Design of power substation placement with GIS tracing tools

Abstract

Analytical methods that are currently used to determine transformer substation placement in the process of planning the development of low-voltage distribution networks are based on calculating the lengths of future power lines by Euclidean distance, or methods for comparing several alternative placement options taking into account the routes of power lines. Assumptions made in this case lead to the fact that for the selected location of the substation, the total cost of the power lines connected to it may exceed the possible minimum. The use of modern GIS technologies allows simulating the routes of laying power lines on the map bypassing the existing obstacles or finding the cheapest routes for crossing them. These opportunities can be used to improve the quality of designing urban distribution networks through minimizing the construction cost of new power lines. However, the methods of organizing the solution to such a design problem have not yet found practical applications. The aim of the work is to develop a practical method of designing the placement of power substations in the GIS environment and its verification using real data. The paper uses methods of spatial modeling in the GIS environment, including methods of overlay, finding optimal paths on graphs and power grid inventory, as well as discrete optimization methods. A method of computer-aided design of transformer substation placement in urban distribution low-voltage networks is proposed and implemented as a GIS software module, which allows finding the optimal options of the placement cost at the stages of network scheme selection. The paper presents the results of the method analysis based on studying the design of the power grid scheme of Ivanovo city quarters as an example. The results confirm the possibility of using GIS to improve the quality of decisions on the choice of placement of low voltage distribution substations when designing urban electrical networks and can be used in the electrical networks CAD.