Automation Effects on Reliability and Operation Costs in Storm Restoration

Abstract-Storm response and restoration can be very expensive for electric utilities. The deployment of automated switches can benefit the utility by decreasing storm restoration hours. The automated switches also improve system reliably by decreasing customer interruption duration. In this article, a Monte Carlo simulation is used to mimic storm equipment failure events, followed by reconfiguration for restoration and power flow evaluations. The customer outage status and duration are examined. Changes in reliability for the system with and without automated switching devices are investigated. Economic benefits of utilizing smart grid automated devices are considered.