Impact of automation on the reliability of the Athens Utilities Board's distribution system

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · IEEE Trans. Power Del.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/61.19269· OSTI ID:6373283

Lawler, J S; Lai, J S; Monteen, L D; Rizy, D T

In this paper the authors discuss the reliability effects of distribution automation on the Athens Utilities Board (AUB) in Athens, Tennessee. This investigation is part of the Athens Automation and Control Experiments sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Storage and Distribution, Electric Energy Systems Program. In this experiment, distribution feeder equipment on twelve feeders connected to three substations is being remotely controlled from a central dispatch center. A supervisory control and data acquisition system provides substation and feeder monitoring and remote control of feeder circuit breakers, power reclosers, and load break switches. An analytical study is presented to show the improvement in conventional distribution system reliability indices that are achieved at AUB as a function of the penetration of automation equipment. The value of automation predicted by the study is highly sensitive to the historical outage data used in the analysis and to the economic worth of reliability assigned by the utility. Eight case studies are described, from actual AUB operations, where the automation system resulted in significant cost savings and reliability benefits that are not captured by conventional reliability indices. Other utilities should expect similar benefits, which will be difficult to quantify analytically but, which add to the value of and justification for distribution automation.

• Research Organization: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (US); Athens Utilities Board, Athens, TN (US); Power Systems Technology Program, Energy Div., Oak Ridge National Lab., Oak Ridge, TN (US)
• OSTI ID: 6373283
• Journal Information: IEEE Trans. Power Del.; (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Power Del.; (United States) Vol. 4:1; ISSN ITPDE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

200300* -- Electric Power Engineering-- Power Transmission & Distribution-- (-1989)
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
296002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Electric Power Transmission & Distribution-- (-1989)
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
AUTOMATION
CONTROL
DATA ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY STORAGE
FEDERAL REGION IV
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
OUTAGES
POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RELIABILITY
REMOTE CONTROL
STORAGE
TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS
TENNESSEE
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA