How to Identify the Incoming Station Disconnect MV Device in Distribution Substations?

[JohnGoat]

Hi,

I have a Distribution Substation that contains 5 Substation Bays. In this Distribution Substation, the incoming energy enters through Bay No. 1, and I would like to identify the Station Disconnect MV device located in this bay.

I know that this cannot be solved with a single trace, since there are nearly 300 Distribution Substations in the network. Is it possible to perform traces separately for each substation and automatically write the identified device information into an attribute field of the object? My goal is to detect only the input cells.

What kind of workflow or approach would you recommend for this?

[MikeMillerGIS · Accepted solution]

If you place a trace flag on the busbar and trace upstream, with a filter barrier set up to stop at the switch, does that identify your input switch?

If so, you could select all busbar and pass them into batch trace

https://esri.github.io/Utility-Data-Management-Support-Tools/docs/3.5/BatchTrace.html

If the trace returns busbar, there is an optimization in batch trace that if a input trace feature is returned it wont trace it again.  

The batch trace could write out aggregate geo.  These points can then be used to spatially select your input switches.

[JohnGoat]

Thank you @MikeMillerGIS When I did as you said, I found the devices in the entrance direction.

[gis_KIWI4]

@JohnGoat  - Mike has covered one way of doing this. I would like to suggest another way. 

You would create a selection of all devices within a distribution bay and add all of them as barriers. 

Start a trace from the highest point in your network maybe a zone substation or grid exit point. 

Run a downstream trace from there and enable the return barriers option in trace config and set an output filter for the type of distribution bay device you are looking for. 

[JohnGoat]

Hi,

Yes, this is an option, but since the line from one center continues to the next, it's impossible to find them throughout the entire network. Thank you for your interest.

[VeerSingh]

Hello @JohnGoat 

you can try this 

1. Starting Point: Set the trace's starting point to the Subnetwork Controller feature (the transformer terminal).
2. Trace Type: Use a "Downstream" or "Downstream Protective" trace.
3. Add a Condition (to isolate the first device): The goal is to stop the trace immediately after the first device. You can do this by limiting the number of features returned or using a function barrier.
• Option A - Count Barrier: Set a function barrier to stop after a certain number of features (e.g., StopCondition: Count = 3 to get the controller, the connecting junction, and the disconnect).
• Option B - Attribute Barrier (More Precise): Use a function barrier to stop at the first Asset Type that represents a switch or breaker.
• Stop Condition: AssetType = 'Breaker' OR AssetType = 'LoadBreakSwitch'

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-utility-network-questions/how-to-filter-trace-configuration-fea...