DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM RECONFIGURATION BASED ON HEURISTIC ALGORITHM AND GENETIC ALGORITHM

A new distribution system reconfiguration algorithm based on genetic algorithm is presented. Because in the objective function of the presented algorithm the energy losses of the network and the cost of switching operation are simultaneously taken into account and it is emphasized to minimize the cost of operation, therefore, the difference between usual reconfiguration algorithm and the presented algorithm lies in that the former is for the distribution network reconfiguration at a certain fixed moment and the latter is aimed at the distribution network reconfiguration in a specified time period. In the application of genetic algorithm the characteristics of distribution network itself are considered, i.e., the number of tie switches only holds a few minority in the total, and combining some effective heuristic rules the chromosomes can be encoded by the open/close state of tie switches, thus, it is ensured that not only the obtained solution is both globally optimized and feasible, but also the calculation efficiency is obviously improved. Taking a 358 node network for network reconfiguration example, the calculation result shows that the presented algorithm is effective. Otherwise, under the condition of simultaneously considering the energy losses in the network and the cost of switching operation, the rational time interval for network reconfiguration is studied.