Fast and efficient placement of fault indicators based on the pattern search algorithm

This paper proposes a fast and efficient strategy to determine the number and locations of fault indicators (FI) in medium voltage distribution networks. The objective function takes into account the most important characteristics of the network such as topology, non-uniform failure rates of the lines as well as the power demand and number of customers. For seeking the minimum of the objective function, a straightforward algorithm based on the Pattern Search (PS) is developed. The methodology is tested on a real distribution network, showing its great potential to improve the reliability indices at the lowest investment costs.