Analysis of Radial Constraint Representation Methods for Distribution Networks

In distribution network optimization problems, radial topology is an important constraint to be considered. The review of existing radial constraint representation methods (RCRMs) has not been reported yet, while appropriate method should be selected according to specific network to improve solving efficiency. This paper is devoted to a new RCRM and a summary of the existing RCRMs. Firstly, based on the idea of loop disconnection, a sufficient and necessary condition for distribution network topology to be radial is proposed, and an algorithm for searching all loops in a network is introduced. Then, the differences and characteristics of various RCRMs are analyzed. Finally, the introduced RCRMs are applied to the problem of service restoration reconfiguration. Simulation result on an actual distribution network in Fuzhou, China compares the computing performance of different methods.