A Parallel Meta-heuristic Method for Distribution Network Loss Reduction with Network Reconfiguration and Capacitor Control

This paper proposes a novel method for distribution network loss minimization in distribution networks. The proposed method makes use of parallel meta-heuristics under PC cluster environment. The liberalization of power networks with distributed generation makes distribution networks more complicated. To compete with other players, saving cost is of main concern. In this paper, a unified method is proposed to minimize the network loss with both network reconfiguration and capacitor control. The formulation may be expressed as a combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, parallel meta-heuristic method is proposed to solve the problem. The proposed method evaluates the solution with the PC cluster system. The proposed method is tested in sample systems.