A New Heuristic Network Reconfiguration

Algorithm for Radial Distribution System

Jaswanti and T. Thakur
Abstract---This paper presents a new heuristic network
reconfiguration method for radial distribution system, in which
the choice of the switches to be opened is based on the calculation
of voltage at the buses, real and reactive power flowing through
lines, real power losses and voltage deviation, using distribution
load flow (DLF) program. The solutions get converged very early
on; therefore execution time is very small. Particular attention is
paid to the relationship between electrical parameters of the
distribution system and the mathematical parameters that
influence the convergence properties of the algorithm. A IEEE
33-bus radial distribution test system is taken as a study system
for performing the test. The results reveal the speed and the
effectiveness of the proposed method for solving the problem.
Index Terms---Distribution network reconfiguration, Power
flow control, Loss minimization, Radial distribution network
(RDN).

I. INTRODUCTION
ELECTRICAL power distribution system delivers power to
the customers from a set of distribution substation feeders,
usually placed in radial configuration so as to simplify over
current protection, lower short circuit, simple switching and
protecting equipment with lower reliability. Very often, it is
observed that electrical power utilities distribution system
lacks in meeting the quality and reliability [1], firstly due to
the technological factors and secondly due to the operating
factors concerning deployment of electrical power distribution
equipments and their loads [2]. The major factors are:
1.
Electrical power distribution system suffers
unbalanced feeder structure and unbalanced loading which
affects system power quality and electricity prices [3-5],
[12],[14],[21].
2.
Average power transmission loss of power utilities
figures around 5-6% of total power demand where as 6070% of the loss is estimated to be lost in distribution system
[6],[16],[23].
3.
Distribution feeder having mixture of commercial
residential and industrial type loads with daily dissimilar
load variations causes the peak loads at different times (non
coincidence of peaks) [7]-[10],[13],[17],[24].

T.Thakur and Jaswanti are with the Department of Electrical Engineering,

Punjab Engineering College (Deemed University), Chandigarh, India -160012
(e-mail: tilak20042005@yahoo.co.in; jaswanti98@yahoo.co.in)

4.Real time information communication and co-ordination of

the protection scheme for the power distribution network
configuration [22].
5.Requirement of efficient tools and techniques for multiobjective and non-differential optimization problem of
electrical distribution system [15],[25]. As reported about
30-40% of total investment is for
distribution system in an electric power sector. Therefore, loss
reduction in distribution system can be efficient to reduce
transmission loss in the whole power system. With this view,
The concept of reconfiguring the topology of the distribution
network to minimize losses can immediately be recognized as
being cost efficient and consequently of interest to efficiency
conscious electric utilities. A large number of papers has been
published so far on reconfiguration of distribution networks.
In [1]-[5], optimal reconfiguration methods for losses
reduction in distribution system are proposed. In [6], a simple,
fast and approximate heuristic based algorithm for
determining the minimum loss configuration of RDN.
Numerous others [7]-[25] reported work on reconfiguration of
radial system with a focus on reduction of Kilowatt losses,
and/or load balancing in feeder reconfiguration, energy
restoration and combinatorial optimization problem by using
mathematical programming and traditional Artificial
Intelligent approaches. Extensive work has been done on a
similar problem with improvement in loss reduction in less
computational time. Research work in this area is still going
on.
The present paper describes a new heuristic network reconfi
g uration method for radial distribution system, in which the
choice of the switches to be opened is based on the calculation
of voltage at the buses, real and reactive power flowing
through lines, real power losses and voltage deviation, using
distribution load flow program. A IEEE 33-bus radial
distribution test system is taken as a study system for
performing the test of DLF program. The proposed
reconfiguration algorithm has been found to give better
network reconfiguration result than those obtained by some
other recent methods reported in literature.

II. PROPOSED METHOD

Fig. 1 shows a flowchart of the proposed method, which is
based on two matrices that are combined to form a direct

approach for solving reconfiguration problems.

Here Qij is the real power flowing through the line
connecting ith and jth buses.
Start

D. Real Power Loss

Form BIBC and BCBV matrices according to the algorithm.

Calclate DLF matrix

Calculate change in voltages

Set iteration k=3 or 4

Calculate new values of bus voltages

Iteration = k

Final bus voltages

End
Fig. 1. Proposed algorithm for distribution system reconfiguration

A. Computation of Voltages at the Buses

In order to obtain network reconfiguration optimal load
flow solutions, first objective is to obtain voltages at the
buses.If Vk is the voltages of the buses after kth iteration, then
voltages at the buses after (k+1)th iteration is given by
Here
iterations.

is change in bus voltages after two successive

B. Real Power Flow

Here Pij is the real power flowing through the line
connecting ith and jth buses, Vi and Vj are the voltages of ith and
jth bus respectively and yij is the admittance of the line between
ith and jth buses.

C. Reactive Power Flow

Where Vss and Vj in (4) refers to the voltages at main

substation and bus j, respectively, yss,j refers to the line
admittance between the main substation bus and bus j, PD j
refers to the real power load at bus j and N the number of
buses in the RDS.
E. Voltage Deviation Index (VDI)
In order to quantify the extent of violation of limits
imposed on voltages at buses in a RDS, the following Voltage
Deviation Index (VDI) has been defined.

to illustrate the methodology [21].

Fig. 2. Equivalent current injection based model of distribution network

For bus i, the complex load Si is expressed by

Corresponding equivalent current injection at the k th
iteration
of
solution
is
Where Vik and Iik are the bus voltage and equivalent current
injection of bus I at the k th iteration, respectively. Ii r and Jii are
the real and imaginary parts of the equivalent current injection
of bus i at the kth iteration respectively.

j 1 to N

Subject to

Where NVB is the number of buses that violates the

prescribed voltage limits and VLiLIM is the upper limit of the Ith load
bus voltage if there is upper limit violation or lower limit if
there is a lower limit violation.
III. EXAMPLE SYSTEM
A sample distribution system drawn in Fig.2 is taken here
The power injection can be connected to the equivalent

between bus i and bus j. Substituting (10.1) and (10.2) into

(10.3), the equation (10.3) can be written as
V4 = V1 B1 Z12 B2Z23 B3 Z34

(11)

From (11), it can be seen that the bus voltage can be

expressed as a function of branch currents, line parameters and
the substation voltage. Similar procedures can be performed
on another buses; therefore the relationship between branch
currents and bus voltages can be expressed as
Delta V = [BCBV] [B]
current injections by using (7) and relationship between the
bus current injections and branch current can be obtained by
applying Kirchoffs current law (KCL) to the distribution
network. For example the branch currents B1, B2 and B5 can be
expressed by equivalent current injections as
B1 = I2 + I3 + I4 +I 5 + I6
B3 = I4 + I5
B5 = I 6

(8)

Therefore the relationship between the bus current

injections and branch currents can be expressed as
[B] = [BIBC] [I]

(9)

The relationship between branch currents and bus voltages

can be obtained as follows:
V2 = V1 B1 Z12
V3 = V2 B2 Z23
V4 = V3 B3 Z34

(10.1)
(10.2)
(10.3)

Where Vi is the voltage of bus i, and Zij is the line impedance

(12)

The algorithm can easily be expanded to a multiphase line

section or bus. For example, if the line section between bus i
and bus j is a three phase line section, the corresponding
branch current Bi will be a 3x 1 vector and the +1 in the BIBC
matrix will be a 3 x 3 identity matrix. Similarly if the line
section between bus i and bus j is a three phase line section,
the Zij in the BCBV matrix is a 3 x 3 impedance matrix.
The BIBC and BCBV matrices are developed based on the
topological structure of distribution systems. The BIBC matrix
represents the relation shop between bus current injections and
branch currents. The corresponding variations at branch
currents, generated by the variations at bus current injection
can be calculated directly by the BIBC matrix. The BCBV
matrix represents the relationship between branch current and
bus voltages. The corresponding variations at bus voltage,
generated by the variations at branch currents can be
calculated directly by the BCBV matrix. Combining equation
(9) and (12), the relationship between bus current injections
and bus voltages can be expressed as

DLF is a multiplication matrix of BCBV and BIBC matrices

and the solution for distribution load flow can be obtained by
solving (8) iteratively as

According to the research, the arithmetic operation,

number for LU factorization is approximately proportional to
N3. For a large value of N, the LU factorization will occupy a
large portion of the computational time. Therefore if the LU
factorization can be avoided, the load flow method can save
tremendous computational resource.
V. TEST RESULTS
The proposed algorithm for distribution system
reconfiguration has been tested on 33-bus RDS given in Fig.
3. The load data, line details and the tie lines available for
switching are given in [21].

Fig. 3. A 33-bus radial distribution system

System has five tie lines. The two configurations are termed
as Base Configuration and Optimal Configuration
respectively. Using DLF program voltages at the buses, real
and reactive powers flowing through lines, real power loss and
voltage deviation index (VDI) were calculated for the two
configurations. Results are shown here in three parts as base
case, optimal case and comparisons between various results.
A. Results for the Base Case
Table I shows the results obtained by DLF Solutions for
Base Case. Base configuration refers to the network shown in
Fig. .3. All the tie lines are open and the structure is perfectly
radial.

[AV] = [BCBV] [BIBC] [I]

[AV] = [DLF] [I]
TABLE I SOLUTION FOR BASE CASE
Bus
No.

Bus Volt. Line

in p.u.
No.

Real power
Flow in KW

Reactive power
Flow in KVAR

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

0.997
0.992
0.985
0.977
0.959
0.956
0.942
0.936
0.93
0.929
0.928
0.922
0.919
0.918
0.917
0.915
0.914
0.996
0.993
0.992
0.991
0.989
0.982

3740
3402.3
2367.8
2228.2
2149.8
1102
900.07
688.46
624.29
560.76
515.21
454.33
391.67
270.94
210.5
150.30
90.053
361.14
270.98
180.14
90.0436
939.42
846.30

2370
2212.7
1689.6
1599.7
1560.3
534.6
428.31
319.3
296.94
274.42
244.24
208.95
171.86
90.898
80.582
60.377
40.041
161.08
120.93
80.175
40.057
457.10
404.97

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

(13)
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

0.979
0.957
0.955
0.943
0.935
0.932
0.928
0.927
0.926

24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

421.26
950.11
887.56
824.31
753.25
625.59
471.78
270.22
60.0129

200.99
973.12
946.82
920.17
890.42
813.74
211.80
140.26
40.02

Following are the graphs, which show voltages at the buses

after each iteration. Graphs after each iteration are almost
looking alike. This signifies the fact that solutions get
converged very early on.

second iteration. It only signifies the fact that load flow

solutions get converged very early on, even in second
iteration. Because of the above fact, execution is very fast.
Best voltage is at bus number 2 and worst at bus number 18.
B. Graphical Outputs of the DLF program for Real and
Reactive Power Flowing Through Lines
Following are the graphs which show the real power flow
through lines after each iteration. Graphs after each iteration
are almost looking alike. This signifies the fact that solutions
get converged very early on.

Fig. 4. Comparative voltage variation along lines after subsequent iteration

The valley point or lower most point shown in the Fig. 4

shows the lowest voltage bus and the lowest bus voltage is on
bus number 18 of the system investigated. This bus is situated
at extreme end of the network. There is no significant change
in shapes of the graphs for different iterations which was
plotted for all the iterations simultaneously shows that there is
very little deviation in bus voltages in first iteration and

Fig. 5. Real power flow through lines. Fig. 5 shows the real
power flowing in the lines. After final convergence, again
there is no significant change in shapes of the graphs. Largest
real power flows through line no.1 and lowest flows through
line no. 33.

Fig. 6. Reactive power flow through lines.

In Fig. 6, the graphs that show the reactive power flow

through lines after each iteration. Graphs after each iteration
are almost looking alike. This signifies the fact that solutions
get converged very early on. Convergence of reactive power
as well, is on the same lines of real power as discussed above.
C. Comparison of Base and Optimal Voltages and That Given
in [6]
V1: Bus Voltages in per unit obtained from the DLF
program for Optimal Case. V2: Bus Voltages in
per unit obtained from the DLF
program for Base Case.. *V2: Bus
Voltages in per unit as given in [6].

Largest reactive power flows through the first line that is very
obvious as it is only line connected to substation and lowest in
line no.33.
compared to that of later case. Fig. 8 compare the results of
optimal bus voltage and [6]. Again the results of optimal DLF
case are better than [6] optimal case.

TABLE II COMPARISON OF VOLTAGES

Bus No.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

Vl(p.u)
0.9971
0.9939
0.9900
0.9864
0.9772
0.9513
0.9544
0.9510
0.9584
0.9585
0.9588
0.9562
0.9554
0.9449
0.9431
0.9402
0.9391
0.9947
0.9749
0.9694
0.9659
0.9904
0.9838
0.9805
0.9754
0.9731
0.9627
0.9552
0.9520
0.9486
0.9480

V2(p.u)
0.997
0.992
0.985
0.977
0.959
0.956
0.942
0.936
0.93
0.929
0.928
0.922
0.919
0.918
0.917
0.915
0.914
0.996
0.993
0.992
0.991
0.989
0.982
0.979
0.957
0.955
0.943
0.935
0.932
0.928
0.927

*V2(p.u)
0.997
0.9827
0.9752
0.9678
0.9491
0.9456
0.9407
0.9345
0.9286
0.9278
0.9263
0.9202
0.9179
0.9165
0.9151
0.9131
0.9125
0.9965
0.9929
0.9922
0.9915
0.9792
0.9725
0.9692
0.9471
0.9446
0.933
0.9248
0.9212
0.917
0.9161

Fig. 8. Voltage comparison.

Results obtained indicate that the approach to load flow

solutions is much superior to the previous approaches such as
used in [6] and [21]. The voltages at the majority of buses are
greater than those obtained by the other methods such as in
[6]. Also, real and reactive powers drawn are lower for the
same demand. This aspect leads the system to have lower
losses and better voltage deviations index (VDI) as shown by
the results.
Reduction in the real power loss, improved voltage
deviation and increased bus voltages are the merits shown by
the method used. This can be under stood by having a look on
the following tables III and IV.
TABLE III COMPARISON OF RESULTS.
Case

Loss
(DLF/given
in [21]) in

VDI
Worst
(DLF/given Voltage
in [21])

KW

Lines
switched out

(DLF/given
in [21]in p.u.

Base

201.42/
211

0.0174/
0.0248

0.9143/
0.9038

Optimal

158.24/
178

0.0039/
0.0041

0.9388/
0.9378

33* - 34* 35*- 36*37*

06 -14 - 09 32 - 37

* Tie Lines, Substation Vol tage = 12.66 kV

TABLE IV COMPARISON OF RESULTS (% FORM).

Fig. 7. Bus voltage for Base and optimal cases.

Case

%Loss
Reduction

% VDI
Improvement

% Increment in
Worst Voltage

Base

4.5

30

1.16

Optimal

11.1

4.8

0.106

Table II and Fig. 7 compares the results obtained for the

two cases considered .It is concluded from the figure that
voltages at the buses in case of optimal case is much better
than that in the base case for majority of buses. Few buses
have lower voltages (in case of optimal case) than that in base
case. This is because of the fact that in the former case the
structure of the network has been drastically changed as
VI.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new heuristic network reconfiguration
method for radial distribution system, in which the choice of
the switches to be opened is based on the calculation of
voltage at the buses, real and reactive power flowing through
lines, real power losses and voltage deviation, using
distribution load flow (DLF) program. Electrical Transient
Analyzer Program (ETAP) simulation is performed and results
obtained from the simulation proved the authenticity of the
program developed. Two matrices that are developed from the
topological characteristics of distribution systems are used to
solve load flow problems. The BIBC matrix represents the
relationship between bus current injections and branch
currents, and BCBV matrix represents the relationship
between branch current and bus voltages. The execution time
is extremely smaller as compared to known methods of other
load flow methods for radial distribution systems, such as fast
decoupled and Gauss Implicit Z-matrix method. Here, we do
not require to compute Z-matrix or jacobian.. This method is
extremely fast, so this can be used in online application.
Merit of this method used is that it is very effective and
solutions get conversed even in second equation there for the
execution time of the proposed method is quite small.
The above conclusions have been corroborated by the test
results.
VII.
REFERENCES
[I] C.S.Cheng and D.Shirmohammadi, A Three Phase Power Flow
Method
to Real-Time Distribution System Analysis, IEEE Trans. Power Syst.,
vol.10, pp 671-679, Nov.1995.
[2] R.D.Zimmermann and H.P.Chiang, Fast Decoupled Power Flow for
Radial Distribution System,IEEE Trans.Power Syst., vol.10, Nov.1995.
[3] Antonio Gomez Exposito Esther Romero Ramos, Reliable Load Flow
Technique for Radial Distribution Networks,IEEE Trans. Power Syst.,
vol. 14, no.3, pp. 1063-1070, 1999.
[4] Mesut E.Baran & Felix F. Wu, Network Reconfiguration in Distribution
Systems for Loss Reduction & Load Balancing, IEEE Trans Power
Del., vol.4, no.2, pp. 1401-1407, April 1989.
[5] Koichi Nara, Atsushi Shiose, Minoru Kitagawa & Toshihisa Ishihara,
Implementation of Genetic Algorithms for Distribution Systems Loss
Minimum Reconfiguration, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 7, no. 3, pp.
1044-1051,Aug.1992.
[6] S.K.Goswami & S.K.Basu, A New Algorithm for the Reconfiguration of
Distribution Feeders for Loss Minimization, IEEE Transa. Power Del.,
vol.7, no.3, pp. 1484-1491, July1992.
[7] Hoyong Kim, Yunseok Ko & Kung-Hee Jung, Artificial Neural-Network
Based Feeder Reconfiguration for Loss Reduction in Distribution
Systems, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol.8, no.3, pp. 1356-1366,
July1993.
[8] Ji-Yuan Fan, L.Zhang & John D. McDonald, Distribution Network

The voltage was improved by 4.5% and 11.1% in base case

and optimal case respectively. Voltage deviation index was
improved by 30% and 4.8% in base case and optimal case
respectively. Similarly worst voltage was improved by 1.16%
and 0.106% in base case and optimal case respectively.
Reconfiguration: Single Loop Optimization, IEEE Trans. Power Syst.,
vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 1643-1647,Aug.1996.
[9] R.J.Sarfi, M.M.A.Salama, and A.Y. Chikhani, Distribution system
reconfiguration for system loss reduction: an algorithm based on
network partitioning theory, IEEE Trans. Power Syst. vol. 11, no. 1, pp.
504-510, Feb.1996.
[10] Jin-C Wang, Hsiao-Dong Chiang & G.R.Darling, An Efficient
Algorithm for Real Time Network Reconfiguration in Large Scale
Unbalanced Distribution Systems, IEEE Trans. on Power Syst. vol. 11,
no. 1, pp. 511-517, Feb.1996.
[II] G.J.Peponis, M.P.Papadopoulas and N.D.Hatziragyrioue, Optimal
operation of distribution networks, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 11,
no. 1, pp. 59-67,February 1996.
[12] Tsai-Siang Chen & Jen-T. Cherng, Optimal Phase Arrangement of
Distribution Transformers Connected to a Primary Feeder for System
Unbalance Improvement & Loss Reduction Using a Genetic
Algorithm, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, no. 3, Aug. 2000.

[13] K.N.Miu, H.D.Chiang, and R.J.Mcnulty, Multitier service restoration

through network reconfiguration and capacitor control for large scale
radial distribution networks, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol.15, pp
1001-1007, Aug.2000. [14] Raman A Gallego, A.J.Manticelli & Ruben
Romero, Optimal Capacitor
Placement in Radial Distribution Networks, IEEE Trans Power Syst.,
vol.16, no.4, pp 630-637, Nov. 2001. [15] Antonio Augugliaro,
L.Dusonchet, M.G.Ippolito & E.R Sanseverino,
Minimum Loss Reconfiguration of MV Distribution Networks Through
Local Control of Tie Switches, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 8, no.3,
pp 762-712, July2003. [16] A.Moussa, M.El-Gammal, E.N.Abdallah,
and A.I.Attia, A Genetic
Based Algorithm For Loss Reduction in Distribution Systems, IEEE
Trans. Power Del., vol. 4, no., 2, pp. 447-453, May 2000. [17] Jen-Hao
Teng, A Direct Approach for Distribution System Load Flow
Solutions, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol.8, no.3, pp. 882-887, July2003.
[18] Yasuhiro Hayashi & Junya Matsuki, Loss Minimum Configuration of
Distribution System Considering N-1 Security of Dispersed
Generators, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., no14, pp. 636-642, Nov 2004.

[19] Miroslav M. Vigovic, Bransilav Radibratovic, Frank C.

Lambert, Multiobjective Volt-Var Optimization in Power

Systems, Proc. 37th Hawaii International Conference on System
Sciences, 2004. [20] S.S.Venkata, Anil Pahwa, Richard E. Brown, and
Richard D. Christie,
What future distribution engineers need to learn, IEEE Trans. on
Power Syst, Vol.19, No.1, Feb.2004. [21] B.Venkatesh, Rakesh Ranjan
& H.B.Gooi, Optimal Reconfiguration of
Radial Distribution Systems to Maximize Loadability, IEEE Trans. on
Power Syst., vol.19, no1, pp. 260-266, Feb. 2004. [22] Leon K.
Kirchmayer, Economic Operation of Power Systems,1 st edition,
Wiley Eastern Company, New Delhi,1979. [23] A. Merlin & H.Back,
Search for a Minimum Loss Operating Spanning
Tree Configuration in an Urban Power Distribution System, Proc. 5th
Power Systems Computer Conference (P.S.C.C) Cambridge, 1975. [24]
D.Shirmohammadi, H.W.Hong, A.Semlyen & G.Y.Luo, A
Compensation Based Power Flow Method for Weakly Meshed
Distribution & Transmission Networks, IEEE Trans. on Power
Syst.Vol.3, May 1988. [25] T.-H.Chen, M.-S.Chen, K.-J.Hwang,
P.Kotas & E.A.Chebli,
Distribution System Power System Analysis-A Rigid Approach, IEEE
Trans. on Power Del., Vo6, July1991.