Applications of evolution programming for power distribution system loss minimization under load variations

Power distribution system reconfiguration can be achieved by changing the status of sectionalizing and ties switches on the feeders. This paper aims at minimizing the system loss using feeder reconfiguration technique while considering load variations. Because the load current in each zone varies at different time, properly regulating the status of switches is needed in order to reduce system loss. Evolutionary programming (EP) is applied in this paper in order to identify the desired switch operation plans while considering load variations. The loading data, system topology, feeder, switch and zone attributes are obtained from the Outage Management System (OMS) provided by Taiwan Power Company (TPC). Time-Load model with six feeders is used in this paper. JAVA is used to establish necessary data representation and processing by taking advantages of Object Oriented Programming techniques. The approach proposed in this paper is able to identify distribution system switch operations under multiple time slots scenarios. The results show that by considering the loads variations while minimizing the changing of status of switches, the system loss can be reduced.