Abstract
This paper develops a knowledge-based approach for allocating power circuits to duplicate-busbar switching substations. Rules for the determination of the best circuit arrangements for groups of circuits and an overall allocation scheme generation algorithm using the strategy of least reduction in power security are developed. The allocation schemes determined by the algorithm are tested by the islanding constraints for validity. The rules and procedures for islanding constraint checking are also derived in the paper. The software system implementing the developed method using Prolog is applied to a 132 kV substation and the results are presented.