Restoration management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11901726-B2
Application number	US-202117489935-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2021
Priority date	Oct 1, 2020
Publication date	Feb 13, 2024
Grant date	Feb 13, 2024

Abstract

A system and method for controlling an operation of devices in a power distribution network. The method determines that there is a power loss in the network as a result of a fault and one or more teams is not receiving power and performs a switching process in switching devices to prevent fault current from flowing to the fault. The method initiates a power restoration process to control the open and closed status of switching devices to isolate the fault and performs the power restoration process by the leader device in a division that the fault is occurring that includes opening and closing switching devices so that power is provided to all of the teams except the team that the fault is in. The method reconfigures the divisions based on which switching devices are now open and selects new leader devices based on the reconfiguration of the divisions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling an operation of devices in a power distribution network, said network including at least two power sources, a plurality of feeders and a plurality of switching devices positioned along the feeders and being in communications with each other, said network being represented by a plurality of teams where each team includes one side of adjacent switching devices and loads and power line sections therebetween, where a plurality of teams define divisions in the network and one of the switching devices in each division is assigned as being a leader device, said method comprising:
determining that there is a power loss in the network and one or more of the teams is not receiving power;
performing a switching process in one of the switching devices to prevent current from flowing to the power loss;
initiating a power restoration process to control the open and closed status of the switching devices to isolate the power loss;
performing the power restoration process by the leader device in the division that the power loss is occurring that includes opening and closing switching devices so that power is provided to all of the teams except the team that the power loss is in;
reconfiguring the divisions based on which switching devices are now open; and
selecting new leader devices based on the reconfiguration of the divisions.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein initiating the power restoration process is in response to a fault or loss of source occurring in one of the teams.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein initiating the power restoration process includes sending a message from the switching device performing the switching operation to the leader device performing the power restoration process.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein performing the power restoration process includes obtaining permission by the leader device in the division that the power loss is occurring from other leader devices in other divisions to close normally open switching devices between adjacent divisions.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein obtaining permission from other leader devices includes performing a voltage check to determine if voltage is present on a side of the normally open switching devices in the other divisions.

6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising terminating other events by the leader device in the division that the fault is occurring.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the switching devices are reclosers, sectionalizers or circuit breakers.

8. A method for controlling an operation of devices in a power distribution network, said network including at least two power sources, a plurality of feeders and a plurality of switching devices positioned along the feeders and being in communications with each other, said network being represented by a plurality of teams where each team includes one side of adjacent switching devices and loads and power line sections therebetween, where a plurality of teams define divisions in the network and one of the switching devices in each division is assigned as being a leader device, said method comprising:
initiating a power restoration process to control the open and closed status of the switching devices to restore power to one or more of the divisions;
performing the power restoration process by the leader device in the division that has lost power that includes opening and closing switching devices so that power is provided as many teams as possible;
reconfiguring the divisions based on which switching devices are now open; and
selecting new leader devices based on the reconfiguration of the divisions.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein initiating the power restoration process is in response to a fault or loss of source occurring in one of the teams.

10. The method according to claim 8 wherein initiating the power restoration process includes sending a message from the switching device performing the switching operation to the leader device performing the power restoration process.

11. The method according to claim 8 wherein initiating the power restoration process is in response to a request for more power capacity in a division.

12. The method according to claim 8 wherein performing the power restoration process includes obtaining permission by the leader device performing the restoration process from other leader devices in other divisions to close normally open switching devices between adjacent divisions.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein obtaining permission from other leader devices includes performing a voltage check to determine if voltage is present on a side of the normally open switching devices in the other divisions.

14. The method according to claim 8 further comprising terminating other events by the leader device performing the restoration process.

15. The method according to claim 8 wherein the switching devices are reclosers, sectionalizers or circuit breakers.

16. A system for controlling an operation of devices in a power distribution network, said network including at least two power sources, a plurality of feeders and a plurality of switching devices positioned along the feeders and being in communications with each other, said network being represented by a plurality of teams where each team includes one side of adjacent switching devices and loads and power line sections therebetween, where a plurality of teams define divisions in the network and one of the switching devices in each division is assigned as being a leader device, said system comprising:
means for determining that there is a power loss in the network and one or more of the teams is not receiving power;
means for performing a switching process in one of the switching devices to prevent current from flowing to the power loss;
means for initiating a power restoration process to control the open and closed status of the switching devices to isolate the power loss;
means for performing the power restoration process by the leader device in the division that the power loss is occurring that includes opening and closing switching devices so that power is provided to all of the teams except the team that the power loss is in;
means for reconfiguring the divisions based on which switching devices are now open; and
means for selecting new leader devices based on the reconfiguration of the divisions.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein the means for performing a switching process performs a switching operation.

18. The system according to claim 16 wherein the means for initiating the power restoration process sends a message from the switching device performing the switching operation to the leader device performing the power restoration process.

19. The system according to claim 16 wherein the means for performing the power restoration process obtains permission by the leader device in the division that the fault is occurring from other leader devices in other divisions to close normally open switching devices between adjacent divisions.

20. The system according to claim 16 wherein the means for initiating the power restoration process is in response to a fault or loss of source occurring in one of the teams.

Assignees

• S & C Electric Co

Inventors

• Quinlan Michael
• Marendic Boris
• Sharon Yoav

Classifications

• H02J13/333

  the equipment forming part of substations · CPC title

• H02J13/12

  Monitoring network conditions, e.g. electrical magnitudes or operational status · CPC title

• H02J13/16

  the power network being controlled at grid-level, e.g. using aggregators · CPC title

• H02J13/1331

  using wireless data transmission · CPC title

• H02J13/1323

  using optical fibres · CPC title