Optimum recloser-fuse coordination for radial distribution systems in the presence of multiple distributed generations

In this paper, an optimum recloser and fuse coordination scheme is proposed in the presence of multiple distributed generators (DGs) in a radial distribution network. The proposed approach formulates the recloser and fuse coordination problem as an optimisation problem and applies interior point method (IPM) to solve this optimisation problem for obtaining the optimum recloser and fuse settings. The proposed scheme gives a single set of the recloser and fuse settings which is robust enough to be able to coordinate the operations of the recloser and fuses properly without and in the presence of single/multiple DGs in the system. The effect of fault current limiter (FCL) on recloser-fuse coordination has also been studied. The proposed approach has been tested on IEEE 33-bus system for three different scenarios: (i) no DG in the system, (ii) a single DG in the system, and (iii) multiple DGs in the system. Further, the optimum results obtained by IPM have been validated by comparing them with those obtained by modular in-core non-linear optimisation system solver, sequential quadratic programming, particle swarm optimisation, harmony search, genetic algorithm, and differential evolution techniques. The test results prove the robustness and effectiveness of the presented scheme.