Event-Driven Deep RL Dispatcher for Post-Storm Distribution System Restoration

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Amani, Farshad, Ardali, Faezeh, Kargarian, Amin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Amani, Farshad
Ardali, Faezeh
Kargarian, Amin
author_facet Amani, Farshad
Ardali, Faezeh
Kargarian, Amin
contents Natural hazards such as hurricanes and floods damage power grid equipment, forcing operators to replan restoration repeatedly as new information becomes available. This paper develops a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) dispatcher that serves as a real-time decision engine for crew-to-repair assignments. We model restoration as a sequential, information-revealing process and learn an actor-critic policy over compact features such as component status, travel/repair times, crew availability, and marginal restoration value. A feasibility mask blocks unsafe or inoperable actions, such as power flow limits, switching rules, and crew-time constraints, before they are applied. To provide realistic runtime inputs without relying on heavy solvers, we use lightweight surrogates for wind and flood intensities, fragility-based failure, spatial clustering of damage, access impairments, and progressive ticket arrivals. In simulated hurricane and flood events, the learned policy updates crew decisions in real time as new field reports arrive. Because the runtime logic is lightweight, it improves online performance (energy-not-supplied, critical-load restoration time, and travel distance) compared with mixed-integer programs and standard heuristics. The proposed approach is tested on the IEEE 13- and 123-bus feeders with mixed hurricane/flood scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_10044
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Event-Driven Deep RL Dispatcher for Post-Storm Distribution System Restoration
Amani, Farshad
Ardali, Faezeh
Kargarian, Amin
Systems and Control
Natural hazards such as hurricanes and floods damage power grid equipment, forcing operators to replan restoration repeatedly as new information becomes available. This paper develops a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) dispatcher that serves as a real-time decision engine for crew-to-repair assignments. We model restoration as a sequential, information-revealing process and learn an actor-critic policy over compact features such as component status, travel/repair times, crew availability, and marginal restoration value. A feasibility mask blocks unsafe or inoperable actions, such as power flow limits, switching rules, and crew-time constraints, before they are applied. To provide realistic runtime inputs without relying on heavy solvers, we use lightweight surrogates for wind and flood intensities, fragility-based failure, spatial clustering of damage, access impairments, and progressive ticket arrivals. In simulated hurricane and flood events, the learned policy updates crew decisions in real time as new field reports arrive. Because the runtime logic is lightweight, it improves online performance (energy-not-supplied, critical-load restoration time, and travel distance) compared with mixed-integer programs and standard heuristics. The proposed approach is tested on the IEEE 13- and 123-bus feeders with mixed hurricane/flood scenarios.
title Event-Driven Deep RL Dispatcher for Post-Storm Distribution System Restoration
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10044