Smart Grid concepts applied to distribution networks operation

The continuity of electric energy supply to consumers is a permanent objective of the power utilities, pursuing the development of technological solutions to improve the performance of the power re-establishment in contingency conditions. The main purpose is to minimize the impact on the number of consumers affected and reduce the time required to re-establish the energy supply. In this way, the power utilities have been employing efforts for the automation of distribution networks in order to reestablish power in a more agile way, resulting in better indexes of continuity and increase consumer satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology to reestablish the electric energy supply by using remote-controlled switches, regarding the validation of the technical viability for distribution networks reconfiguration in real time by means of computational simulations, applying the Smart Grid concepts. The best option for the load transfer using remote-controlled switches, after contingencies, will be defined based on multicriteria decision making. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated with case studies involving actual systems.