For accommodating more electric vehicles (EVs) to battle against fossil fuel emission, the problem of charging station placement is inevitable and could be costly if done improperly. Research considers a general setup using conditions such as driving ranges for planning. However, most of the EV growths in the next decades will happen in urban areas where driving range is not the biggest concern. For such a need, we consider several practical aspects of urban systems, such as voltage regulation cost and protection device upgrade resulting from the large integration of EVs. Notably, our diversified objective can reveal the trade-off between different factors in different cities worldwide. To understand the global optimum of large-scale analysis, we studied each feature to preserve the problem convexity. Our sensitivity analysis before and after convexification shows that our approach is not only universally applicable but also has a small approximation error for prioritizing the most urgent constraint in a specific setup. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the trade-off, the relationship between different factors and the global objective, and the small approximation error. A unique observation in this paper shows the importance of incorporating the protection device upgrade in urban system planning on charging stations.

The high impedance fault (HIF) has random, irregular, and unsymmetrical characteristics, making such a fault difficult to detect in distribution grids via conventional relay measurements with relatively low resolution and accuracy. This paper proposes a stochastic HIF monitoring and location scheme using high-resolution time-synchronized data in $\mu $ -PMUs for distribution network protection. Specifically, we systematically design a process based on feature selections, semi-supervised learning (SSL), and probabilistic learning for fault detection and location. For example, a wrapper method is proposed to leverage output data in feature selection to avoid overfitting and reduce communication demand. To utilize unlabeled data and quantify uncertainties, an SSL-based method is proposed using the information theory for fault detection. For location, a probabilistic analysis is proposed via moving window total least square based on the probability distribution of the fault impedance. For numerical validation, we set up an experiment platform based on the real-time simulator, so that the real-time property of $\mu $ -PMU can be examined. Such experiment shows enhanced HIF detection and location, when compared to the traditional methods.

High impedance fault (HIF) has been a challenging task to detect in distribution networks. On one hand, although several types of HIF models are available for HIF study, they are still not exhibiting satisfactory fault waveforms. On the other hand, utilizing historical data has been a trend recently for using machine learning methods to improve HIF detection. Nonetheless, most proposed methodologies address the HIF issue starting with investigating a limited group of features and can hardly provide a practical and implementable solution. This paper, however, proposes a systematic design of feature extraction, based on an HIF detection and classification method. For example, features are extracted according to when, how long, and what magnitude the fault events create. Complementary power expert information is also integrated into the feature pools. Subsequently, we propose a ranking procedure in the feature pool for balancing the information gain and the complexity to avoid over-fitting. For implementing the framework, we create an HIF detection logic from a practical perspective. Numerical methods show the proposed HIF detector has very high dependability and security performance under multiple fault scenarios comparing with other traditional methods.

Future distribution systems are faced with more challenges on islanding detection due to the increasing penetration level of inverter-based distributed generators (DGs). Different DG technologies, inverter control as well as other advanced inverter functions such as fault ride through are challenging the capability of islanding detection schemes. On the other hand, for multiple feeders network, topological change of feeders and islanding at adjacent feeder increase the vulnerability of islanding detection devices. Furthermore, available islanding detection schemes are suffering from notable non-detection zones (NDZs) under reduced power mismatches. Therefore, to mitigate these issues, this paper proposes an effective methodology for building decision trees (DTs) based intelligent relay (IR). This methodology utilizes the NDZ boundaries of existing standard relays and applies a comprehensive training/testing strategy, which effectively reduces the NDZ while maintaining a superior dependability and security performance. To validate the applicability of the proposed methodology, the hardware-in-the-loop simulations are realized by programming the generated IR logics into a real commercial relay.