Post-disaster Repair Scheduling in Partially Automated Electricity Distribution Networks

TL;DR

This paper addresses the complex problem of scheduling repairs in electricity distribution networks after disasters, proposing algorithms that leverage the network's structure to optimize energization times.

Contribution

It introduces an LP-based list scheduling algorithm and a conversion method tailored for repair scheduling with group soft precedence constraints.

Findings

Proposed algorithms have proven theoretical performance bounds.

Algorithms effectively reduce total energization time in simulated scenarios.

The approach leverages the small number of switches relative to edges.

Abstract

Natural disasters require repairing all damaged components in electricity distribution networks. Optimal scheduling repair crews to minimize the aggregate duration of interruptions reduces the harm. We consider the fact that the number of switches is much smaller than the number of edges. The problem is modeled by a parallel identical machine scheduling with group soft precedence constraints to minimize the total weighted energization time. We propose an LP-based list scheduling algorithm and a conversion algorithm and analyze their theoretical performances.