A genetic algorithm for optimizing switching sequence of service restoration in distribution systems

This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) for a minimization problem of expected energy not supplied (EENS) during restoration process in distribution systems. The solution of the problem provides an effective service restoration strategy that improves system reliability. The proposed optimization algorithm for the problem is a two-stage genetic algorithm. The first stage GA creates radial network configurations and the second stage GA searches for an optimal sequence of switching operations that minimizes EENS for each configuration. For optimizing the whole restoration process, these two stages iteratively interact with each other. The numerical results using a test distribution system demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.