Multiobjective service restoration in electric distribution networks using a local search based heuristic

Contingency situations may cause emergency states in distribution systems; these states are defined as the interruption of power supply. Such situations should be avoided whenever possible in order to maintain certain quality limits related to frequency and duration of interruptions. The main objective of service restoration is to minimize the number of consumers affected by the fault, by transferring them to energized support feeders. Electrical and operational conditions, such as radial network configuration, equipment and voltage drop limits, must be respected. This paper presents a new multiobjective local search based heuristic for the restoration of service which considers the minimization of two conflicting criteria: the load not supplied and the number of switching operations involved. Computational experiments with three network systems have shown the flexibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.