Reliability Enhancement in Distribution Systems VIA Optimum Network Reconfiguration by Using Gravitational Search Algorithm

Abstract

Power system reliability is considered as one of the important power system operation issues especially in distribution system sectors. Sometimes power quality problems may cause sensitive equipments, especially modern products to malfunction and a process interruption leads to poor system reliability. Reliability improvement can be judged through monitoring certain indices. To enhance utility side reliability, distribution network reconfiguration is commonly used for the purpose of network loss reduction and other benefits. The main objective of this work is to propose a method, to assess and enhance distribution system reliability under optimal network configuration. The binary version of the gravitational search algorithm is used as a heuristic optimization tool to determine optimal solutions for the network reconfiguration problem. A section of Diyala governorate distribution system is considered in this work for a system case study. That section in Baqubah district consists of four 11kV distribution feeders with 116-buses. Implementation of the proposed method in the Baqubah sample system shows a significant reliability improvement.