A Decision Support System for Planning and Operation of Maintenance and Customer Services in Electric Power Distribution Systems

This chapter aims to present the design and development of a decision support system (DSS) for the analysis, simulation, planning, and operation of maintenance and customer services in electric power distribution system (EPDS). The main objective of the DSS is to improve the decision‐making processes through visualization tools and simulation of real cases in the EPDS, in order to allow better planning in the short, medium, and long term. Therefore, the DSS helps managers and decision‐makers to reduce maintenance and operational costs, to improve system reliability, and to analyze new scenarios and conditions for system expansion planning. First, we introduce the key challenges faced by the decision‐makers in the planning and operation of maintenance and customer services in EPDS. Next, we discuss the benefits and the requirements for the DSS design and development, including use cases modeling and the software architecture. Afterwards, we present the capabilities of the DSS and discuss important decisions made during the implementation phases. We conclude the chapter with a discussion about the obtained results, pointing out the possible enhancements of the DSS, future extensions, and new use cases that may be addressed

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Smart Grids: Present and Future Research Domains

—In the last decade, Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been applied overwhelmingly in various research domains in the context of smart grid. It has been one of the main streams of advanced technological approaches that the research community offered for developing smart grids. However, the broad scope of the subject matter launch complexity for scholars to identify effective research approaches. In this paper, we present a literature review about utilizing AI in the key elements of smart grids including grid-connected vehicles, data-driven components, and the power system network. This will result in highlighting technical challenges of the integration of electric vehicles to the grid and the power network operation as well. Moreover, we discuss the four key research areas in the context of AI and its applications in intelligent power grids. The proposed research fields aid PhD candidates to consider these areas as the promising domains for investigation