Open Access

Marc Trageser, Marc Pape, Kira Frings, Philipp Erlinghagen, Marcel Kurth, Chris Martin Vertgewall, Antonello Monti, Timo Busse

• The energy transition in Europe is bringing a high number of decentralized generation units and new types of loads. This change in the load structure increases the complexity of planning processes, creating a need to reinforce and expand electrical distribution grids. Automating planning processes can help to accelerate and optimize expansion and reinforcement measures. This paper presents a modular method for automated routing based on rendered images of geographic maps and territory information in medium- and low-voltage grids with regards to economic factors and technical requirements. Optimized routes are determined on the basis of geographic information and under consideration of underground construction costs for cables depending on ground characteristics. Subsequently, the generated synthetic grids are benchmarked against real low-voltage grids of a German grid operator, Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH. The geographical comparison shows a significant reduction of trenches and cables. The comparison of the power flow results shows similar line loads and voltage bands for the synthetic and the real grids. This comparison with real grids confirms that the developed method is suitable for the automated planning of routes and configuration of feeders and thus it is an important contribution to automate the planning processes in distribution grids.