On Exploring Potential Reliability Gains under Islanding Operation of Distributed Generation

The paper presents a subislanding approach based on two algorithms, a backtracking algorithm, which is used to detect the exact location of distributed generation based on renewable energy sources (DGRESs) to establish subislands in the distribution networks and a protection co-ordination algorithm, which is used to identify the fault location. The IEEE reliability busbar test system is used for algorithm qualification, with several case studies and sensitivity analyses employed to verify the proposed algorithms. The probabilistic-based analytical technique along with the customer interruption cost model is then used to evaluate reliability improvements. The results presented in the paper indicate that the proposed approach is effective in increasing the reliability of power distribution systems with high penetration of DGRESs while providing an online reliability assessment.