Reliability assesment of radial feeder for different automation intensity levels

This paper determines the reliability indices of a radial distribution system for different automation intensity levels such as non- automated, fully automated and partially automated systems. When fault occurs, in case of non-automated and fully automated systems the restoration takes place in single stage whereas in partially automated systems it will be in two- stages. In a two- stage restoration strategy, a first stage quickly restores a limited set of customers using automated switches and at a later stage some other customers are restored by using manual switches. Feeder automation requires a considerable expenditure and therefore at present many utilities are looking for partial automation of feeders which require the concept of two- stage restoration. In the conventional SCADA system, the control decision is taken manually on the basis of experience and the available real time data. It is then executed through the man machine interface. On the other hand, computer based control decisions are taken in the DA system and these control decisions are executed in either automatic mode or in semi-automatic mode through human intervention The reliability indices of RBTS BUS-2 are evaluated for different six cases and the results are compared.