Reliability Worth Assessment of an Advanced Centralized Feeder Automation Scheme

Feeder Automation (FA) has been recognized by researchers and utilities as one of the attractive remedial measures to enhance service reliability in the electric power distribution systems. Until now, several kinds of FA schemes have been developed for automating of distribution feeders. They can be categorized into three main approaches: semiautomatic, distributed and centralized schemes. The challenge for the utilities, especially in today's competitive electricity market, is to identify and evaluate potential FA schemes and determine that appropriate for implementation. In this context, reliability cost/worth assessment plays an important role. This paper aims to propose a step by step evaluation procedure to quantitatively assess the impacts of an advanced centralized FA scheme, designated as the "Low Interruption System" (LIS), on reliability worth indices of a typically distribution reliability test system.