An improved tabu search approach to distribution network expansion planning under new environment

This paper proposes an efficient method for distribution network expansion planning under new environment. The proposed method optimizes the distribution network expansion planning with two-layered tabu search that considers different neighborhood creation. In this paper, a new network expansion planning method is presented to consider distributed generation and the outage cost in distribution systems. The problem formulation may be expressed as a more complicated combinatorial optimization problem. As a result, a new technique is required to solve the problem. This paper proposed a two-layered tabu search that deals with the optimal location of distribution generation at Layer I and the feeder and substation at Layer 2. The technique allows tabu search to handle different types of integer variables. The proposed method is tested in a sample system.