This thesis proposes a formalism to analyse and automatically exploit sequences of events, which are related with faults occurred in power distribution networks and are recorded by power quality monitors at substations. This formalism allows to find dependencies or relationships among events, looking for meaningful patterns. Once those patterns are found, they can be used to better describe fault situations and their temporal evolution or can be also useful to predict future failures by recognising the events that match the early stages of a pattern. / En aquesta tesi es proposa un formalisme per analitzar conjunts de dades d'esdeveniments relacionats amb les fallades que es produeixen en les xarxes de distribució elèctrica, i explotar automàticament seqüències d'esdeveniments registrats pels monitors de qualitat d'ona instal•lats en substacions. Aquest formalisme permet cercar dependencies o relacions entre esdeveniments per trobar patrons significatius. Quan els patrons es troben, es poden utilitzar per descriure millor les situacions de fallada i la seva evolució. Els patrons també poden ser útils per a predir fallades futures mitjançant el reconeixement dels successos que coincideixin amb les primeres etapes d'un patró.

Pour faire face aux mutations du paysage énergétique, les réseaux de distribution d'électricité sont soumis à des exigences de fonctionnement avec des indices de fiabilité à garantir. Dans les années à venir, de grands investissements sont prévus pour la construction des réseaux électriques flexibles, cohérents et efficaces, basés sur de nouvelles architectures et des solutions techniques innovantes, adaptatifs à l'essor des énergies renouvelables. En prenant en compte ces besoins industriels sur le développement des réseaux de distribution du futur, nous proposons, dans cette thèse, une approche reposant sur la théorie des graphes et l'optimisation combinatoire pour la conception de nouvelles architectures pour les réseaux de distribution. Notre démarche consiste à étudier le problème général de recherche d'une architecture optimale qui respecte l'ensemble de contraintes topologiques (redondance) et électrotechniques (courant maximal, plan de tension) selon des critères d'optimisation bien précis : minimisation du coût d'exploitation (OPEX) et minimisation de l'investissement (CAPEX). Ainsi donc, les deux familles des problèmes combinatoires (et leurs relaxations) ont été explorées pour proposer des résolutions efficaces (exactes ou approchées) du problème de planification des réseaux de distribution en utilisant une formulation adaptée. Nous nous sommes intéressés particulièrement aux graphes 2-connexes et au problème de flot arborescent avec pertes quadratiques minimales. Les résultats comparatifs de tests sur les instances de réseaux (fictifs et réels) pour les méthodes proposées ont été présentés. / To cope with the changes in the energy landscape, electrical distribution networks are submitted to operational requirements in order to guarantee reliability indices. In the coming years, big investments are planned for the construction of flexible, consistent and effective electrical networks, based on the new architectures, innovative technical solutions and in response to the development of renewable energy. Taking into account the industrial needs of the development of future distribution networks, we propose in this thesis an approach based on the graph theory and combinatorial optimization for the design of new architectures for distribution networks. Our approach is to study the general problem of finding an optimal architecture which respects a set of topological (redundancy) and electrical (maximum current, voltage plan) constraints according to precise optimization criteria: minimization of operating cost (OPEX) and minimization of investment (CAPEX). Thus, the two families of combinatorial problems (and their relaxations) were explored to propose effective resolutions (exact or approximate) of the distribution network planning problem using an adapted formulation. We are particularly interested in 2-connected graphs and the arborescent flow problem with minimum quadratic losses. The comparative results of tests on the network instances (fictional and real) for the proposed methods were presented.

Water distribution networks are a fundamental part of any modern city and their daily operations constitute a significant expenditure in terms of energy and maintenance costs. Careful scheduling of pump operations may lead to significant energy savings and prevent wear and tear. By means of computer simulation, an optimal schedule of pumps can be found by an optimisation algorithm. The subject of this thesis is the study of pump scheduling as an optimisation problem. New representations of pump schedules are investigated for restricting the number of potential schedules. Recombination and mutation operators are proposed, in order to use the new representations in evolutionary algorithms. These new representations are empirically compared to traditional representations using different network instances, one of them being a large and complex network from UK. By means of the new representations, the evolutionary algorithm developed during this thesis finds new best-known solutions for both networks. Pump scheduling as the multi-objective problem of minimising energy and maintenance costs in terms of Pareto optimality is also investigated in this thesis. Two alternative surrogate measures of maintenance cost are considered: the minimisation of the number of pump switches and the maximisation of the shortest idle time. A single run of the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm obtains pump schedules with lower electrical cost and lower number of pump switches than those found in the literature. Alternatively, schedules with very long idle times may be found with slightly higher electrical cost. Finally, ant colony optimisation is also adapted to the pump scheduling problem. Both Ant System and Max-Min Ant System are tested. Max-Min Ant System, in particular, outperforms all other algorithms in the large real-world network instance and obtains competitive results in the smallest test network. Computation time is further reduced by parallel simulation of pump schedules.

Continued increase in system load leading to a reduction in operating margins, as well as the tendency to move towards a deregulated grid with renewable energy sources has increased the vulnerability of the grid to blackouts. Advanced intelligent techniques are therefore required to design new monitoring schemes that enable smart grid operation in a secure and robust manner. As the grid is highly interconnected, monitoring of transmission and distribution systems is increasingly relying on digital communication. Conventional security assessment techniques are slow, hampering real-time decision making. Hence, there is a need to develop fast and accurate security monitoring techniques. Intelligent techniques that are capable of processing large amounts of captured data are finding increasing scope as essential enablers for the smart grid. The research work presented in this thesis has evolved from the need for enhanced monitoring in transmission and distribution grids. The potential of intelligent techniques for enhanced system monitoring has been demonstrated for disturbed scenarios in an integrated power system. In transmission grids, one of the challenging problems is network partitioning, also known as network area-decomposition. In this thesis, an approach based on relative electrical distance (RED) has been devised to construct zonal dynamic equivalents such that the dynamic characteristics of the original system are retained in the equivalent system within the desired accuracy. Identification of coherent generators is another key aspect in power system dynamics. In this thesis, a support vector clustering-based coherency identification technique is proposed for large interconnected multi-machine power systems. The clustering technique is based on coherency measure which is formulated using the generator rotor measurements. These rotor measurements can be obtained with the help of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). In distribution grids, accurate and fast fault identification of faults is a key challenge. Hence, an automated fault diagnosis technique based on multi class support vector machines (SVMs) has been developed in this thesis. The proposed fault location scheme is capable of accurately identify the fault type, location of faulted line section and the fault impedance in the distributed generation (DG) systems. The proposed approach is based on the three phase voltage and current measurements available at all the sources i.e. substation and at the connection points of DGs. An approach for voltage instability monitoring in 3-phase distribution systems has also been proposed in this thesis. The conventional single phase L-index measure has been extended to a 3-phase system to incorporate information pertaining to unbalance in the distribution system. All the approaches proposed in this thesis have been validated using standard IEEE test systems and also on practical Indian systems.

We study Social Groups consisting of self-interested inter-connected nodes looking for common content. We can observe Social Groups in various socio-technological networks, such as Cellular Network assisted Device-to-Device communications, Cloud assisted Peer-to-Peer Networks, hybrid Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Networks and Direct Connect Networks. Each node wants to acquire a universe of segments at least cost. Nodes can either access an expensive link to the content distributor for downloading data segments, or use the well-connected low cost inter-node network for exchanging segments among themselves. Activation of an inter-node link requires cooperation among the participating nodes and reduces the cost of downloading for the nodes. However, due to uploading costs, Non-Reciprocating Nodes are reluctant to upload segments, in spite of their interest in downloading segments from others. We define the Give-and-Take (GT) criterion, which prohibits non-reciprocating behaviour in Social Groups for all nodes at all instants. In the “Full Exchange” case studied, two nodes can exchange copies of their entire segment sets, if each node gains at least one new segment from the other. Incorporating the GT criterion in the Social Group, we study the problem of downloading the universe at least cost, from the perspective of a new node having no data segments. We analyze this NP-hard problem, and propose algorithms for choosing the initial segments to be downloaded from the content distributor and the sequence of nodes for exchange. We compare the performance of these algorithms with a few existing P2P downloading strategies in terms of cost and running time. In the second problem, we attempt to reduce the load on the content distributor by choosing a schedule of inter-node link activations such that the number of nodes with the universe is maximized. Link activation decisions are taken by a central entity, the facilitator, for achieving the social optimum. We present the asymptotically optimal Randomized algorithm. We also present other algorithms, such as the Greedy Links algorithm and the Polygon algorithm, which are optimal under special scenarios of interest. We compare the performances of all proposed algorithms with the optimal value of the objective. We observe that computationally intensive algorithms exhibit better performance. Further, we consider the problem of decentralized scheduling of links. The decisions of link activations are made by the participating nodes in a distributed manner. While conforming to the GT criterion for inter-node exchanges, each node's objective is to maximize its utility. Each node tries to find a pairing partner by preferentially exploring nodes for link formation. Unpaired nodes choose to download a segment using the expensive link with Segment Aggressiveness Probability (SAP). We present linear complexity decentralized algorithms for nodes to choose their best strategy. We present a decentralized randomized algorithm that works in the absence of the facilitator and performs close to optimal for large number of nodes. We define the Price of Choice to benchmark performance of Social Groups (consisting of non-aggressive nodes) with the optimal. We evaluate the performance of various algorithms and characterize the behavioural regime that will yield best results for node and Social Group as well.

Advances in information technology in the past two decades have seen innovations in the field of domestic and industrial computing that led to a paradigm shift in the management and operation of urban water systems by water utility companies. The traditional public management policy that focused on ensuring a minimum quality of service regardless of the costs associated with the processes of catchment, treatment and distribution of water, in many cases even unknown, have evolved towards more efficient cost sensitive models. These new wholly or partly public funded management systems improve not only the quality of service offered to users, but also optimize resources by reducing the cost and causing the minimum environmental impact. The new challenges raised by the European Water Framework1 Directive by imposing cost recovery to improve water efficiency and environmental sustainability have led to a significant change at all levels of water management. Consequently, new priorities have been established in terms of infrastructure management that require the reduction of water losses and the improvement of the water efficiency in urban networks for human consumption. Likewise, in a broader context which includes the water--energy binomial, it is also desirable to improve the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of these systems. Today, network sectoring is the most commonly used strategy to improve management and increase network performance. It basically consists of dividing the network into several smaller hydraulic sectors, where water inlets and outlets are perfectly controlled. This simplifies the task of carrying out periodic water balances in each of the sectors, and allows water loss volume to be assessed for a given period of time. As configuring network sectors is not a trivial task, it is therefore important to have appropriate tools to perform the task efficiently and effectively. Mathematical models can play an important role as decision support tools to help water managers assess the performance of water network distribution systems. This thesis aims to address the current problems of managing urban water networks by combining new information-processing technologies with innovative network modelling techniques. It intends to facilitate the system diagnosis and extend the use of models on the decision-making process to provide better solutions to the management of urban water networks. For this purpose a software extension that works on a geographic information system (GIS) has been developed. It integrates: the hydraulic and water quality simulation program EPANET 2, innovative tools for model analysis and diagnostic, automatic tools for sectoring and computing tools to conduct water balances in the sectors using actual measurements. The work demonstrates the compatibility and complementarity of GIS and hydraulic models as technologies that can be used to support the assessment and diagnosis of water distribution networks. Considering that the majority of information linked to the network system has some geographic reference, it is not surprising that GIS has become a popular tool for dealing with such information. At the same time, the integration of mathematical modelling and simulation tools, offers the GIS a new dimension in the realm of hydraulic study of water networks. Furthermore, if this specific integration is provided with new features aimed not only to facilitate the model building, but also to assist the user in decision-making using powerful algorithms based on the application of the graph theory, the result is a powerful up-to-date analytical tool, which opens up new possibilities in the field of management and efficient operation of urban water supply systems. / Bartolín Ayala, HJ. (2013). Confección de modelos de redes de distribución de agua desde un Sig y desarrollo de herramientas de apoyo a la toma de decisiones [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/33152 / TESIS