Patent ID: 9318920
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: G01R,H02J,Y04S

Claim Text:
1. A method for maximizing efficient placement of Fault Circuit Indicators (FCIs) on an electrical feeder, comprising the steps of: obtaining a data set associated with faults on an electrical feeder, wherein said data set includes overhead and underground fault response information; identifying a number of FCIs and a location of each FCI on the feeder utilizing information contained in the data set, wherein said information comprises at least one of overhead, underground fault response information, and probabilities of overhead and underground faults in the feeder, wherein said number of FCIs and location of each FCI results in a reduction of customer average outage time (AOT) for the feeder, wherein said AOT is determined from the equation: wherein COT p N N N wherein said identifying step comprises the steps of: a. selecting a feeder Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) value for reference; b. calculating a number of zones for each feeder and identifying sections in each zone, determining number of customers per each zone and each section in the zone, number of miles of a particular conductor in each zone and section, and type of the cable (overhead (“OH”) or underground (“UG”)); c. obtaining values for times associated with initiating a fault ticket, initial drive to a substation, line inspection time and line repair time; d. determining coefficients c e. calculating ξ, such that customer AOT+ξ=CAIDI from step a: f. calculating the values for probability of fault occurrence for each section of each zone by using the formula: wherein p M p M M M N N g. randomly choosing nodes on the feeder where the FCIs are to be placed: h. calculating fault probabilities using a simulation algorithm to simulate faults on the feeder; i. calculating the mode for AOT based on the simulation and making it the baseline AOT; j. defining the maximum number of generations as ( k. selecting a node randomly in a sequence of the FCI placement from step h; l. selecting another node on the feeder that has no FCI associated with it, place the FCI from the node from step k at that node and calculating the new AOT using the same procedure as in steps h-i; m. if the new AOT (mode) is lower than the baseline AOT, making the new AOT the baseline value, and selecting the new FCI placement as optimum placement; n. returning to step k until the minimum AOT (mode) has been reached, or until the maximum number of generations has been reached; o. changing the number of FCIs, and repeating the procedure starting at the step g p. comparing the values for AOT for each number of FCIs installed; and q. selecting the appropriate number and location of FCIs; and placing the identified number of FCIs at the identified locations on the feeder.