POWER SYSTEM CONFERENCE LOSS REDUCTION IN DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS USING NEW NETWORK RECONFIGURA TION

Network reconfiguration is an operation problem in configuration management which consists of the determination of switching operations to reach at minimum loss conditions of distribution networks. In this paper, a general formulation of network reconfiguration problem for loss minimization is given and a solution approach is presented for optimization of distribution loss reduction. The solution employs a search over different radial configurations created by considering branch exchange type switches. The solution algorithm for loss minimization has been developed based on the two stage solution methodology. The first stage of this solution algorithm finds a loop in the network which gives maximum loss reduction. A simple-to-use formula called loop loss reduction formula has been developed for this purpose. The second stage applies a proposed technique called distance-center technique to find a branch exchange which results in maximum loss reduction in the loop. Therefore, the solution algorithm of the proposed method can identify the most effective branch exchange operations for loss reduction with a minimum computational efforts. The solution algorithm of the proposed method has been tested on a 69bus radial distribution system with very promising results. Test results prove that real power loss is reduced significantly and the voltage profile of the network is considerably improved via proposed network reconfiguration for loss minimization. The proposed method eliminates the need to run numerous load flows as compared to the established method.