A new heuristic approach for distribution systems loss reduction

This paper presents a new approach to solve the reconfiguration problem by a switching operation in order to reduce the power loss of distribution systems. By using the proposed heuristic technique, based on the direction of the branch power flows, a better network configuration is obtained. This reconfiguration algorithm starts with a radial topologic by opening all tie switches. At each step, after a normally open switch is closed, the heuristic procedure establishes the switching-options significantly reducing (in most cases) the number of candidate branches to be opened within a loop. Finally, the choice of the most effective switching-option for loss minimization is obtained from the calculation of a few power flows. The solution procedure is illustrated on a simple example and several test systems used by others authors are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results obtained are satisfactory and show that the method is very robust, in spite of its simplicity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.