Decision Criteria for Rehabilitation of the Distribution Network

The decision criteria described in this paper constitute a method to plan rehabilitation of segments of the distribution network. Rehabilitation reduces the operating costs of an existing area of telephone outside plant through improvements in local network design, administration, and hardware. In operating costs, we include the repair costs to correct periodic failures in components of the network, as well as the costs of connecting the network to customers requesting service. Figure 1 outlines the principal steps in this methodology. First, segments of the network with high operating costs are identified through monitoring and data tracking systems. This function provides the candidate areas for rehabilitation. For a given high-cost area, several improvement alternatives are then proposed. These alternatives differ in the investment costs they require and the expected savings they produce in future operating costs. The alternatives are designed economically to exploit the capacity and the remaining life of the existing facilities in the network. Section II presents the guidelines to develop the alternatives. The proposed improvement alternatives, along with a status quo alternative, are evaluated using economic indices such as the net present value and the benefit-to-cost ratio. 881