Planned islanding on rural feeders — utility perspective

Planned islanding application, also known as intentional islanding, is an early utility adaptation of the Microgrid concept that is being promoted by major utilities around the world. The main objective of planned islanding projects in Canada is to enhance customer-based power supply reliability on rural feeders by utilizing an appropriately located independent power producer (IPP). This paper considers the process of planned islanding and the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to lead to successful projects. Some of the current experience from Canadian utilities in this area are investigated and the additional requirements, in terms of equipment and system studies, which are needed in order to plan for the operation of a planned island project are discussed. A case of planned islanding on rural feeders with multiple distributed generation units is also investigated, which represents the target of future projects in this area.