Distribution system minimum loss reconfiguration in the Hyper-Cube Ant Colony Optimization framework

This paper presents an original application of the Ant Colony Optimization concepts to the optimal reconfiguration of distribution systems, with the objective of minimizing the distribution system losses in the presence of a set of structural and operational constraints. The proposed algorithm starts from the current configuration of the system and proceeds by progressively introducing variations in the configuration according to local and global heuristic rules developed within the Hyper-Cube Ant Colony Optimization framework. Results of numerical tests carried out on a classical system and on a large real urban distribution system are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.