Efficient reconfiguration of balanced and unbalanced distribution systems for loss minimisation

A simple and efficient two-stage reconfiguration algorithm for minimisation of active power loss in the balanced and unbalanced distribution systems is presented. In the first stage, the proposed method begins with all candidate switches closed. It uses current information obtained from a power flow, rather than from an optimal flow pattern used in other approaches to decide the switch to be opened, in a sequential manner. In the second stage, branch exchange operation is explored for further loss reduction. Results for four balanced systems and one unbalanced system have been obtained with the proposed method, and compared with those reported in the literature.