Self Healing Distribution Networks in India Context-a Paradigm Shift

With distribution automation solutions being highly cost-effective compared to solutions based on primary technology, distribution automation can provide substantial technical and commercial advantages to network operators. Such advanced self-healing automation concepts offered by autonomously operating breakers can be realized using technologies and equipment that is readily available today. Benefits are:

Only a small amount of distribution network has to be automated

Different concepts are available to solve dedicated requirements of the network operator

Flexible solution supporting centralized and distributed configurations

Cost-effective and future-proof solution for automatic and rapid fault analysis, fault location and restoration of power supply are still available

SCADA system connectivity to self-healing solution is useful for monitoring and control purposes

Improvement of distribution grid reliability indicators (e.g. SAIDI, SAIFI) by reduction of outages

Avoid penalties and secure power supply for critical loads like e.g. hospitals and data centers.

The power distribution utilities in India like in other parts of the world are facing increased pressure to provide uninterrupted supply and fast restoration in supply in case of outages. To achieve this the utilities not only need to strengthen their grids but also implement newer solutions for more efficient fault isolation and service restoration on their networks in order to reduce the outage time & the number of affected consumers to the minimum.