-grey algorithm with AHP exhibits a reasonable and appropriate ranking approach. 3) Each restoration plan can be evaluated in a quantitative fashion so that operators can get insight into how good a restoration plan is. 4) It can be easily implemented as a decision-support system used in practical distribution systems. REFERENCES
[1] C. C. Liu, S. J. Lee, and S. S. Venkata, An expert system operational aid for restoration and loss reduction of distribution system, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 619626, May 1988. [2] L. Morelato and A. Monticelli, Heuristic search approach to distribution system restoration, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 22352241, Oct. 1989. [3] T. K. Ma, C. C. Liu, M. S. Tsai, R. Rogers, S. L. Muchlinski, and J. Dodge, Operational experience and maintenance of online expert system for customer restoration and fault testing, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 835842, May 1992. [4] Y. Y. Hsu, H. M. Huang, H. C. Kuo, S. K. Peng, C. W. Chang, K. J. Chang, H. S. Yu, C. E. Chow, and R. T. Kuo, Distribution system service restoration using a heuristic search approach, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 734740, Apr. 1992. [5] S. Toune, H. Fudo, T. Genji, Y. Fukuyama, and Y. Nakanishi, Comparative study of modern heuristic algorithms to service restoration in distribution systems, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 173181, Jan. 2002. [6] Y. T. Hsiao and C. Y. Chien, Enhancement of restoration service in distribution systems using a combination fuzzy-GA method, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 13941400, Nov. 2000. [7] A. S. Bretas and A. G. Phadke, Articial neural networks in power system restoration, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 11811186, Oct. 2003. [8] D. J. Shin, J. O. Kim, T. K. Kim, J. B. Choo, and C. Singh, Optimal service restoration and reconguration using genetic-tabu algorithm, Elect. Power Syst. Res., vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 145152, Oct. 2004. [9] Y. Kumar, B. Das, and J. Sharma, Service restoration in distribution system using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm, Elect. Power Syst. Res., vol. 76, pp. 768777, Jun. 2006. [10] A. Ahuja, S. Das, and A. Pahwa, An AIS-ACO hybrid approach for multi-objective distribution system reconguration, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 11011111, Aug. 2007. [11] Z. Li, X. Chen, K. Yu, Y. Sun, and H. Liu, A hybrid particle swarm optimization approach for distribution network reconguration problem, in Proc. 2008 IEEE Power Energy Soc. General Meeting, pp. 17. [12] W. H. Chen, A grey-based approach for distribution network reconguration, J. Chinese Inst. Eng., vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 795802, Sep. 2005. [13] W. H. Chen, M. S. Tsai, and H. L. Kuo, Distribution system restoration using the hybrid fuzzy-grey method, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 199205, Feb. 2005. [14] T. L. Saaty, How to make a decision: The analytic hierarchy process, Eur. J. Oper. Res., vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 926, Sep. 1990. [15] O. S. Vaidya and S. Kumar, Analytic hierarchy process: An overview of applications, Eur. J. Oper. Res., vol. 169, no. 1, pp. 129, Feb. 2006. [16] T. L. Satty, The Analytical Hierarchy Process. New York: McGrawHill, 1980, p. 54. [17] J. L. Deng, Control problems of grey systems, System Control Lett., vol. 1, pp. 288294, Mar. 1982. [18] J. L. Deng, Introduction to grey system theory, J. Grey Syst., vol. 1, pp. 124, 1989. [19] M. Dong, Z. Yan, and Y. Taniguchi, Fault diagnosis of power transformer based on model-diagnosis with grey relation, in Proc. 2003 Properties Appl. Dielectr. Mater., 7th Int. Conf., pp. 11581161. [20] C. S. Cheng, Y. T. Hsu, and C. C. Wu, Grey neural network, IEICE Trans. Fund. Electron., Commun. Comput. Sci., vol. E81-A, no. 11, pp. 24332442, Nov. 1998. [21] B. Song, P. Yu, Y. Luo, and X. Wen, Study on the fault diagnosis of transformer based on the grey relational analysis, Proc. 2002 Power Syst. Technol., vol. 4, pp. 22312234, 2002. [22] Y. P. Huang and C. C. Huang, The integration and application of fuzzy and grey modeling methods, Fuzzy Sets Syst., vol. 78, no. 1, pp. 107119, Feb. 1996. [23] C. C. Wong and H. R. Lai, A new grey relational measurement, J. Grey Syst., vol. 12, pp. 341346, Dec. 2000.

C. Grey Relational Analysis The nal stage of the proposed quantitative evaluation model is to measure the similarity between each restoration plan and the reference plan using GRA. At rst, each restoration plan should be represented in a sequence form. In the test case, all the 11 feasible restoration plans are represented as compared . The reference sequence, is sequences constructed by selecting the largest value of . In this case, is set to be (0.625, 0.095, 0.205, 0.798, 0.545), and the GRGs can thus be derived as listed in Table VIII by applying (10) to (15). The GRG is used as the performance index of a restoration plan. When provided with the information of relative performance indexes, operators are expected to be more condent in making a decision. The three top ranking plans, plan#2, plan#3, and plan#6, are highlighted in italic bold font. As all the feasible restoration plans have the same number of switch operations, and with the load balance and the overload among supporting lines taken into consideration, plan #6, plan #3, and plan#2 are considered better than those (plan #2, plan#5, and plan#9) selected in [24]. Note that the authors in [25] also recommended plan #6 as the best choice, but did not provide quantitative gures to show the reason behind such selection. In addition, if plan #6 fails to be implemented, operators will nd it hard to make another choice. Obviously, with the aid of relative performance rankings provided by the proposed approach, various plans are comparable, and the next favorite alternative can thus be easily obtained even if the selected plan fails to be performed. VI. CONCLUSION In this study, we have proposed a quantitative evaluation model for evaluating restoration plans and highlighted the concept of relative performance index used for decision making in distribution system restoration. It is helpful to present the rankings of restoration plans to operators instead of merely selecting a plan for them. By using the proposed evaluation model, the most preferred plan can be quickly obtained. The proposed approach is superior to conventional methods in terms of the following features. 1) It provides an effective and quantitative evaluation model for evaluating restoration plans.

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[24] C. M. Huang, Multiobjective service restoration of distribution systems using fuzzy cause-effect networks, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 867874, May 2003. [25] Y. Y. Hsu and H. C. Kuo, A heuristic based fuzzy reasoning approach for distribution system service restoration, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 948953, Apr. 1994.

Wen-Hui Chen (M'04) was born in Taiwan in 1965. He received the B.S. degree from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, all in electrical engineering. From 19922000, he was a Senior Engineer and received numerous employee outstanding awards at Taiwan Power Company (Taipower Company), Taipei, which is Taiwan's largest power utility company. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Automation Technology, National Taipei University of Technology.