A new approach for feeder reconfiguration to minimize distribution system loss

USTRACTThis paper presents a new method t o reduce the distribution system loss by feeder reconfiguration. The performance index (PI), which has been used by contingency ranking for transmission systems, is used to estimate the capability of real power loss reduction for each switching operation. By this method, the system loss can be solved very quickly as compared with the method of conventional three phase load flow analysis. It is important from the view point of computing time required because so many possible switching combinations are involved during the process to achieve the loss minimization of distribution systems. After calculating the PI value of all possible switching operations, two stage searching approach instead of conventional binary integer programming (BIP) is proposed to solve the optimal switching process for distribution systems. The evaluation function used to represent system loss reduction is derived and the depth first search algorithm is then applied to find the search level with the largest effect of loss reduction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a practical distribution systems of Taiwan Power Company is selected for computer simulation. It is found that the feeder reconfiguration can be easily solved to result in system loss minimization with much less computing effort as compared with the previous works presented.