Optimal distribution network reconfiguration considering power quality issues

Distribution network reconfiguration as a technique for reducing network losses and enhancing voltage profile has attracted attention of many researchers. In spite of impacts network reconfiguration can have on power quality indices, the potentials have not been studied enough. To fill the gap, this paper presents a method to determine optimum network configuration considering voltage profile, network losses, and total harmonic distortion (THD). The proposed method also vouches for radial structure of the network, supplying all loads, and maintaining voltages and currents within allowable bounds. Since network reconfiguration problem is a combinatorial optimization problem, a meta-heuristic method is applied here. The method is based on a modified version of selective particle swarm optimization (PSO). To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method, it is applied to the IEEE 69-bus standard test system and the results are compared with those of genetic algorithm (GA) and ant colony optimization (ACO).