Application of priority and delayqueuing system in non-stationary modes to determine the required number of repair personnel in rural distribution electric networks

The paper considers the possibility of using a queuing system to determine the required number of repair and maintenance personnel in the event of mass failures in rural distribution electric networks. In this case, the separation of requirements for restoring failures (requests) into priority and secondary is used. The multi-channel queuing system is used with two priority levels, with the delay of both priority requests and secondary requests. The algorithm has been developed for composing a system of differential equations describing a given queuing system. The system of differential equations is solved by numerical methods, and, using a specially developed algorithm, based on the results of the solution for a given point in time, the required number of repair personnel is estimated based on such parameters as the probability of queuing and the average waiting time of requests in the queue. The developed algorithms have been implemented in software; the necessary number of repair personnel has been calculated with their use, as well as on the basis of statistical data on failures in rural distribution electric networks. Assessment of the intensity of the flow of priority and secondary requests has been carried out by two methods. In the first method the data from the dispatcher’s record book or acts of investigation of technological disturbances have been used. Failures were divided by such parameters as reliability categories of power supply for cut-off consumers, volume of cut-off load and social significance of cut-off objects. In the second method, those requests that could be fixed by the forces of the field service teams were priority, the remaining requests were considered secondary.