A Fuzzy based Crew Selection and Dispatch System for Distribution System Restoration after Natural Disasters

Abstract

Distribution systems are very vulnerable to natural disasters due to the high exposure of weather on the distribution system equipment. Natural disasters cause multiple outages which can includes equipment and infrastructure damage. A damaged region consists of multiple equipment damages with different severity levels. Therefore, distribution system restoration becomes a difficult task due to limitation of resources and repair crew abilities. Crew selection to repair a damaged region and crew dispatch are major problems during the restoration process. In this paper, a novel method is developed to evaluate the crew abilities to repair damaged regions based on fuzzy theory. The paper also presents the methods for prioritization of damaged regions and the subsequent crew dispatch to repair the damaged region subject to the different constraints.