Distribution Network Reconfiguration Together with Distributed Generator and Shunt Capacitor Allocation for Loss Minimization

Distribution network accounts for a significant amount of real power loss in the power system. Minimization of losses in the network is desirable for economical and efficient operation of the system. One way of loss minimization is the optimal reconfiguration of the distribution network by selecting appropriate network switches to open. These open switches are termed as tie switches. As distribution network construction is closed loop, the open tie switches ensure that the radial nature of distribution network is maintained. The power loss can also be reduced by adding distributed generators (DGs) and shunt capacitors (SCs) locally near to the load points. This paper proposes an approach to simultaneously reconfigure the network, size and place both DGs and SCs in the network to minimize real power loss. LSHADE-EpSin algorithm is employed to perform the optimization task. Success history based parameter adaptation technique of differential evolution (DE) is termed as SHADE. LSHADE is the linear population size reduction technique of SHADE. LSHADE-EpSin introduces an additional adaptation technique for a control parameter during initial search stage to improve exploration capability. Standard IEEE-33 and IEEE-69 bus systems are tested with the algorithms. The results are found to be encouraging when compared with some of the recent studies.