Modelling and analysis of the resilience of off grid power distribution networks for improved reliability performance
Abstract
Off grid systems are networks that are isolated from the national electricity transmission grid with small generation capacity and supply limited consumers through a distribution grid.
West Nile is a region in the north western part of uganda and is isolated from the uganda electricity transmission grid and WENRECo is the distribution company responsible for supply of electricity in the region. The network serves approximately 17000 customers in land area of 10792km2. Due to the networks large coverage and isolation from the main grid, the resilience and reliability of this network tends to be poor despite the existing protection measures.
This project therefore focuses on improving reliability if this network. In this study a root cause analysis is carried out to dertemine the major contributors to the power outages and the network is modelled in DigSient power factory software to obtain the system reliability indices at it's current state and with the proposed solutions. From the implemetation of proposed solutions, results indicate that addition of auto recloser switches to increase protection has a positive impact on the reliability and is more cost effective measure as compared to feeder configuration of the increased generation capacity.