The application of satellite communications technology to the protection of the rural distribution networks

The cost of installation necessitates that most rural communities (the UK included) are supplied via overhead distribution systems, which being exposed to the elements are prone to damage. In much of the developed world the use of autonomous intelligent protection such as pole mounted reclosers and pole mounted sectionalisers has been widely accepted to minimise loss of supply when fault conditions arise. These schemes have typically been paralleled by complementary developments in telecontrol or SCADA systems to further improve supply by the timely diagnosis of nontransient problems and the ability to switch to an alternate supply. The cost of simple communications equipment is now relatively modest, however the cost of installing a suitable infrastructure, possibly involving a chain of repeaters is massive. The authors present a solution, a satellite based system, which can be viewed as a single repeater albeit in space; the challenge is to provide such a system at low enough cost