Variable scaling hybrid differential evolution for solving network reconfiguration of distribution systems

This paper presents an effective method-variable scaling hybrid differential evolution (VSHDE)-for solving the network reconfiguration for power loss reduction and voltage profit enhancement of distribution systems. The network reconfiguration of distribution systems is to beneficially recognize load transfers so that the objective function composed of power losses is minimized and the prescribed voltage limits are satisfied. The variable scaling factor based on the 1/5 success rule is used in the VSHDE method to overcome the drawback of the fixed and random scaling factor and alleviate the problem of the selection of a mutation operator in the hybrid differential evolution (HDE). One three-feeder distribution system from the literature and one practical distribution network of Taiwan Power Company (TPC) are used to compare the performance of the proposed method with the HDE, genetic algorithms (GAs), and simulated annealing (SA). Numerical results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than the other methods.