A unified scheme for testing alternative techniques for distribution system minimum loss reconfiguration

The optimal reconfiguration of a large distribution system is a global optimisation problem typically solved by using deterministic or heuristic methods. Comparing the effectiveness of the various methods can be assisted by formulating a unified framework able to identify the common characteristics and the conceptual differences among the methods. This paper illustrates the development of such a framework, interpreting the solution process of a number of methods (iterative improvement, tabu search, simulated annealing, ant colony search and particle swarm optimisation) on the basis of a set of underlying principles, and applies this framework to the reconfiguration of a large real urban distribution system. The paper also shows how the proposed framework allows for developing additional solution algorithms, and presents effective results obtained by using a specific formulation of the evolutionary particle swarm optimisation derived from suitably mixing the underlying principles