A practical probabilistic design procedure for LV residential distribution systems

Two basic types of low voltage (LV) distribution exist in practice. The systems based on the European approach have long LV feeders whose sizing requires more careful design consideration than systems based on North American practice with shorter LV feeders. The most important criterion in conductor sizing is the correct estimation of the design loads. This paper describes the development and application of a probabilistic design method based on the Beta probability density function (pdf). The paper investigates an approximate approach for estimating load parameters in countries where a large load database is not available. This approach estimates the Beta parameters from the group after-diversity-maximum-demand (ADMD) for the customers. Index Terms--Load modeling, low-voltage (LV) distribution, probabilistic methods.