Protection and remote control equipment in medium-voltage stations

The use of protection and remote control devices in medium-voltage stations as a measure to increase supply reliability is rarely considered in Germany. Falling prices for digital control and protection devices as well as for communication technology enhance the economic competitiveness of these measures against conventional grid structure expansion. Starting in 2012, in Germany a quality regulation provides grid operators an economic incentive to obtain a preferably optimal level of supply reliability. This could make investments in protection and remote control devices more interesting. While many existing computer-based methods approach the optimization of grid structure in the medium-voltage level, equipping medium-voltage stations with additional protection and remote control devices is rarely considered. It is the purpose of this paper to present a new computer-based method that optimizes the use of protection and remote control devices in medium-voltage stations. The developed method performs an optimization based on a genetic algorithm and is applicable to all typical medium-voltage grid structures. Evaluation criteria are the additional revenue granted by the quality regulation due to increased supply reliability and expansion costs for protection and remote control devices. A case study illustrates the capability of the developed method with a rural medium-voltage grid.