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Optimal Distribution System Reconfiguration for Loss Minimization using

BPSO Algorithm

Conference Paper · February 2019

DOI: 10.1109/IREC.2019.8754519

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The 10th International Renewable Energy Congress (IREC 2019)
Optimal Distribution System Reconfiguration for
Loss Minimization using BPSO Algorithm
Sirine Essallah *
Université de Sousse, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de
Sousse, LATIS- Laboratory of Advanced Technology and
Intelligent Systems, 4023, Sousse, Tunisie;
Email: sirinesallah@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper presents a Binary Particle Swarm
Optimization (BPSO) based approach for network
reconfiguration. This approach aims to improve power loss
minimization and voltage profile while maintaining distribution
network radial structure and satisfying system constraints.
Three different load scenarios are considered during network
reconfiguration to assess the performance of the proposed
technique. Simulations are carried out on IEEE 33-bus test
system. Results demonstrate well the performance and
effectiveness of the proposed method.
Keywords—Reconfiguration; BPSO; radial structure; power
loss minimization; voltage profile improvement
I. INTRODUCTION
The main objective of a modern electric power system is to
satisfy the customer demand in a reliable and more economical
manner. However, electric distribution systems are becoming
large and complex leading to higher system losses and poor
voltage regulation. Studies indicate that almost 13% of the total
generated power is lost by Joule effect at the distribution level
[1], which in turn, leads to a poor voltage profile along the
distribution feeder. Therefore, utilities have constantly been
looking for new technologies to improve the reliability of
distribution networks power transmission. One of the most
commonly used methods for voltage stability enhancement and
power loss reduction is network reconfiguration [2]. This
approach consist of changing the network topology by altering
the open/closed status of sectionalizing and tie switches to find
a radial operating structure that minimizes the objective
function while satisfying the operating constraints [3].
Since many switching combinations are possible in
distribution system, network reconfiguration is considered as a
complex nonlinear combinatorial, non-differentiable
constrained optimization problem [4, 5]. The discrete nature of
switch values and radial structure constraint prevent the use of
classical optimization techniques to solve the reconfiguration
problem. Therefore, most developed algorithms in the literature
are based on heuristic search techniques. Over the past two
decades, many methods have been used for network
reconfiguration, as shown in Fig.1 [6]. Based on the problem
significance, in recent years, a wide range of studies has been
978-1-7281-0140-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Adel Khedher
Université de Sousse, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de
Sousse, LATIS- Laboratory of Advanced Technology and
Intelligent Systems, 4023, Sousse, Tunisie;
Email: adel_kheder@yahoo.fr
Network reconfiguration
appr oac hes
Conventional Heuristic
Optimal power
Meta Heuristic
flow Knowle dge based
Ant C olony Evolutionary Simulated
Optimiz ation
Tabu search
Algorithm
Genetic Algorithm
Annealing
Cukoo search
Algorithm
Fuzzy Logic BAT Algorithm
Gravitational
search Algorithm
Particle Swarm
Optimiz ation
Fig.1. Classification of network reconfiguration approaches
implemented on the reconfiguration issue. Many of them have
addressed network reconfiguration problem from a technical or
economic view point by improving distribution system
reliability and reducing network total and operational costs.
However, the greatest attention has been given to active power
losses minimization [7]. Distribution system reconfiguration by
minimizing system losses was first proposed in 1975 by Merlin
and Back [8]. Afterwards, considerable research has been
conducted in this area to make network reconfiguration more
efficient. Various techniques such as PSO, Tabu search (TS),
knowledge-based expert system, simulated annealing (SA),
optimization by single loop, ant colony search method (ACS)
and harmony search algorithm (HS) have been proposed in the
literature [9-14]. The main advantages of the BPSO algorithm
in comparison with other intelligent algorithms (e.g.,
SA) is, the simplicity of its structure, the reduced
number of tunable parameters, the good convergence
characteristics and the high global searching capability
that facilitate its application to the reconfiguration
problem.
In this paper, a BPSO based algorithm for network
reconfiguration is presented. The active power losses
minimization is considered as the objective function. The
proposed approach is tested on the IEEE 33-bus distribution
system and simulation results proves the good performance of
the proposed approach.
 The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
The problem formulation of the distribution system
Where PijLigne is the absolute power flowing in branch ij and
reconfiguration is presented in section II. Section III describes PijLigne
max is the maximum transmission power between buses i
the proposed algorithm. Simulation results are presented and
discussed in section IV. We finish this paper by some remarks and j.
and conclusions.
• Bus voltage constraint:
II. NETWORK RECONFIGURATION PROBLEM FORMULATION
Vmin  Vi Vmax i = 1, 2,  , N (4)
Distribution system reconfiguration problem is to find the best
configuration of radial network which gives minimum power
losses while the imposed operating constraints are satisfied. Where Vi is the voltage magnitude of the ith bus, Vmin and
A. Objective function Vmax are the minimum and maximum permitted voltage
In this study, the optimization problem is formulated based magnitudes respectively.
on active power loss minimization considering constraints and
different load fluctuation scenarios. The objective function can • Branch current limit:
be defined as follows:
I ij I max , i ∈ {1, 2, 3,..., N c } (5)
N −1
F (X) = Min( ki ri I i2 ) (1)
i =1
Where I ij is the current flowing in the branch ij, I max is the
With, X = [ x1 , x2 , , xNc ] maximum permissible current limit.

Where ri and I i are respectively the resistance and the • Radial topology constraint
current of the ith branch, ki is a binary variable which Since most distribution systems operate in a radial topology as
represents the state of the branches, N is the total number of a compromise between investment cost (mainly related to
distribution network buses, X is the control variables vector, protection systems) and reliability, the radial topology is
xi is the state of the ith branch, and Nc is the total number of considered as a constraint.
branches. III. BPSO ALGORITHM
The PSO algorithm developed by Kennedy and Eberhart
B. Constraints [15] is one of the most used heuristic methods to solve many
For each proposed configuration, the power flow analysis problems related to electrical network. The PSO algorithm is
should be carried out to compute system power losses, bus based on the social behavior of a set of particles that move
voltages and branch current. The objective function is towards an optimal solution. The latter will depend on their
subjected to the following constraints: own experiences as well as that of the other particles of the
group.
• Power flow equations:
Each particle i of the D-dimensional search space is
 N
associated with a position vector and a velocity vector
 Pi =  ViV j Yij cos(θij − δ i + δ j ) represented respectively by X i = [ xi1 , xi 2 ,..., xiD ] and
 i =1
 N
(2) Vi = [vi1 , vi 2 ,..., viD ] . The best position of the particle is
Q = V V Y sin(θ − δ + δ )
 i  i j ij ij i j recorded and represented by Pbesti = { Pi1 , Pi 2 ,  , PiD } . The
 i =1 particle having the best position among all the particles of the
group is represented by Gbest = PbestG = { PG1 , PG 2 ,..., PGD } .
Where Pi and Qi are respectively the active and reactive
Position and velocity of each particle are updated as
powers injected at the ith bus, Vi and δ i are respectively the follows:
amplitude and the angle of the voltage at the ith bus. Yij and θij ( k +1) (k ) (k )
Vi = ω × Vi + c1 × rand1 (ο )( Pbesti − X i ) +
are respectively the amplitude and the angle of the branch (6)
(k )
admittance between buses i and j. c2 × rand 2 (ο )(Gbesti − X i )

• Distribution line limits: xi( k +1) = xi(k ) + Vi( k +1) (7)

Ligne Ligne
Pij < Pij max (3)
Where k is the iteration number, ω is the inertial weight, c1 Begin
and c2 are the weighting factors of the stochastic acceleration
that pull each particle to the Pbest and Gbest positions, rand1
Read network Data and compute system power losses
and rand2 are random numbers between 0 and 1, Pbesti is the by means of Newton Raphson algorithm
best previous experience of the ith particle, Gbesti is the best
particle among the entire population and N is the total number
of particles composing the swarm. Set BPSO parameters and iteration number k

The inertia weight ω is set according to the following

equation [16]:
Randomly initialize particles positions and velocities

ωmax − ωmin
ω ( k +1) = ωmax − ×k (8)
k max Calculate the objective function for each particle,
based on distribution load flow results
Where kmax is the maximum number of iterations, ωmax and
ωmin are respectively the maximum and minimum inertia Select the global position Gbest based on the objective
function values
weights.
In the network reconfiguration problem, the switches can
Select the ith particle
have only two states open/close. Thus, the status of the switch k=k+1
can be described by a binary vector. The BPSO was introduced
by Kennedy and Eberhart to allow the PSO algorithm to
operate in binary search spaces [17]. Each element of the Select the local position Pbest for the ith particle

position vector can only take binary values and the particle i=i+1
velocity is represented by a probability which takes its values
Update velocity and position of each particle using
in [0,1]. A logical transformation S (Vi (k) ) is used to equations (7) and (10) respectively

accomplish this last modification where the particle position is

redefined as follows:
All particles are

(k) 1, rand (ο )S (Vi (k) ) selected

Xi = (9)
0, otherwise
where rand(o) is a random number in [0, 1], and S (Vi (k) ) is k>kmax
a sigmoid function that converts velocity into a probability by
means of equation (11):

(k) 1 Stop and print results

S (Vi )=
(k)
1 + exp( −Vi )
The BPSO algorithm is given by Fig.2 where the last Gbest
value represents the optimal solution of the network
reconfiguration problem [16].
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Test system and simulation studied cases
The base configuration of the IEEE 33-bus distribution
system used in simulation is depicted in Fig.3. The normally
open switches are S33 to S37, represented by dashed lines and
the normally closed switches, S1 to S32, are represented by
solid lines. The nominal system voltage is 12.66 kV and the
total system loads are 3715 kW and 2300kVAr [18]. The
active power losses at the base case are 197 kW. For a safe
operation of the distribution system, the power loss rate P
given by (12) is limited to 7% [19].
PT
P (%) = × 100
PG
(10)
End
Fig.2. BPSO algorithm
where PT and PG are respectively the total active power losses
and the network generated power.
Accordingly, the allowable increase rate of active power
load from the initial case is LI=20% which leads to the
increase of power losses to 264kW which corresponds to a
34% increase rate. For the active and reactive load increase
case, the allowable rate LI is limited to 15% which
corresponds to a total power loss of 269 kW which
corresponds to a 36.55% increase rate. Thus, in this study
three different cases are considered to analyze the superiority
and performance of the proposed method:
• Case1: Nominal load (1.0)
• Case2: Active power load increase (1.2)
(11)
• Case 3: Active and reactive power load increase (1.15)
 π π
Fig. 5 illustrates the network voltage profile for different
studied cases before and after the reconfiguration.
π π π π π π
π
1
π

π
π π π π π π
π
π π π π π π π π π π π
0.98

0.96
π

π π π
0.94

0.92 Case 1 BR
Fig.3. IEEE 33-bus system before reconfiguration Case 2 BR
Case 3 BR
0.9 Case 1 AR
B. Results and discussion Case 2 AR
Case 3 AR
Referring to literature [20] [21] and by testing the BPSO 0.88
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
algorithm several times to correctly adjust the population size, Bus Number
the number of iterations and the inertia weight, the BPSO Fig. 5. Voltage profil of the 33-bus system before reconfiguration (BR) and
parameters are selected as follows: after reconfiguration (AR)

ωmin = 0.4; ωmax = 0.9

 From this figure it can be seen that the network voltage profile
C1 = 2; C2 = 2.05 has considerably improved after reconfiguration compared to
 Pop = 50; k = 500 the base case. Before reconfiguration when the load increases
 max
by 20% and 15% for cases 2 and 3 respectively, the voltage
The new configuration obtained for different studied cases is amplitude decreases by 1,62% and 1,73% respectively. After
illustrated by Fig.4. The application of the network network reconfiguration, the improvement of the voltage
reconfiguration strategy to the distribution system for different profile for these cases is equal to 4.21% and 4.07%
cases has reduced the system losses to 131kW, 173kW and respectively. Comparing cases 2 and 3, we remark that the
193kW for the first, second and third power load cases increase of network reactive load causes a higher voltage drop
respectively. Thus, the loss reduction rate is 33.5%, 34.46% that is mainly due to the increase of line currents. Table. 1
and 28.25% for case one, two and three respectively. summarizes the simulation results of different cases before and
after reconfiguration.
π π
TABLE I. SIMULATION RESULTS FOR THE 33-BUS SYSTEM FOR DIFFERENT
CASES

π π π π π π
π

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

π
Item
BR AR BR AR BR AR
π

PLoss ( kW ) 197 131 264 173 269 193

π π π π π π π π π π π π π π

Loss
reduction - 33.5 - 34.46 - 28.25
π

(%)
π
π π π
Vmin ( p.u ) 0.90845 0.93935 0.8937 0.9313 0.8928 0.9292
Voltage
(a) improvement - 3.4 - 4.21 - 4.07
(%)
π 33-34- 33-34- 7-9- 33-34- 7-14-
Open 7-9-14-
35-36- 35-36- 14-32- 35-36- 32-35-
switches 32-37
37 37 37 37 37
LI (%) - - 20 53 15 33
π π π π π
π

π
π

π π π π π π
π
π π π π π π π π π Referring to Table I, the minimum bus voltage after
reconfiguration has increased from 0.90845 to 0.93935 for the
first case, from 0.8937 p.u to 0.9312 p.u for the second case
π

and from 0.8928 p.u to 0.931 p.u for the third case. Thus, an
π π π
improvement of 3.4%, 4.21% and 4.07% for cases 1, 2 and 3
respectively is recorded. With the new network configuration,
(b) we can reach up to 53% of load increase for the second case
Fig.4. New network configuration: a) Cases 1 and 2, b) Case 3
and up to 33% for the third one without affecting the network
performance. This proves that the BPSO based network
reconfiguration is effective for a long period since this load
level will not be quickly reached.
To ensure the reliability of the proposed approach, the
obtained results for the nominal load level are compared with
those of other approaches developed in the literature as shown
in Table II. Referring to Table II, it can be seen that the
proposed reconfiguration solution has a better performance
compared to other methods in terms of reducing network
losses and voltage drop.

TABLE II. COMPARISON OF SIMULATION RESULTS FOR CASE 1 WITH APPROACHES DEVELOPED IN LITERATURE

Item
Approach
PLoss ( kW ) PLoss ( kW ) Loss reduction Vmin ( p.u ) Vmin ( p.u ) Voltage
Open switches
(BR) (AR) (%) (BR) (AR) improvement (%)
Proposed approach 7-9-14-32-37 197 131 33.5 0.90845 0.93935 3.4
GA-PSO [22] 7-9-14-32-37 202.7 139.5 31.2 0.9131 0.9378 2.7
CSA [23] 7-9-14-32-37 203.67 138.87 30.93 0.9108 0.9424 3.46
IAICA [24] 7-9-14-32-37 203.67 139.51 31.5 0.9108 0.9378 2.96
FWA [3] 7-9-14-28-32 203.67 139.98 31.27 0.9131 0.9413 3.09

V. CONCLUSION via network reconfiguration,” Renewable and sustainable energy reviews,

This paper proposes a BPSO algorithm to optimally
reconfigure radial distribution system. In the proposed
algorithm, minimizing power losses is considered as the
objective function where balancing load on feeders, maximum
load on feeders and deviation of voltages from nominal are
considered as constraints. The proposed approach is tested on
the IEEE 33-bus test system at three different load levels.
According to the obtained results, it is found that the proposed
method is very efficient in finding the optimal solution for all
load cases. A comparison between obtained results and those
of other developed algorithms in the literature has proved its
superiority in terms of loss reduction and voltage profile
improvement.
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