Maximum loss reduction by an improved reconfiguration method and capacitor placement

Network reconfiguration and capacitor placement have been widely employed to reduce power losses and to maintain voltage profiles within permissible limits in distribution systems. Reconfiguration method that is employed in this paper is based on an improved simple branch exchange method of single loop that is performed in a previous work. In this paper a joint optimization algorithm is proposed for combining this improved method of reconfiguration and capacitor placement, therefore maximum loss reduction is obtained. Discrete Genetic algorithm is used to optimize the location and size of capacitors and the sequence of loops selecting, in fact the capacitors size have been considered as discrete variables. The proposed algorithm is effectively tested on a real life 77-bus distribution system.