Enhancement of Electrical Distribution System Operation Using Intelligent Optimization Techniques Considering Unbalanced Condition

Abstract

The enhancement of distribution system operation is proposed in this paper by optimally controlling the installed switchable devices. The objective of the control is to simultaneously minimize system losses and improve system voltage profile. This objective may be achieved by optimally dispatching the controllable components (shunt capacitor and Load Tap Changer/LTC) taking into account system unbalanced. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is developed to determine the load curve partition useful for effective LTC scheduling and switching constraint satisfaction. GA is also assigned to determine the hourly status of shunt capacitor switching and LTC tap position. For power flow analyses under unbalanced conditions, Forward/Backward Propagation Algorithm is developed and employed. The strategy is implemented on the IEEE 34-bus unbalanced distribution system and the resulted improvement is analyzed. The main contribution is inclusion of unbalanced system conditions into optimization problem.