Q7Power System - I
Question
Q.7. Explain the difference between feeder and distributor.
Answer
A feeder is a conductor that carries bulk power from a substation to a load area without any direct tapping/loads connected along its length, whereas a distributor has loads (service connections) tapped off at multiple points along its length, causing its current to vary from point to point.
A feeder is a distribution conductor that carries power in bulk from the substation or distribution transformer to a load center or distributor, without any consumer service connections (loads) tapped directly off it along its route — as a result, the current flowing through a feeder is uniform along its entire length, and it is designed based on current-carrying capacity rather than voltage-drop considerations. A distributor, on the other hand, has numerous consumer service connections tapped off at various points along its length to supply individual consumers directly, so the current in a distributor decreases progressively along its length as successive loads are tapped off, and it must be designed considering the permissible voltage drop to the farthest consumer as the primary constraint, since the cumulative voltage drop along the tapped loads is the design-limiting factor rather than raw current-carrying capacity.