Reconfiguration of distribution network using discrete particle swarm optimization to reduce voltage fluctuations

Abstract

Summary Reconfiguration of the distribution network (DN) is the changing of status of normally open and close switches for a specific purpose. In this paper, a situation is studied in which a fluctuating load (such as a welder) violates the network power quality (PQ) standards. Therefore, in order to mitigate the emission of the generated flicker, an optimization problem is developed for improving the PQ of the network comprising voltage flicker level and voltage profile in addition to the network power loss as a traditional objective of the DN reconfiguration. The optimization procedure is performed by changing the network configuration using tie and sectionalizing switches. Discrete particle swarm optimization is utilized to optimize the network configuration. The proposed method is evaluated in two DNs. IEEE standard 69‐bus DN and 95‐bus practical Iranian DN are considered as case study networks. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method for improving the network PQ, especially in case of voltage flicker. The presented studies and procedure will guide the utility engineers in making decisions associated with the choice of reasonable mitigation technique to overcome the identified PQ problems.

Comprehensive Review on Static and Dynamic Distribution Network Reconfiguration Methodologies

“…Moreover, reconfiguration can modify the harmonic current flow in branches in a way that the total harmonic distortion of busses [16] and harmonic losses [17] of the DN are improved. Furthermore, reconfiguration can decrease the voltage flicker [18] and the voltage sag [19] by changing the fault current path. Also, reconfiguration in a three-phase DN can improve voltage unbalance and related power losses by changing the phase loads [20,21].…”

Reconfiguration of harmonic polluted distribution network using modified discrete particle swarm optimization equipped with smart radial method

“…Authors in [26], investigated reconfiguration for power loss minimization in unbalanced DN. In [27], the effectiveness of DNR to improve PQ was researched, especially in the case of voltage flicker.…”

Behavior analysis of new bio‐inspired metaheuristics to solve distribution network reconfiguration problem under different radiality constraints representation

“…Although not enough, this is usually considered as an initial condition in the majority of DNR models that are solved through heuristics and metaheuristics, such as in Souza et al, 37 Pegado et al, 9 and Zhan et al 38 To overcome this, a second condition can be adopted, such as the determinant of the incidence matrix of the system in the new configuration, 15 checking if the current topology guarantees that there is only one way between the source bus and the terminal busses. This last model (determinant) is widely used, as presented in Abdelaziz et al, 8 Rahimi Pour Behbahani et al, 39 and Bagheri Tolabi et al, 40 where it is the only condition considered to assure radiality. Slightly variations of the use of incidence matrix or the total busses ‐ 1 are also presented, such as in Jakus et al 41 There are also some papers that suggest the use of a set of prohibited vectors, indicating switches that tend to island some busses of the system, as in Swarnkar et al 42 Other methods, such as “path‐to‐node,” 43,44 graph theory, 45,46 and depth first‐search (DFS) 47 are also studied in the literature.…”