5.33.
EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO DISTXIBVTION NETWORK RECOFWIGURATION
FOR ENERGY SAVING
Y H Song G S Wang A T Johns
University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
P Y Wang
Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China
Abstract:
Network reconfiguration for loss reduction in
distribution systems is a very important way to save
energy. However, due to its nature it is an inherently
difficult optimization problem. In this paper, a new
type of evolutionary search technique, evolutionary
programming (EP), has been adapted and improved
for this particular application. In order to improve
the performance of EP, a fuzzy controlled EP
(FCEP), based on heuristic information, is first
proposed. The mutation fuzzy controller adaptively
adjusts the mutation rate during the simulated
evolutionary process. The status of each switch in
distribution systems is naturally represented by a
binary control parameter 0 or 1. The length of string
is much shorter than that proposed by others. A
chain-table and combined depth-first and breath-first
search strategy is employed to further speed up the
optimisation process. The equality and inequality
constraints are imbedded into the fitness function by
penalty factors which guarantee the optimal solutions
searched by the FCEP are feasible. The
implementation of the proposed FCEP for feeder
reconfiguration is described in detail. Numerical
results are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the
proposed FCEP.
I. INTRODUCTION
Distribution systems are critical links between the utility
and customer, in which sectionalising switches are used
for both protection and configuration management.
Usually, distribution systems are designed to be most
efficient at peak load demand. Obviously, the network
can be made more efficient by reconfiguring it according
to the variation in load demand. Recent studies indicate
that up to 13% of the total power generation is wasted in
ClRED 97,2-5 June 1997, Conference Publication No. 438, 0 IEE, 1997
the form of line loss at the distribution level [ 11. Hence,
it is of great benefit to investigate methods for network
reconfiguration.The objectiveof network reconfiguration
is to reduce power losses and improve the reliability of
power supply by changing the status of existing
sectionalising switches and ties.
Distribution system reconfiguration for loss reduction
was first proposed by Merlin et a1 [2]. They employed
a blend of optimisation and heuristics to determine the
minimal loss operating configuration for the distribution
system represented by a spanning tree structure at a
specific load condition. Since then, many techniques
have been proposed. Ref [3] provides a survey of the
state of the art in distribution system reconfiguration for
system loss reduction. These methods can be classified
into two grolups: (1) Heuristics methods and
Mathematical optimization techniques or combinations
[4-131. The use of heuristics was justified by the need to
reduce the search space of the reconfiguration problem.
Optimization tcchniques include linear programming,
dynamic programming and simulated annealing; (2) AI
based approaches[14-16], including expert systems and
neural networks. More recently, genetic algorithms have
been proposed for distribution reconfiguration for loss
reduction [17, 181. The results are very encouraging.
The characteristics of genetic algorithms make them
particularly suited to ill-structured optimizationproblems
[19-201. This is because GAS use pay-off (fitness or
objective function) directly for the search direction, so
no mathematical assumption is needed and GA searching
from a population of points can discover global opti”
very rapidly. However, as discussed in ref [17],
crossover operation has the danger of generating
individuals which violate radiality constraints by
swapping string of two parent networks. Although
techniques cain be introduced to get rid of those bad
individuals, this will inevitably increase the computation
dramatically. In addition, the encoding and decoding
used in ref 1181 is very complicated which slows down
 5.33.2
the speed of the algorithm. Thus in this paper, a new
I type of evolutionary search technique, evolutionary
programming (EP), has been employed. b o n g other
I
differences with GAS, there two major ones: (1) EP uses
control parameters, not their codings; (2) the generation
I
I
selection procedure of EP is mutation and competition,
not the reproduction, crossover and mutation of GA.
~
GAS emphasize on genetic operators, while mutational
transformations play a crucial role in EP. The study in
[21,22] shows that EP outperforms GAS in a number of
applications. In simple EP, the mutation rate is fixed
which has some shortcomings. In order to improve the
performance of EP for our particular problem, a fuzzy
controlled EP (FCEP), based on some heuristic
information, is first proposed. The designed mutation
fuzzy controller adaptively adjusts the mutation rate
during evolutionaryprocess. The status of each switch in
distribution systems is naturally represented by a binary
control parameter 0 or 1. The length of string is much
shorter than the one used in ref [17]. In addition, a
chain-table and depth-width search strategy is employed
to fuaher speed up the optisation process. The
equality and inequality constraints are imbedded into the
fitness function by some penalty factors to guarantee the
optimal solutions searched by the FCEP are feasible. The
implementation of the proposed FCEP for feed
reconfiguration is described in detail. Numerical results
are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed
FCEP.
11. PROBLEM FORMULATION
2.1 Objective function of network reconfiguration
The objective function of network reconfiguration is to
minimise the total power losses in the distribution system
as the load demand changes. Supposing the number of
feeders and of load centres in a distribution system are
respectively N and K, then the number of trees is also
N. Hence the objective function of network
reconfiguration can be expressed by equation (1).
Where n, is number of nodes in the i-th feeder (tree)
except its root, rij is the resistance, Pi and Qi are the
power flow, Vi is the voltage.
2.2 Constraints in radial networks
The constraints consist of power flow constraints, node
voltage constraints, and line thermal constraints etc..
Power flow at each node must be kept balance, power
flow at each branch must be less than or equal to its
maximum capacity and the operating voltage at each
node must be in its safety range. Namely,
se*= s, + s, (i= 1,2,...,n) (2)
s, c. si- (i= 1,2,...,n) (3)
Vp. 5 vi 5 vi- (i= O,l, ...,n) (4)
Where S=P+jQ.
Therefore, first of all, the power flow must be
calculated. Normally, distribution system are operated as
radial network. Although reconfiguration of the
distribution system changes the states of some
sectionalking switches, the radial characteristics of its
network is still kept. Thus, the simplified power flow
equations can be adopted [7].
Besides the constraints in equations (2), (3) and (4),
some more constraints must be satisfied. For instance,
the load centres must not be shed: the connection inside
a feeder and disconnection between feeders must be
simultaneously satisfied. Hence, the constraints equations
(5) and (6) are needed.
N
ZLy=l (j=l,%..Jr)
I=1
(6)
Where Lij stands for load centre. If loadj belongs to
feederi, Lij =1, otherwise Lij =O. Equation (5) means
that loa4 belongs to feeder, and can only belong to one
feeder. Equation (6) meam that all load centres must be
supplied.
111. FUZZY CONTROLLED EVOLUTIONARY
PROGRAMMING FOR FEEDER
RECONFIGURATION
The implementation of fuzzy controlled evolutionary
programming for feed reconfiguration involves the
following steps:
3.1 Describing switch status
If the number of switches in a distribution systeni is M,
then the length of chromosome is defined as M. The
 5.33.3
status of each switch is ~ t u r a l l yrepresented by a binary
control parameter 0 or 1. If the status of a switch is 0,
foe example, then it indicaiss that the switch is open
otherwise the switch is closed. Every chromosome
represents one configuration of the distribution system.
3.2 Generating initial populations
The initial populations are generated randomly. The
length of a chromosome equals to the number of
sectionalising switches and ties in a distribution system.
Thus, each chromosome string corresponds to an initial
network. To speed up the convergence of FCEP, the
constraints described in section 2.2 should be satisfied as
much as possible in the initial populations. If the number
of the closed switches in the original distribution network
is K,, the number of 1 in the initial chromosome should
be K,,and the root of one tree can never become a leaf
of another tree.
3.3 Formulating new network
The data structure of a new network is described by
branch nodes and branch status. If the bits in a
chromosome are 1, then their corresponding branches
are added into a new network and the status of the
branches are set to 1 otherwise the branch nodes and
branch status are set to zero.
3.4 Describing the data structure of distribution system
The data structure of a distribution system is represented
by a group of chains. Each consists of :
{ branch-nodes[head, e n d ] ,
branch-parameters[resistance, r e a c t a n c e ,
end-node-realgower, end-ode-reactiveqower,
end-node-voltage] , switch-no }
For a given branch, the small branch node number is its
head and the bigger one is its end. The initial node
voltages in the original distribution system are their
actual data. After the status of sectionalising switches
have been changed, the initial node voltages in a new
network are taken the value 1.0 at every node to meet
the voltage quality.
3.5 Searching for feeders
After the status of sectionalising switches has been
changed, i.e. the bits in a chromosome have been
changed, the new network is easy to be formulated in
terms of the bits in a chromosome as stated above, but
the memberships of all load centres could be totally
changed. Hence, we need to search for which feeder a
given load centre belongs to. The blend searching
technique is employed. In the first place, the search
begins with the root of a tree. After the branches linked
to the root are searched, their status will be set to zero,
and their end nodes will be automatically recorded and
will be again used as a new starting point to search for
the other branches and nodes until the searching space is
traversed. After that we can further determine whether
a load centre has been shed through checking the status
of the branches. If the status of a branch is not zero, it
shows that the branch has never been searched and a
load shedding could1 occur. Therefore the branch is
needed to be added to a corresponding feeder. The
reason for this is that when the searching is running into
the problem of nonconsistence, the branch needs to
swap its head and end. Of course the end node power
sink must be simultaneously changed. For example, if a
new network consists of the following branches
{(3,13,1), (13,14,1), (10,14,1), (14,15,1), (15,16.1)}
and supposing node 3 is the root of the tree. After
searching for the tree (feeder), every branch except for
(10,14,1) can be addled into the tree and their status are
set to zero. If we chleck the status of all the branches in
the new network, it is easy to find that the status of the
branch (10,14,1) is 1, which shows that the branch has
never been searched. The branch is not added into the
tree, and the load centre 10 has been shed. After
swapping the head and end of the branch, the load centre
10 can be added into the feeder (tree). In order to
accelerate the searclling process, chain-tables are used
and all feeders can be searched in parallel at the same
time. The structure of the chain-table is shown in Fig. 1.
I I I
leaves 0
Fig. 1 The structure of a chain-table
Taking the chain-table as shown in Fig.2 (a) as an
example, its corresponding tree is as shown in Fig.:! (b).
Obviously, each chain-table stands for one tree, and the
power losses of the tree can be easily computed from
leaves to root in terms of the chain-table.
 5.33.4

Where S, is the injected power at the root of the i-th

feeder and S," is its corresponding maximum capacity.

Then the fitness function can be represented by equation

(10).

Fig.2 A typical chain-table and its corresponding tree

3.6 Competition based on fitness function In equation (lo), C is a given big positive real number.

An appropriate fitness hnction is essential to speed up 3.7 Implementation of the fuzzy controlled mutation
the convergence of the FCEP. In network
reconfiguration, the fitness function should consider the The procedures to design the mutation fuzzy logic
objective function of equation (1) and constraints of controller, shown in Fig.3, are as follows:
equations (3-4). The constraints (5-6) have already be
considered by searching for feeders of section 3.5. The
constraint (2) is embedded into the calculation procedure
of network losses.

The voltage constraint (3) is rearranged as equations (7)

and (8).

If Vi > Vi -, then
5- 2
Fig.3 Structure of fuzzy mutation controller
a,=(-)
v,
(1) Choose inputs and output for the mutation fuzzy logic
(7)
controller.

If Vi < Vi &, then As a general rule, the changes in fitness Af(t) and A2f(t)
are chosen as the inputs to the fuzzy controller and the
5*
a,=(-)* change in mutation Am(t) as its output.
vi Where,
Af(t) = f(t) - f(t-1) (1 1)

A'f(t) = Af(t) - Af(t-1) (12)

Generally, V,, takes the value of 0.95 p.u. and V,
takes the value of 1.05 P.u..
In the proposed technique, the search is from the root to
the leaves of a tree, but the power losses are calculated
from the leaves to the root of the tree. Hence the
capacity constraints can be taken into account by
equation (9).
If Si, > Sam, then
(2) Define the universes of discourse for Af(t), A2f(t)
and Am(t).
In this study, the universes of discourse of Af(t), Azf(t)
and Am(t) are respectively defined as [-1.0, 1.01, [-0.5,
0.51 and [-0.1, 0.11. Tlien, all inputs to the fuzzy
controller will be standardised into their corresponding
universes of discourse.
 4.33.5

(3) Respectively define a group of fuzzy subsets to cover Table 1 Fuzzy inference rules
their own universes of discourse.

Define the linguistic value sets of the fuzzy variables

Af(t), A2f(t) and Am(t) as equations (13), (14) and (15),
and let the membership functions of all fuzzy subsets
take triangular distributions as shown in Fig.4.

T(Af(t)) = (NL, NR, NS, NM, ZE, PS, PM, PR, PL) (13)
T(A2f(t)) = (NL, NS, NM, ZE, PS, PM, PL} (14)
T(Am(t)) = {NL, NR, NS, NM, ZE, PS, PM, PR, PL} (15)

Where NL - Negative Larger, NR - Negative Large, NS

(5) Determine the output of the fuzzy controller
- Negative Small, NM - Negative Medium, ZE - Zero,
PS - Positive Small, PM - Positive Medium, PR -
For any inputs to the mutation fuzzy logic controller, its
Positive Large, PL - Positive Larger.
output is computed. as equation (16) based on the Cuter
of Gravity. This method computes the centre of gravity
of the final fuzzy control space and produces a result
which is sensitive to all the rules executed. Hence, the
P
I results tend to move smoothly across the control surface.

Finally, the mutation rate is computed by equation (17).

Wt)
-1 0 -08 -06 -04 -02 0 0.2 04 06 08 1.0

m(t+ 1) = m(t) f Am(t) (17)

The mutation in a chromosome must be camed out in

pairs, i.e., if a bit of the chromosome is mutated from
1 to 0, then anolher bit with binary number 0 must be
simultaneously mutated to 1, vice versa. That is to say,
if a open switch is closed then its neighbour closed
-05 -03 -01 0 01 03 05
lif(t) switch must be open, and if a closed switch is open then
the neighbouring open switch must be closed. The
mutation cannot undermine the radial characteristics of
the network and cannot shed the load centres.
NL NR NS NM 1ZE PS P M PR PL
The FCEP is then programmed in Turbo C+ + on a
PC486.

IV. CASE STUDY

-01 -Om -006 404 6 0 1 0 002 OM 006 OW 01

A typical distribution system, as shown in Fig.5, which

Fig.4 Membership functions of Af(t), A2f(t) and Am(t)
(4) Set inference rules.
The inference rules are defined based upon a series of
tests and experience as shown in Table 1.
was studied by Civanlar et a1 [4] is taken as a case study
to test the performance of the FCEP. This systeni
consists of 3 feeders, 13 normally closed sectionalising
switches, 3 normally open tie-switches and 13 load
centres. Feeder section impedance, system loads, arid
busbar voltages are given in Table 2.
 5.33.6

15-16 I 0.04 I 0.04 I 2.1 1 1.0 I 0.9 I 0.991/-0.596

5-11 0.04 0.04
10-14 0.04 0.04
7-16 0.09 0.12

I 1 I I loss
~~~ ~

1I
System Status of the sectionalising switches and ties Power
I status I I losses I reduction
ocw) ("/.I
12-S 13-S 14-S 15
SO-Sl-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-S8-S9-SlO-Sll-S
network -1 \1 \1 \1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1-1 \1 -1 -1 $ 4 -1 947.047 0.000
1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0
SO-S l-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-SS-S9-S
10-S 1 l-S12-S13-S14-S15
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 \1 \1 -1 -1-1 -1 .l, -1 -1-1 .l, 882.736 6.791

1
System Status of the sectionalising switches and ties Power loss
status losses reduction
ocw) ("/.I
Original SO-S l-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-SS-S9-S
10-S11-S 12-S 13-S 14-S 15
network -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 4-1-1 -1 -1 -1-1 -1 834.511 0.000
1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0
Optimal so-s1-s2-s3-s4-s5-s6-s7-s8-s9-s
lo-Sl l-s 12-Sl3-Sl4-Sl5
network .1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1-1 -1 -1 -1 -1-1 -1 785.402 5,885
1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 I
-
losses reduction
ocw) (%)
Original 10-S11-S 1 2 413-S 14-S 15
SO-S l-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-SS-S9-S
network -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 & - 1 -1 -1 & J-1 -1 837.073 0.000
1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0
Optimal SO-S l-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-S8-S9-SlO-S11-S 12-S 13-S14-S 15
netwrk -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 \1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 736.863 11.972%
 5.33.7
Q "CENTER
__ FEED= SECTION WlTH CLOSED SWITCH
---FEHlER SEETION WITH OPEN SWITCH
Fig.5 Three feeder distribution system
The parameters used in FCEP are as follows: Population
size = 100; Chromosome length = 16; Initial mutation
rate = 0.1; Desired generations = 100.
The optimisation results are tabulated in Table 3 (case
l), which are achieved after 3 generations. If we reduce
the load at the load centre 12 from 4.5+j2.0 to
3.5+jl.O, then the optimal network searched by the
FCEP is shown in Table 4 (case 2), which is attained
after 2 generations. It can be seen that the optimal
network is unchanged if the fluctuation of load is small.
In the third case, when the loads at the load center 12
and 15 are reduced to 3.5+j1.0 and 0.5+j0.4
respectively, and the load at 6 is increased to 2,.5 +jl.3,
the optimal network searched by the FCEP is shown in
Table 5 (case 3), which is attained after 4 generations.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In thk paper, an improved evolutionary programming
technique has been proposed for distribution loss
minimum reconfiguration. A mutation fuzzy logic
controller is developed to speed up the evolutionary
process by adaptively adjusting the mutation rate. The
status of each switch in distribution systems is naturally
represented by a binary control parameter 0 or 1. The
length of the string is much shorter than that proposed by
others. A chain-table and combined depth-first and
breath-first search strategy is employed to further speed
up the optimisation process. The equality and inequality
c.onstraints are imbedded into the fitness function by
penalty factors to guarantee the optimal solutions
searched by the FCEP are feasible. The implenientation
of the proposed FCEP for feeder reconfiguration is
described in detail. The proposed FCEP is applied to a
typical example. Applications to larger distribution
systems and real systems are underway. This will be
reported in a future paper.
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