Determining the voltage dip susceptibility factor for distribution networks

A new customer setting up a voltage dip sensitive plant has to be content with whatever the utility can supply. Obtaining enough information about a distribution network's performance would require voltage dip measurements at a few places in the network for at least three years. For this reason a new method is proposed in this article. By using the existing information on a network, like the amount of lightning strikes per year, the number of electrocuted birds, the type of protection used etc. the fuzzy logic principle can be used to determine how susceptible a network is for voltage dips, by determining the favourable and unfavourable conditions for a number of membership functions. This article will look at some of the important factors influencing voltage dips, and use these in a fuzzy logic program to determine the voltage dip risk factor (susceptibility factor) for new customers setting up a plant in a specific network.