Distribution Network Reconfiguration Considering Protection Coordination Constraints

The issue of protection system coordination in reconfigurable distribution systems is dealt with in this article. The protection coordination requirement restricts the changes in the power-flow direction through the distribution lines and drastically reduces the search space to be explored by the network reconfiguration algorithms. Moreover, the protection system for the reconfigurable distribution network has to be designed considering all permissible configurations of the network. This article illustrates the protection design procedure through a test network and presents a network reconfiguration algorithm incorporating the protection coordination constraints.