Reliability-Driven Expert Automation Planning and Blackout Scheduling in Iranian Electricity Distribution Networks

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

Energy Management Research Center, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, P.O. Box 179, Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract

Medium-voltage electricity distribution networks in Iran require automation plans that reduce customer interruptions while remaining economically defensible under harsh operating conditions. Existing planning practices often treat reliability indices as secondary outputs and rely on deterministic assumptions, which weakens device-placement decisions in long radial feeders and mountainous areas. This paper develops a reliability-driven expert automation framework for the coordinated placement of reclosers and sectionalizers, where expert automation denotes the use of utility operating rules, protection-engineering judgement, and field-experience-based uncertainty ranges, and blackout scheduling denotes feeder-level outage confinement and restoration after fault isolation. Reliability indices, undelivered energy, and equipment costs were integrated into a single objective function. Uncertainty in fault rate, outage duration, and switching time was represented by triangular fuzzy numbers and converted through defuzzification. The resulting nonlinear discrete problem was solved using Boxelder Bug Search Optimization and benchmarked against three population-based metaheuristics on a real feeder in Ardabil Province and the IEEE 33-bus system. In the real feeder, the proposed method reduced interruption frequency by up to 15.5%, interruption duration by more than 9%, and momentary interruptions by 33.0%, while lowering the composite objective value by up to 15.9%. In the benchmark system, it achieved the lowest undelivered-energy cost and objective value across all scenarios, with momentary-interruption reductions exceeding 36% under high automation. The results indicate that reliability-centred, uncertainty-aware automation planning can improve feeder-level interruption management without excessive device installation.

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References

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Journal of Operation and Automation in Power Engineering

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 15 August 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 27 February 2026
  • Revise Date: 07 July 2026
  • Accept Date: 31 July 2026
  • First Publish Date: 15 August 2026

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