Feeder reconfiguration and capacitor setting for loss reduction of distribution systems

The stress to elevate overall efficiency has forced utilities to look for greater efficiency in electric power distribution, This study presents an effective approach to feeder reconfiguration and capacitor settings for power-loss reduction and voltage profile enhancement in distribution systems. The optimization technique of simulated annealing (SA) can be relied on to solve the problem efficiently. The merit of the method is that it can provide a global or near-global optimum for feeder reconfiguration and capacitor settings. The objective of this study is to recognize beneficial load transfer, to take the objective function composed of power losses be minimized and voltage limits be satisfied. The proposed approach is demonstrated by employing an IEEE illustrative example. Computational results show that by taking into account feeder reconfiguration and capacitor settings simultaneously, one can minimize losses more efficiently than by considering them separately. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.