An evolutionary approach for optimal time interval determination in distribution network reconfiguration under variable load

Power loss is one of the most important issues when dealing with distribution networks. Due to the nature of power loss, it can be an inseparable part of these networks. This is while an optimal reconfiguration is a great optimization procedure to power loss reduction in distribution networks. Moreover, to perform optimal dynamic reconfiguration, determining optimal time intervals and detecting the most proper time points greatly affects the total benefit achieved from this process. This benefit includes the cost of reconfiguration and the benefit of power loss reduction. This paper proposes an evolutionary approach for optimal time interval determination. In this paper basic reconfiguration models are discussed to form an optimal time interval model gradually. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to solve the suggested model while the proposed method is implemented on an IEEE-33 Bus network. In order to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method, a comparison is done with other similar procedures. Also, in order to validate the numerical results, further compression is done with a method using a Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) algorithm rather than the GA. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.