Interactive expert system for optimal design of electricity distribution systems

An expert system to optimise the design of distribution systems is developed, The expert system is divided into three main parts. Optimising the location of substation, determining the optimal conductor layout, and obtaining the best conductor profile. An iterative procedure that improves on a user-defined initial location is employed to determine the optimal site to locate the substation. The programming approach allows the designer to choose the second best site if the optimal site is not acceptable. The heuristic search technique of best-first searching is used to determine the optimal cable layout and load allocation. The objective function developed to determine the optimum conductor profile strikes a balance between the capital cost and the cost of losses. The modular programming approach allows the design engineer to focus on any of the three sections of the design. Often the location of substations is determined by regulation. In such a situation the design engineer can adopt to optimise the conductor layout and the conductor profile of the distribution system. If the conductor sizes available fail to satisfy the user-defined constraints, the designer can rerun the conductor optimising section after making the relevant changes to the inventory database