A COMBINED ENGINEERING AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL LOSSES IN THE SECONDARY DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

A significant portion of the system losses occur in the low voltage (secondary) section of the distribution system. This loss increases with the distribution expansion, and it becomes worse if the expansion is unplanned and poorly executed, and the network is poorly maintained. The loss results in economic cost to the country and financial costs to the utility. Therefore, the need to embark on a carefully planned loss reduction program. To achieve this, however, loss evaluation and cost-benefit analysis of the several possible measures for reducing losses have to be carried out to arrive at an optimum solution to the problem. This paper concentrates on this aspect of loss computation and economic analysis in the secondary distribution network. It presents a method for evaluating the improvement needs of an AF14inefficient low voltage distribution circuit by assessing the effectiveness of the different combinations of the various loss reduction measures taking into consideration their cost and benefit implications.