Optimal reconfiguration and capacitor placement for power loss reduction of distribution system using improved binary particle swarm optimization

Optimal reconfiguration and capacitor placement are used to reduce power losses and keep the voltage within its allowable interval in power distribution systems considering voltage, current, and radial condition constraints. It is needed to solve two nonlinear discrete optimization problems simultaneously, so an intelligent algorithm is used to reach an optimum solution for network power losses. An effective method and a new optimization algorithm using “improved binary PSO” is presented and discussed to minimize power losses in distribution network by simultaneous networking of reconfiguration and capacitor placement. The proposed model uses binary strings which represent the state of the network switches and capacitors. The algorithm is applied and tested on 16- and 33-bus IEEE test systems to find the optimum configuration of the network with regard to power losses. Five different cases are considered and the effectiveness of the proposed technique is also demonstrated with improvements in power loss reduction compared to other previously researched methods, through MATLAB under steady-state conditions. © 2014, The Author(s).