Optimal management of vegetation maintenance and the associated costs of its implementation in overhead power distribution systems

Abstract

Network operators work constantly to maintain an appropriate level of reliability in their power supply and to preserve the integrity of the vegetation growing underneath overhead power distribution systems. Accordingly, this article proposes and adopts different approaches to optimally manage vegetation maintenance in such field. Mathematical modeling is used to represent the problem in terms of several aspects involved in vegetation management, based on the technical capacity of the utility company and the reliability goals established by governmental regulatory entities. The solution is a vegetation maintenance schedule in terms of when, where, and which crews must perform the pruning activities along the distribution network. As a result, the Non-Served Energy Level NSEL is minimized and the financial resources earmarked for this type of maintenance tasks are optimized.

Prioritization of Medium-Voltage Wiring Actions With Artificial Intelligence Algorithm

“…A group of maintenance actions aimed at medium-voltage wiring (MVW) is comprised of spacer cable (SC), phase separator (PS) and tree pruning (TP). By taking such actions, imminent power interruptions and damages to power equipment and customers are mitigated or even avoided (J. S. Correa-Tamayo et al, 2019). Consequently, significant gains are reflected on quality of service indexes DEC and FEC (ANEEL, 2018), which are Brazilian equivalent indexes for SAIDI and SAIFI, respectively.…”