Imposing voltage security and network radiality for reconfiguration of distribution systems using efficient heuristic and meta-heuristic approach

In a deregulated energy market, voltage security (VS) is one of the major concerns, as it improves the loadability limits, loading profiles while concurrently reducing power loss. Further, voltage dependent loads can operate at high efficiency at rated voltage. Therefore, power utilities have to explore options of reconfiguration to secure the voltage level under frequently changing operating conditions. In this study, an efficient heuristic and meta-heuristic (harmony search) approach for reconfiguration is proposed by imposing VS. Two indices namely node voltage security index (NVSI) and node voltage quality index are developed for aggregated improvement in node voltages. Moreover, efficient methodologies for identification of new tie-lines, network radiality and the load flow solution are also presented. The effectiveness of the proposed index and the methodology is tested for reconfiguration of various distribution systems and the results are obtained with reduced computational efforts.