A New Reconfiguration Approach for Distribution System with Distributed Generation

This paper presents a very simple and efficient method for minimum loss reconfiguration of distribution system based on sensitivity and branch-exchange algorithm. This paper uses the real power loss sensitivity with respect to the admittance of candidate branches to decide the real power incremental loss in the first stage which decides which loop switch should be closed. A branch exchange procedure is used in the second stage to refine the solution. This method helps to overcome the calculation errors of the real power loss brought by using sensitivity method alone and the flaw that branch exchange method relies heavily on the initial network structure, so this method avoids a local optimum of the result. This paper discusses the effect of distributed generation (DG) for reconfiguration of distribution system. Taking a network reconfiguration example, the calculation result shows that: 1) this algorithm is very simple and efficient; 2) DG has effects of loss reduction, voltage profile improvement over feeders and optimization of network structure.