Implementing Fault Location Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR) on Distribution Circuits with High DER Penetration – Strategies for Success
For several decades, electric distribution utilities have been able to achieve significant reliability improvements by quickly isolating faulted feeder sections and restoring power to healthy sections using FLISR on their distribution feeders. The growing penetration of DERs presents new challenges, such as load masking and incorrect fault location due to DER fault current contributions, that may impact the performance of these legacy systems. DER presence also provides opportunities for improved FLISR performance such as freeing capacity to permit load transfers on heavily loaded feeders and supporting islanded microgrids on isolated feeders that lack backup sources. The proposed tutorial will provide basic information on how FLISR works, equipment requirements, reliability improvement benefits obtained, and strategies for addressing the new challenges posed by DER presences and opportunities to leverage DERs for optimal performance.
The proposed tutorial targets distribution control center operators and field operation staff who are responsible for managing the electric distribution system, engineers who are responsible for distribution circuit design and DER connections, distribution automation and communication specialists, and other stakeholders that are focused on achieving high service reliability for the benefit of the utility’s customers.