Feeders, distribution transformers, reclosers, sectionalizers, underground and network systems, rural distribution, and the smart grid — how a utility engineers and operates the radial network that actually delivers power to the meter.
This module picks up where Module 6's transmission line ends: at the distribution substation, where primary voltage fans out onto the radial feeder network. You'll work through feeder voltage regulation, how distribution transformers are sized against coincident rather than individual peak load, the recloser-and-sectionalizer protection scheme that restores most faults automatically, and the very different reliability trade-offs behind underground, network, and rural distribution architectures.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why distributed solar generation on a feeder can quietly invalidate protection coordination and voltage-regulation settings that were designed assuming power only ever flows one direction — the exact question a DER interconnection screening study is built to answer.