Voltage sags are the most widespread quality issues affecting distribution systems. This paper describes in some detail the voltage sag characteristics due to different types and locations of fault in a practical low voltage power distribution system encountered in the UK. The results not only give utility engineers very useful information when identifying parts of the system most likely to pose problems for customer equipments, but also assist the facility personnel to make decisions on purchasing power quality mitigation equipment.

Catastrophic failures in power systems are rare but not uncommon events. Protection systems play an important role in the progression of events during a catastrophic failure. This paper will examine some of the historical records, and suggest possible improvements to protection systems which can have a positive impact on power system performance during catastrophic failures.

Recently, the needs and concerns regarding power loss have been increasing according to energy conservation at the level of the national policies and the business strategies of power utilities. In particular, the issue of power loss is the main factor for determining rates for electrical consumption in the deregulation of the electrical industry. However, because of the lack of management for power loss load factors (LLF) it is difficult to make a calculation for power loss and to make a decision concerning the electric rates. Furthermore, loss factor (k-factor) in Korea, which is of primary significance in the calculation of distribution power loss, has been used as a fixed value of 0.32 since the fiscal year 1973. Therefore, this study presents the statistical calculation methods of the loss factors classified by load types and seasons by using the practical data of 65 primary feeders that have been selected by appropriate procedures. Based on the above, the algorithms and methods, as well as the optimal method of the distribution loss management classified by facilities such as primary feeders, distribution transformers and secondary feeders is presented. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed methods.

This paper presents an application of the parallel Genetic Algorithm-Tabu Search (GA- TS) algorithm, and that is to search for an optimal solution of a reconfiguration in distribution systems. The aim of the reconfiguration of distribution systems is to determine the appropriate switch position to be opened for loss minimization in radial distribution systems, which is a discrete optimization problem. This problem has many constraints and it is very difficult to solve the optimal switch position because of its numerous local minima. This paper develops a parallel GA- TS algorithm for the reconfiguration of distribution systems. In parallel GA-TS, GA operators are executed for each processor. To prevent solution of low fitness from appearing in the next generation, strings below the average fitness are saved in the tabu list. If best fitness of the GA is not changed for several generations, TS operators are executed for the upper 10$\%$ of the population to enhance the local searching capabilities. With migration operation, the best string of each node is transferred to the neighboring node after predetermined iterations are executed. For parallel computing, we developed a PC-cluster system consisting of 8 PCs. Each PC employs the 2 GHz Pentium IV CPU and is connected with others through switch based rapid Ethernet. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method, the developed algorithm was tested and is compared to a distribution system in the reference paper From the simulation results, we can find that the proposed algorithm is efficient and robust for the reconfiguration of distribution system in terms of the solution quality, speedup, efficiency, and computation time.

Service restoration is one of the most important missions in distribution system operation. This paper proposes a multi-agent system approach to distribution system restoration. Every relay is developed as an agent by adding its own intelligent, self-tuning and communication ability. The relay agent independently calculates and corrects its restoration index through communication with neighboring agents and its own intelligence. The proposed algorithm is applied to a simple network to demonstrate its soundness and effectiveness.

In Korea, the protection systems against the instability of the nation's power system are insufficient in contrast with many other countries. In addition, there have just been studies carried out on detecting power system instability, while only a few studies pertaining to protection plans against instability exist. This paper focuses on systems to protect against the instability phenomena in the Korean power system. In this paper, we survey possible contingencies in the Korean power system and suggest outline and specs of the SPS (System Protection Scheme) against faults on the 765 kV line, based on simulations. It is concluded that event-based SPS for transient stability is appropriate for the Korean power system. In the simulations, the most severe contingency on the Korean power system is the fault on 765 kV transmission lines. If one of these lines is tripped by a fault, synchronism may be lost on the power plants near this line because of heavy power flow carried by them. In addition, undervoltage in the Metropolitan region is a serious problem in this case since this region receives about half its total power flow through these lines. In order to prevent a synchronism loss, some power plants have to be rejected according to the situations in the simulations.

During faults, the voltage and current signals available to the relay are affected by the decaying dc component and harmonics. In order to make appropriate and accurate decisions, most of the relaying algorithms require the fundamental frequency phasor information that is immune to decaying dc effect and harmonics. The conventional Fourier ph as or estimation algorithm is affected by the presence of decaying-exponential transients in the fault signal. This paper presents a modified Fourier algorithm, which effectively eliminates the decaying dc component and the harmonics present in the fault signal. The decaying dc parameters are estimated by means of an out-of-band filtering technique. The decaying dc offset and harmonics are removed by means of a simple computational procedure that involves the design of two sets of Orthogonal digital OFT filters tuned at different frequencies and by creating three off-line look-up tables. The technique was tested for different decay rates of the decaying dc component. It was also compared with the conventional mimic plus the full cycle OFT algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed technique has a faster convergence to the desired value compared to the conventional mimic plus OFT algorithms over a wide range of decay rates. In all cases, the convergence to the desired value was achieved within one cycle of the power system frequency.

This paper presents a framework for determining control strategies against unwanted tripping actions during relay operation that plays a very important role in cascading events leading to voltage collapse. The framework includes an algorithm for quick identification of possible zone 3 relay operation during voltage instability. Furthermore, it comes up with the control strategy of load shedding at the selected location with active power and relay margin criteria. In addition, Quasi Steady-State (QSS) simulation is employed to obtain time-related information that is valuable in the determination of control strategy. As a case study, an example applying the framework is shown with the modified New England 39-bus system.

This paper describes a reactive optimal power flow incorporating margin enhancement constraints. Margin sensitivity at a steady-state voltage instability point is calculated using invariant space parametric sensitivity, and it can provide valuable information for selection of effective control parameters. However, the weakest buses in neighboring regions have high margin sensitivities within a certain range. Hence, the control determination using only the sensitivity information might cause violation of operational limits of the base operating point, at which the control is applied to enhance voltage stability margin in the direction of parameter increase. This paper applies an interior point method (IPM) to solve the optimal power flow formulation with the margin enhancement constraints, and shunt capacitances are mainly considered as control variables. In addition, nonlinearity of margin enhancement with respect to control of shunt capacitance is considered for speed-up control determination in the numerical example using the IEEE 118-bus test system.

This paper presents the design and development of a scaled down physical model for power Distribution Automation (DA) system simulation. The developed DA system simulator is useful in providing hands-on experience to utility engineers / managers to familiarize with the DA system and gain confidence in managing the power distribution system from the computer aided distribution control center. The distribution automation system simulator can be effectively used to carry out further research work in this area. This also helps the undergraduate and graduate students to understands the power distribution automation technology in the laboratory environment. The developed DA simulator has become an integral part of a distribution automation lab in the Electrical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in India.

The effects of surge arresters for the protection of transmission systems against direct lightning strokes have already been reviewed by many researchers. However, their studies have not encompassed underground cable systems. Therefore, in this paper we investigate the 22.9kV combined distribution systems that have arresters and ground wires. In addition, we analyze the overvoltages on underground distribution cable sections when direct lightning strokes contact the overhead ground wire using EMTP. Finally, we discuss the effect of lightning strokes according to the change of cable length and installation of arresters. This study provides insulation coordination methods for reasonable system design in 22.9kV underground distribution cable systems.

This paper proposes an expert system that can enhance the accuracy of real-time bus reconfiguration strategy by adopting the local minimum tree search method and that can minimize the spreading effect of the fault by considering the operating condition when a main transformer fault occurs in an automated substation. The local minimum tree search method is used to expand the best-first search method. This method has the advantage that it can improve the solution performance within the limits of the real-time condition. The inference strategy proposed expert system consists of two stages. The first stage determines the switching candidate set by searching possible switching candidates starting from the main transformer or busbar related to the event. The second stage determines the rational real-time bus reconfiguration strategy based on heuristic rules from the obtained switching candidate set. Also, this paper proposes generalized distribution substation modeling using graph theory, and a substation database based on the study results is designed.

As the power industry moves towards open competition, there has been a call for methodology to evaluate power system reliability by using customer interruption costs. This paper presents an evaluation of the interruption costs for public customers in Korea using customer survey methodology. When various research results are examined, the evaluation of direct interruption costs becomes much more simplified. Especially, in the case of public customers, it is known that the evaluation of direct interruption costs is more useful. Accordingly, this paper selected the customer survey method to evaluate the interruption costs for public customers in Korea considering interruption and customer characteristics.

This paper proposes a new method to handle transmission line losses using loss distribution factors (LDF) rather than marginal loss factors (MLF) in electricity market operation. Under a competitive electricity market, the bidding data are adjusted to reflect transmission line losses. To date the most proposed approach is using MLFs. The MLFs are reflected to bidding prices and market clearing price during the trading and settlement of the electricity market. In the proposed algorithm, the LDFs are reflected to bidding quantities and actual generations/ loads. Computer simulations on a 9-bus sample system will verify the effectiveness of the algorithm proposed. Moreover, the proposed approach using LDFs does not make any payments residual while the approach using MLFs induces payments residual.

This paper proposes the level of price cap in the TWBP(Two- Way Bidding Pool) market in Korea for which the draft of market design has been prepared by KPX. Max - GMCP(Maximum Generation Market Clearing Price) and APC(Administered Price Cap) would be separately applied as individual price caps for a normal period and a Price Capping period in TWBP. The level of price cap is determined for inducing optimal investment in the Korean Electricity Market considering the 'electricity resource baseline plan' published by the Korean government in 2002 for maintaining government-leading resource planning in Korea. In this regard, Max - GMCP is calculated from the equilibrium condition of investment based on reliability standard and fixed cost of the peaking plant. For verifying the propriety of the proposed price cap, this paper compares the proposed value with the estimated VoLL(Value of Lost Load) based on Korea's GDP(Gross Domestic Product).