Electric Power Systems Research 80 (2010) 943953

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Distribution system reconguration using a modied Tabu Search algorithm

A.Y. Abdelaziz , F.M. Mohamed, S.F. Mekhamer, M.A.L. Badr
Electrical Power and Machines Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, 1 Elsarayat Street, Abdo Basha Square Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This article presents an efcient meta-heuristic method for reconguration of distribution systems. A modied Tabu Search (MTS) algorithm is used to recongure distribution systems so that active power losses are globally minimized with turning on/off sectionalizing switches. TS algorithm is introduced with some modications such as using a tabu list with variable size according to the system size. Also, a random multiplicative move is used in the search process to diversify the search toward unexplored regions. The Kirchhoff algebraic method is adopted to check the radial topology of the system. A salient feature of the MTS method is that it can quickly provide a global optimal or near-optimal solution to the network reconguration problem. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the effect of load variation is taken into consideration and comparative studies are conducted on three test systems with rather encouraging results. The obtained results, using the proposed MTS approach, are compared with that obtained using other approaches in the previous work. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 31 March 2008 Received in revised form 30 October 2009 Accepted 3 January 2010 Available online 20 January 2010 Keywords: Distribution system reconguration Power loss reduction Modied Tabu Search

1. Introduction The subject of minimizing distribution systems losses has gained a great deal of attention due to the high cost of electrical energy and therefore, much of current research on distribution automation has focused on the minimum-loss conguration problem. There are many alternatives available for reducing losses at the distribution level: reconguration, capacitor installation, load balancing, and introduction of higher voltage levels. This research focuses on the reconguration alternative. Network reconguration is the process of changing the topology of distribution systems by altering the open/closed status of switches. Because there are many candidate-switching combinations in the distribution system, network reconguration is a complicated combinatorial, non-differentiable constrained optimization problem. Two types of switches are used in primary distribution systems. There are normally closed switches (sectionalizing switches) and normally open switches (tie switches). Those two types of switches are designed for both protection and conguration management. The change in network conguration is achieved by opening or closing of these two types of switches in such a way that the radiality of the network is maintained. The reconguration algorithms can be classied by the solution methods that they employ: those based upon a blend of heuristics and optimization methods, those making use of heuristics alone,

Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 101372930. E-mail addresses: almoatazabdelaziz@hotmail.com, ayabdelaziz@gawab.com (A.Y. Abdelaziz). 0378-7796/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2010.01.001

and those using some from of articial intelligence (AI). Numerous researchers advocate the use of a blend of heuristics and optimization techniques. The blend of the two types of technique permits the problem to retain a certain degree of accuracy, while assuring convergence and an acceptable solution time. In Ref. [1], a branch exchange method that considered the onoff conditions of the sectionalizing switches in discrete numbers was developed [1]. Since the method is based on heuristics, it is not easy to take a systematic way to evaluate an optimal solution. Two different methods with varying degree of accuracy to approximate power ow in systems were proposed in Ref. [2]. The search method has an acceptable convergence characteristic. However, it can get stuck in local minimum. The method is very time consuming due to the complicated combinations in large-scale systems. An expert system for feeder reconguration, based upon extensions of the rules of Ref. [1] was presented in Ref. [3], with the potential of handling realistic operating constrains. The approach taken is set up a decision tree to represent the various switching operations available. This strategy is efcient for trees that are not too large. However, as a search tree becomes larger, a great amount of time can be spent searching for the optimal solution. To guarantee an optimal solution an exhaustive tree search should be used. A linear programming method using transportation techniques and a new heuristic search method for comparison with previously developed heuristic techniques which are based on an optimal load ow analysis were presented in Ref. [4]. This study indicates that linear programming, in the form of transportation algorithms, is not suitable for application to feeder reconguration since the

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power loss function is not linear whilst heuristic approaches, although not optimal, can provide substantial saving if properly formulated. Based on partitioning the distribution network into groups of load buses, the line section losses between the groups of nodes are minimized [5]. By dividing the distribution network into groups of busses, the combinatorial nature of the reconguration problem is overcome, while simultaneously minimizing losses. In recent years, meta-heuristic methods have been studied for solving combinatorial optimization problems to obtain an optimal solution of global minimum. Typical meta-heuristic methods include Simulated Annealing (SA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Tabu Search (TS). A two-stage solution methodology based on a modied simulated annealing technique for solving the reconguration problem of distribution systems was proposed in Ref. [6]. In Ref. [7], a modied SA technique for network reconguration for loss reduction in distribution systems was presented. An efcient perturbation scheme and an initialization procedure determining a better starting temperature for the simulated annealing approach were proposed. This method can get a solution better than that obtained using the method presented in Ref. [5]. This solution algorithm gives a near-optimal solution but this method does not work so well in the case of load variation. A GA based method for feeder reconguration was proposed in Ref. [8]. Strings which represent switch status, a tness function consisting of total system losses, and penalty values of voltage drop limit and current capacity limit were formed. Sample results demonstrate that, although the minimal loss solutions were obtained, solution time was prohibitive. An articial neural network based method for feeder reconguration was presented in Ref. [9]. However, such technique can encounter difculties, such as getting trapped in local minima, increased computational complexity, and not being applicable to certain objective functions. This led to the need of developing a new class of solution methods that can overcome these shortcomings. A parallel Tabu Search (PTS) based method for feeder reconguration has been proposed in Ref. [10]. PTS introduces two parallel schemes. One is the decomposition of the neighborhood with parallel processors to reduce computational efforts. The other is the multiplicity of the tabu length to improve the solution accuracy. PTS algorithm gives results better than results obtained by SA, parallel Simulated Annealing (PSA), GA, and parallel Genetic Algorithm (PGA). In Ref. [11], a TS algorithm for solving the problem of network reconguration in distribution systems in order to reduce the resistive line losses under normal operating conditions was presented. A method for checking system radiality based on an upward-node expression, which has been developed in solving the problem of restorative planning of power system was proposed. In Ref. [12], an efcient hybrid algorithm of SA and TS method for feeder reconguration to improve the computation time and convergence property was proposed. In Ref. [13], a modied Tabu Search (MTS) based algorithm for reconguration of distribution systems has been proposed. The TS algorithm was introduced with some modications such as using a tabu list with variable size to prevent cycling and to escape from local minimum. Also, a constrained multiplicative move was used in the search process to diversify the search process toward unexplored regions. Zhang et al. [14] presented an Improved Tabu Search (ITS) algorithm for loss-minimization reconguration in large-scale distribution systems. In ITS algorithm, mutation operation, a main operator used in genetic algorithm, is introduced to weaken the dependence of global search ability on tabu length. In addition, the candidate neighborhood, which only contains several optimal switch exchanges in each tie switch associated loop network, is designed to improve local search efciency and to save a large

Fig. 1. 16-Node distribution system.

amount of computing time. The ITS algorithm in Ref. [14] was applied to the 119-node system and gave an optimal solution. In this article, an enlarged version of Ref. [13] is introduced to solve the reconguration problem. The proposed method is applied to large-scale networks to show the effectiveness of the modied Tabu Search algorithm. In comparison with Ref. [14] in which the mutation operation of GA is used to weaken the dependence of global search ability on tabu length, on the other side, we use a dynamic tabu list with variable size according to the system size and a multiplicative move is applied to diversify the search process and improve the local search efciency of Tabu Search to reach the global solution. Also, the effect of variation of load is taken into consideration to show the capability of the proposed algorithm (MTS) to work at different load levels. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, comparative studies are conducted on three test systems with rather encouraging results. The proposed method is applied to a 16-node system, a 69-node system, and a 119-node system. The results, obtained using the proposed MTS approach, are compared with

Fig. 2. Flow chart of Tabu Search algorithm.

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Fig. 3. Flow chart for checking system radiality.

results obtained using other modern techniques to examine the performance of the proposed approach. 2. Problem formulation Generally, there are two types of switches in distribution systems: tie switch and sectionalizing switch. As shown in Fig. 1, switches in dotted branches connecting nodes (1014), (511), and (716) are tie switches, and switches in other continuous branches are sectionalizing switches. The tie switches are normally open and the sectionalizing switches are normally closed. When the operating conditions have been changed, feeder reconguration is performed by the opening/closing of these two types of switches to reduce resistive line losses. That is, a tie switch may be closed for the purpose of transferring loads to different feeders, and, at the same time, a sectionalizing switch should be opened to maintain the radial structure of the distribution network. For example, in Fig. 1, when the loads of feeder 2 become heavy under normal operating conditions, the tie switch connecting nodes (511) may be closed to transfer the load at node 11 from feeder 2 to feeder 1 and at the same time the sectionalizing switch connecting nodes (911) must be opened to maintain the radial structure of the network. The objective of the reconguration is to minimize the distribution losses with turning on/off sectionalizing switches. The

reconguration problem has the following constrains: 1. 2. 3. 4. Power ow equations. Upper and lower bounds of nodal voltages. Upper and lower bounds of line currents. Feasible conditions in terms of network topology. Mathematically, the problem can be formulated as follows: Cost function:
L

Min Z =
i=1

ri

Pi2 + Qi2 Vi2

(1)

Subject to: g (x) = 0 Vimin < Vi < Vimax (2) (3) (4) radial system (5) (6)

Iimin < Ii < Iimax det(A) = 1 or 1 det(A) = 0

not radial

where Z: objective function (kW); L: no. of branches; Pi : active power loss at sending end of branch i; Qi : reactive power at sending

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Like any local search method (LS), TS needs three basic components: a conguration structure, a neighborhood function dened on the conguration structure, and neighborhood examination mechanism. The rst component denes the search space of S of the application, the second associates with each point of the search space which is a subset of S, while the third one prescribes the way of going from one conguration to another. 3.1. Conguration space Conguration space is the set of allowed congurations over which the optimal system conguration is to be searched for Ref. [6]. In the present case, it is considered that the distribution system under study has a number of nodes and corresponding sectionalizing and tie switches. The open/closed status of each sectionalizing switch and tie switch determines the network conguration of the system. Hence the conguration space = 1 2 , where 1 is the set of sectionalizing switches and 2 is the set of tie switches. 3.2. Tabu list 3. Tabu Search Tabu Search is one of the modern heuristic search methods for combinatorial optimization problems, based on neighborhood search with local optima avoidance, which models human memory processes. Tabu Search was initially proposed by Glover and many other authors have applied similar ideas to various classical problems [15,16]. Tabu Search (TS) can be considered as a neighborhood search method which is more elaborate than the descent method. The tabu list is another important concept in Tabu Search. When the move is accepted, the move and its reverse are recorded in the tabu list. When the move is recorded in tabu list, it is not allowed to visit or use this move again but this restriction can be violated under Aspiration Criterion as described below. The basic role of the tabu list is to identify cycling and escape from local minimum. The dimension of the tabu list is updated every iteration according to the problem size.

Fig. 4. Optimal conguration of the 16-node system.

end of branch i; Vi : voltage at sending end of branch i; Ii : line current at branch i; g(x): power ow equations; Vimin : lower voltage limit (taken to be 0.9 p.u); Vimax : upper voltage limit (taken to be 1 p.u); Iimin : lower current limit; Iimax : upper current limit; A: bus incidence matrix; ri : resistance of branch i.

Fig. 5. Voltage prole before and after reconguration for the 16-node system.

Fig. 6. 69-Node distribution system.

A.Y. Abdelaziz et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 80 (2010) 943953 Table 1 16-Node system results. System Before reconguration After reconguration using proposed MTS After reconguration using (TS+SA) [18] After reconguration using ACSA [20] Power loss 511.43 kW 466.1 kW 466.1 kW 466.1 kW Voltage prole (p.u.) Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9693 Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9694 Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9694 Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9694 Tie lines

947

(511), (1014), (716) (810), (911), (716) (810), (911), (716) (810), (911), (716)

Table 2 69-Node system results (normal load). System type Normally loaded feeder Before reconguration Power loss 20.89 kW Voltage prole (p.u.) Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9724 Tie lines 1070 1220 1490 3848 2654 After reconguration using proposed MTS algorithm 9.4 kW Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.982 1070 1220 1314 4445 5051 1070 1220 1314 4546 5051 1070 1220 1314 4445 5051

After reconguration using SA [6]

9.4 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.982

After reconguration using SA [7]

9.4 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.982

Table 3 69-Node system results (heavy load). System type Heavily loaded feeder Before reconguration Power loss 30.36 kW Voltage prole (p.u.) Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9669 Tie lines 1070 1220 1490 3848 2654 1070 1220 1314 4748 5051 1070 1112 1314 4546 5051 1070 1220 1314 4445 5051

After reconguration using proposed MTS algorithm

13.66 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.978

After reconguration using SA [6]

13.72 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.97

After reconguration using SA [7]

13.66 kW

Vmax = 18 Vmin = 0.97

948 Table 4 69-Node system results (light load). System type Lightly loaded feeder Before reconguration

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Power loss 5.09 kW

Voltage prole (p.u.) Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9865

Tie lines 1070 1220 1490 3848 2654 1070 1220 1314 4445 5051 89 1314 1819 1819 4243 4243 5051 1070 1220 1314 4445 5051

After reconguration using proposed MTS algorithm

2.32 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9913

After reconguration using SA [6]

2.61 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.99

After reconguration using SA [7]

2.32 kW

Vmax = 1 Vmin = 0.9913

3.3. Aspiration criterion If the evaluation objective function value of a trail solution is smaller than that of the current best solution, this move can be

accepted, even thought the move is listed in the tabu list. This means that if solution is get trapped in local minimum, a non-improved solution is accepted conguration with power loss greater than the current value to diversify the solution to unexplored regions searching for the optimal solution.

4. Solution mechanism As stated in the previous sections, the network reconguration problem is equivalent to the problem of nding an optimal radial conguration such that the loss is minimized. In this section, the general algorithm of the Tabu Search method is adapted to solve the network reconguration problem. Detailed discussions of each step in implementing the Tabu Search and the transition from current solution (conguration) to another one through neighborhood generation (perturbation mechanism) are as in the following sections.

Fig. 7. Optimal conguration of 69-node distribution system (normal load).

4.1. The Tabu Search algorithm for distribution system reconguration The solution algorithm for distribution system reconguration is described in the following steps:

Fig. 8. Voltage prole before and after reconguration for the 69-node system.

Step 1: Input data and initialize parameters, initialize the current solution X0 , the optimal solution Xopt = X0 . Step 2: Generate a new conguration by the proposed topologybased perturbation mechanism explained in Section 4.2. If this transition is tabu or does not satisfy aspiration criterion, the previous conguration is restored and a new conguration is generated. Store the radial conguration of the system in tabu list. Step 3: Run a load ow program, based on NewtonRaphson method, for each conguration in tabu list to check the feasibility. Calculate power loss for each conguration and then determine the conguration with minimum power loss and acceptable voltage prole.

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Fig. 9. Optimal conguration of 69-node distribution system (heavy load).

Fig. 10. Voltage prole before and after reconguration for the 69-node system. Fig. 12. Voltage prole before and after reconguration for the 69-node system.

Step 4: If the new power loss is less than the current solution, then accept this perturbation and set current power loss to be equal new power loss, otherwise restore the previous reconguration and undo this conguration. Step 5: Check stopping criterion (a specied number of iterations is assigned based on system size): if satised, go to step 6, else go to step 2. Step 6: End.

4.2. Perturbation mechanism New system conguration is generated via a perturbation mechanism. It is considered in this article that the system under study is a single-substation multiple-feeder model. Three types of moves can be used to implement the perturbation mechanism. 4.2.1. Add/subtract move (single move) 1. Close a tie line tk from the set 2 by using random number generator. This will create a loop in the normally radial network, say Lk .

A ow chart of a typical Tabu Search algorithm is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 11. Optimal conguration of 69-node distribution system (light load).

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Fig. 13. Initial conguration of the 119-node test system.

2. Sequentially perform a branch exchange between this tie line and all sectionalizing switches in 1 . At each branch exchange process check, if det(A) = +1 or 1, then the system is radial, accept this branch exchange and store this sectionalizing switch in Lk , otherwise the system is not radial or radial, but some loads are disconnected from the network. 3. Open a sectionalizing switch from the set 1 , chosen from Lk , which will lead to minimum losses. This will restore the network into radial structure. The line opened by this operation becomes a tie line and will replace tk in 2 .

4.2.2. Multiplicative move 1. Close a few tie lines from the set 2 by using random number generator. This will create loops in the normally radial network. 2. Perform branch exchange and check if the system is radial or not as mentioned in the previous section. 3. Open a corresponding number of sectionalizing switches from the set 1 chosen from each loop. This operation will restore the system into radial structure. These lines opened by this operation become tie lines.

Fig. 14. Optimal conguration of the 119-node test system.

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4.2.3. Constrained multiplicative move 1. Randomly choose a number n of tie lines to be closed subject to the constraint n < nmax , where nmax is the total number of tie lines in the system. 2. Sequentially close the n tie lines. This will create loops in the normally radial network. 3. After each closing operation, open a corresponding number of sectionalizing switches from the set 1 chosen from each of the loops. This will restore the system into radial structure. The last type of move is used exclusively for the case that the number of switch-on/switch-off operations is constrained. 4.3. Variable expression design

It reduces the computation time. It restricts each trial solution to be radial networks in distribution network reconguration. It can be used to determine the branches of the loop formed by closing a tie line. 5. The application of TS to solve the distribution system reconguration problem The proposed algorithm has been implemented into a software package in MATLAB 6.5, executed on a Pentium III 700-MHz PC with 128-MB RAM, and applied to several distribution systems. In this section several numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed solution algorithm. 5.1. 16-Node system

In applying modern heuristic methods, such as SA and GA to solve the problem of distribution network reconguration, it is very important to choose a good variable expression. This is also true for the TS-based distribution network reconguration problem. An initial attempt is to choose all feeders with switches as a set of variables to represent the solution of the problem. With such a variable expression, each element of the solution vector represents one feeder with a switch. The value 0 or 1 of one element in the solution vector denotes that the status of corresponding switch in the feeder is open or closed, respectively. It was found that such a variable expression is often not efcient because the extremely large number of unfeasible non-radial solutions appearing at each generation will lead to a long computing time before reaching an optimal solution. A good variable expression design, which can restrict each trial solution to be radial networks in distribution network reconguration, is very important to improve the efciency of search process. In this section, we propose to apply the Kirchhoff algebraic method based on the bus incidence matrix for checking the radiality of trial solutions [17]. A graph may be described in terms of a connection or incidence matrix. Of particular interest is the branchto-node incidence matrix , which has one row for each branch and one column for each node with an entry aij in row i and column j according to the following rules: aij = 0 if branch i is not connected to node j aij = 1 if branch i is directed away from node j aij = 1 if branch i is directed toward node j (7) (8) (9)

The rst test system is the three-feeder distribution system studied by Civanlar et al. [1]. The schematic structure of the test system is shown in Fig. 1 with the system data contained in Ref. [1]. The test system is a hypothetical 23 kV with three feeders, 13 normally closed sectionalizing switches, and three normally open tie switches. The load of the system is assumed to be constant. This particular system is purposely introduced because its optimal solution can be easily determined by enumerating all possible congurations. The initial system real power loss was 511.43 kW. By applying the proposed MTS technique, the nal power loss is 466.1 kW. It is shown from the simulation results listed in Table 1 that the power loss after reconguration is reduced by 8.85% of its initial value. These results are identical to the results obtained by the methods proposed in Refs. [18,19]. The optimal conguration of the system is shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 shows the voltage prole improvement achieved by the proposed feeder reconguration algorithm. As shown, most of the node voltages have been improved after feeder reconguration. The minimum voltage before reconguration was 0.9693 p.u. and after reconguration the minimum node voltage is raised to 0.9694 p.u. For this system the control parameters are chosen as follows: n = 2 and nmax = 3. The execution time of the developed program is about 5 s and this time is suitable for practical applications. 5.2. 69-Node system The test system is a hypothetical 12.66 kV system with 69 node and 7 laterals. The system data is given in Ref. [6]. The schematic diagram of the test system is shown in Fig. 6. To evaluate the performance of the proposed MTS method, the optimal structures for various load levels reported in Ref. [6] are listed in Tables 24 for comparison. 5.2.1. Case 1: normal load The system real and reactive load demands of each node are used without any change. The initial system real power loss was 20.88 kW. By applying the proposed MTS algorithm, the nal power loss is 9.4 kW. It is shown from the simulation results listed in Table 2 that the power loss after reconguration is reduced by 55% of its initial value. These results are identical to the results obtained by the methods proposed in Refs. [6,7]. The optimal conguration is shown in Fig. 7. For 69-node system, under normal loading conditions, the control parameters are chosen as follow: n = 3 and nmax = 5. The execution time of the developed program is about 25 min. which is suitable for practical applications. Fig. 8 shows the voltage prole improvement achieved by the proposed feeder reconguration algorithm. As shown, most of the node voltages have been improved after feeder reconguration. The

These rules formalize for a network the procedure used to set up the coefcient of . In network calculation, a reference node must be chosen. The column corresponding to the reference node is omitted from and the resultant matrix is denoted by A. If the number of branches is equal to the number of nodes then, by applying the previous rules a square branch-to-node matrix is obtained. The non-reference nodes of a network are often called independent nodes or buses, and when we say that the network has N buses, this means that there are N independent nodes not including the reference node. The A matrix has the rowcolumn dimension B N for any network with B branches and N nodes excluding the reference node. By assuming, that there is a branch between this reference node and the root of the network; this will lead to a square matrix if the initial structure of the network is radial. The new proposed method is based on the value of the det(A). It is found that, if the det(A) is equal to 1 or 1, then the system is radial. Else if the det(A) is equal to zero, this means that either the system is not radial or group of loads are disconnected from service. The ow chart of the checking system radiality algorithm is shown in Fig. 3. The advantages of using the previous method are:

952 Table 5 119-Node system results. Initial structure Tie lines 48 17 8 56 65 38 9 61 76 91 103 113 110 115 25 1294.3 0.866 116

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Branch exchange[2] 45 17 23 53 51 64 41 61 76 74 79 85 89 114 35 885.56 0.9321 116 44 27 24 52 50 65 42 100 77 75 80 86 110 115 36

TS [20] 45 27 22 54 51 64 41 61 76 74 80 85 89 114 33 884.163 0.9321 116 44 26 23 53 50 65 42 100 77 75 79 86 110 115 34

Improved TS [14] 45 27 23 54 65 61 41 95 77 74 101 86 89 114 35 865.865 0.9321 116 44 26 24 53 51 62 42 100 78 75 102 113 110 115 36

Proposed MTS 45 27 23 54 65 61 41 95 77 74 101 86 89 114 35 44 26 24 53 51 62 42 100 78 75 102 113 110 115 36 865.865 0.9321 116

27 27 24 45 51 65 42 100 95 78 80 86 89 123 36

Power loss (kW) Min. voltage (p.u.) Lowest voltage node

minimum node voltage before reconguration was equal to 0.9724 p.u. and after reconguration; it is raised to 0.98 p.u. 5.2.2. Case 2: heavy load The system real and reactive load demands of each node are multiplied by a constant equal to 1.2 to construct a heavy load system. The initial system real power loss was 30.36 kW. By applying the proposed MTS algorithm, the nal power loss is 13.66 kW. It is shown from the simulation results listed in Table 3 that the power loss after reconguration is reduced by 55% of its initial value. The optimal conguration is shown in Fig. 9. These results are identical to the results obtained by the method proposed in Ref. [7] and are better that the results obtained by the method proposed in Ref. [6]. Fig. 10 shows the voltage prole improvement achieved by the proposed feeder reconguration algorithm. As shown, most of the node voltages have been improved after feeder reconguration. The minimum node voltage before reconguration was equal to 0.9669 p.u. and after reconguration; it is raised to 0.978 p.u. 5.2.3. Case 3: light load The system real and reactive load demands of each node are multiplied by a constant equal to 0.5 to construct a light load system. The initial system real power loss was 5.09 kW. By applying the proposed MTS algorithm, the nal power loss is 2.32 kW. It is shown from the simulation results listed in Table 4 that the power loss after reconguration is reduced by 54.42% of its initial value. The optimal conguration is shown in Fig. 11. These results are identical to the results obtained by the method proposed in Ref. [7] and are better than the results obtained by the method proposed in Ref. [6]. Fig. 12 shows the voltage prole improvement achieved by the proposed feeder reconguration algorithm. As shown, most of the node voltages have been improved after feeder reconguration. The minimum node voltage before reconguration was equal to 0.9865 p.u. and after reconguration; it is raised to 0.9913 p.u. 5.3. 119-Node system The test system is a hypothetical 11 kV with 118 sectionalizing switches, 119 node, and 15 tie lines. The system data is given in Ref. [18]. The schematic diagram of the test system is shown in Fig. 13. The total power loads are 22,709.7 kW and 17,041.1 kV Ar. The initial system real power loss was 1294.3 kW. By applying the proposed MTS technique, the nal power loss is 865.86 kW. The optimal conguration is shown in Fig. 14. It is shown from the

Table 6 Cost function statistics for the 119-node system. Best cost function 865.865 kW Average cost function 870 kW Worst cost function 884 kW

Fig. 15. Voltage prole before and after reconguration for the 119-node system.

simulation results listed in Table 5 that the power loss after reconguration is reduced by 33.1% of its initial value. These results are identical to the results obtained by the method proposed by Zhang et al. [14] and are better than the results obtained by the methods proposed in Refs. [2,20]. For the 119-node system the control parameters are chosen as follow: n = 13 and nmax = 15. The execution time of the developed program is about 5 h. The obtained results using the proposed MTS algorithm have been reached after 10 trails. Table 6 shows the statistics of the cost function in the simulation results. Fig. 15 shows the voltage prole improvement achieved by the proposed feeder reconguration algorithm. As shown, most of the node voltages have been improved after feeder reconguration. The minimum node voltage was equal to 0.866 p.u. and after reconguration; it is raised to 0.9323 p.u. 6. Conclusion This article has proposed MTS-based method for reconguration of distribution systems. TS algorithm is introduced with some modications such as using a tabu list with variable size to pre-

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vent cycling and to escape from local minimum. Also, a constrained multiplicative move is used in the search process to diversify the search process toward unexplored regions. The simulation results have shown that TS algorithm is better than SA in terms of solution accuracy because TS has a deterministic optimization, while SA is considered as a stochastic optimization technique. Therefore, SA may fail to reach the optimal solution. For the 16-node system in comparison with Refs. [18,19] same results are obtained. For the 69-node system in comparison with Ref. [6] equal in power loss and in voltage prole, but in case of load variation the proposed method has results better than the results obtained using methods in Ref. [6]. For the 119-node system the results obtained are identical to the results obtained by the ITS method proposed by Zhang et al. [14] and are better that the results obtained by the method proposed in Refs. [2,20]. It can be concluded that the proposed MTS algorithm is better than SA, branch exchange, and TS in large-scale distribution systems. Also, in comparison with the results obtained using ITS, same results are obtained. Therefore, it can be concluded that TS with some modications can give results identical to the results obtained using hybrid algorithm of TS and GA. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed MTS algorithm is well proved by the sample test systems. The execution time of the developed software is acceptable for practical applications. A new application based on the value of det(A) is used to check, whether the system is radial or not is also presented. References
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