IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO.
3, AUGUST 2008
Reconfiguration of MV Distribution Networks
With Multicost and Multipoint Alternative Supply,
Part II: Reconfiguration Plan
Omar F. Fajardo and Alberto Vargas, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This is the second part of a two-paper set that
presents a methodology to determine an optimal radial reconfig-
uration plan for a medium voltage (MV) distribution network.
It is applicable to primary distribution systems with multicost
and multipoint alternative supply for short and medium terms.
The optimization criterion is based on minimizing the operation
costs, including the purchased energy cost and switching cost. In
addition to the proposed methodology, a main contribution of the
work is to evaluate the impact of the energy price on the operative
topology working within a competitive market structure, where
the demand is supplied from several purchase nodes featuring
significantly different energy prices. The methodology is based
on dynamic programming, heuristics, and a method to calculate
the economic dispatch (ED) through radialization specifically
designed for multicost and multipoint alternative supply, as is the
case of distribution networks. The capacity of the network com-
ponents, the service quality, and the dynamics of the demand are
considered. Finally, the advantages of applying the methodology
to a realistic distribution network are discussed.
Index Terms—Ac power flow, economic dispatch, energy price,
loss, minimization costs, network reconfiguration, radialization.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N some European electrical markets the traditional role of
the utilities is evolving from the concept of a distributor of
electricity to one of a competition facilitator in generation and
trading [1]. In this context, there is wide range of possibilities
for the development of the connection of power generation to
the distribution network, as is the case of distributed generation.
This development has been promoted in main electrical mar-
kets of the world by special circumstances, such as high energy
prices due to high power transmission costs [2]; improvements
on the efficiency of generating units, along with a decrease in in-
vestment and operative costs; newer official environmental poli-
cies that promote the substitution of fossil fuel generation for
green generation [3]; new operative philosophies for MV distri-
bution networks that aim at taking advantage of the distributed
generation to improve service quality, and the like.
In traditional models, the wholesale electrical market sup-
plied the entire distribution system demand through one or sev-
Manuscript received December 14, 2006; revised December 24, 2007. Paper
no. TPWRS-00882-2006.
O. F. Fajardo is with ICSA, M5507ADA, Mendoza, Argentina (e-mail: omar.
fajardo@icsa.com.ar).
A. Vargas is with Instituto de Energía Eléctrica, Universidad Nacional de San
Juan, J5400ARL San Juan, Argentina (e-mail: avargas@iee.unsj.edu.ar).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2008.926702
0885-8950/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
1401
eral purchase nodes having a single uniform price. The growing
distributed generation phenomenon is shifting the traditional
model of energy management towards competitive ones. In this
new scenario, the utility, the retailers, or the final clients can al-
ternatively buy the energy in the wholesale market and/or from
generating utilities connected directly to the distribution net-
work at least in two nodes showing significantly different prices.
In this paper, systems that fall within this model description are
called “distribution systems with multicost and multipoint alter-
native supply nodes.”
For a scenario featuring a free offer of energy prices, the op-
erative configuration of the network, considered as the optimal
one according to any of the traditional reconfiguration criteria
(loss power minimization [4], [5], loss energy minimization [6],
[7], load balancing [8], [9] or operation cost minimization [10]),
will not necessarily be the economically advisable one as well.
This paper is focused on analyzing the impact of energy price
on the reconfiguration strategy of MV distribution networks of
multicost and multipoint alternative supply. The work objective
is to establish the plan for an optimal topological reconfigura-
tion for the short and medium terms.
The problem is solved by searching for the optimal sequence
of radial operative topologies from among a small set of topolo-
gies, using forward dynamic programming. This set is com-
posed mainly by the configurations of minimum energy cost as-
sociated to each demand scenario for the period. Each configu-
ration is determined independently with an economic dispatch
(ED) through radialization method dedicated to multicost and
multipoint alternative supply distribution networks [11]. The ap-
proach takes into account the capacity limits of the network el-
ements, the service quality with regard to voltage levels, the op-
erative cost of switching devices and the changing behavior of
the demand.
Tests were performed on a real 290-node MV distribution
network for a scenario of different energy prices.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The optimal reconfiguration plan aims at determining a se-
quence of radial operative topologies for the MV network that
decreases the total operative costs for a time window of short or
medium terms. The operation costs allow assessing the energy
costs associated to both the demand and the loss. Therefore,
it allows considering alternative prices for the energy, so that
the purchase nodes showing smaller prices are given a high-pri-
ority at the time of selecting the supply sources for the demand
and loss. The method includes the total switching costs, which
1402
are very small when compared with the benefits from reducing
the purchase costs. They represent, however, a significant eco-
nomic signal that arises to penalize excessive maneuvering of
SDs. This last point is currently changing [12], [13] and it is
now advisable to take it into account for reliability reasons.
The problem can be stated in a general way as
Minimize
subject to Connectivity of all the demand
Radial operative topology
Complex power balance
Network capacity limit
Maximum purchase node active power
Voltage limit
where
OC operation cost in period ; III. SOLUTION METHODOLOGY
number of demand scenarios for period ;
number of purchase nodes of the MV network;
energy price at the purchase node for scenario ;
active injection power of the purchase node for the
topology of scenario ;
operative radial topology for scenario ;
duration (time length) of scenario ;
switching transition cost to change the topology in
scenario to the topology in scenario ;
; voltages node and node ;
admittance between nodes and ;
apparent power injected into node ;
conjugate of admittance between nodes and ;
nod set of nodes of the distribution network;
set of nodes directly connected to node ;
thermal limit of current of line section ;
nls set of line sections of the MV network;
maximum active power of the HV/MV transformer
associated to purchase node ;
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008
voltage of node in the demand scenario ;
; upper and lower limit of the nodal voltage.
Constraints (2)–(7) are applied to the entire period. The injec-
tion power of the purchased nodes depends on the operative state
of the SD, which is a set of decision variables (integer-binary).
From the mathematical viewpoint, the optimal reconfigura-
tion plan is an integer-binary problem characterized by its large
dimension, its nonlinearity caused by loss, and its non-differen-
tiable and highly combinatorial features. Therefore, it is almost
impossible to solve the problem in acceptable computing times
(1) using a closed optimization method.
In order to solve the optimization problem, it is necessary to
(2) split it into sub-problems that, when taken altogether, meet the
(3) target of decreasing the total operative cost. These subproblems
are
1) The ED of demand and loss is required for each interval
(4) of period . The ED finds the percentage of demand
and loss that must be supplied from each supply node so
that the purchased energy cost is minimized. The ED is
found by making the MV network radial. This subproblem
is called “ED through Radialization” and it is treated in
(5)
[11].
2) The second subproblem is the search for the optimal re-
(6) configuration plan. This is solved like a case of ED with
(7) changing optimality conditions to balance the energy costs
and the switching costs, to follow the load in time.
A three-stage methodology was chosen, which first sets the
search-space bounds for the solution. Second, it verifies the con-
straints for electrical operation and, third, it applies optimization
techniques to define the optimal reconfiguration plan.
Because of the large number of possible radial operative
topologies the network may adopt, it is convenient to reduce it
to a selected subset considered as the best reference. In order
to determine the subset without missing the best solution, two
criteria are used, namely, the present configuration and the
independent minimum energy cost configuration for each load
period [11]. Bearing in mind that the optimal reconfiguration
plan is integrated by the above-mentioned independent solutions
for each load period when the switching cost is disregarded,
then, no additional optimization is necessary afterwards. This
reconfiguration plan is the most beneficial one regard purchase
costs and the target to attain, from the viewpoint of the main
objective of the reconfiguration plan. The second objective
is to avoid the excessive number of configuration changes
when the purchase cost difference is small, by considering low
switching costs. In this sense, the optimization process discards
some configuration changes in some periods. This means that,
if the small switching costs associated to reconfiguration are
larger than the reduction of purchase costs, both independent
configurations are similar one another and, therefore, it is not
necessary to change the configuration for cost reasons, when
considering the premise of reducing the number of switching
operations.
FAJARDO AND VARGAS: RECONFIGURATION OF MV DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS—PART II
On the other hand, the present configuration keeps being op-
timal when all independent minimum energy cost configura-
tions lie closely among themselves, and the benefits from re-
configuration are not significant when compared to the small
switching costs.
The selection of optimal independent configurations taken as
reference guarantees that an optimal reconfiguration plan will be
reached, that corresponds to a global optimum solution or one
lying very near to it, with a small number of switching opera-
tions and small computation time, without discarding the best
solution that comes very close to the best possible configura-
tions. It can be concluded that in spite of being very small com-
pared to the total costs, the switching costs imply a high sensi-
tivity to the number of switching operations.
Taking into account the above considerations, the following
stages in the methodology will be described according to the
order in which they are solved.
A. Stage 1
Identification of the minimum energy cost configurations.
This stage consists on computing these configurations for each
demand scenario using the ED through radialization algorithm
proposed in [11].
B. Stage 2
Verification of the electrical operative conditions and energy
cost computation for each possible scenario. For each demand
scenario and using an ac power flow algorithm [11], both the
electrical operative conditions and the line capacity limits for
the subset of topologies are verified. For a given scenario, any
operative topology that violates any voltage or current limit is
eliminated from the subset of topologies of such scenario.
The results from the ac power flow are also used to calculate
the energy costs for each configuration computed in stage 1 and
demand scenario according to the following equation:
(8)
where is the cost of purchased energy of the operative
topology in the demand scenario . This stage also con-
siders the switching cost of all possible topological transitions
that may occur from among the subset of topologies
(9)
where
switching cost to change the radial operative
topology network from to configuration;
NSD number of switching devices;
binary variable; it represent changes in the
state of SD when passing from topology to
topology . It is “1” if the SD is actuated upon,
and “0” if not;
maneuvering cost of the SD ;
1403
investment cost of the SD ;
number of SD operations without need for
maintenance.
Equation (9) only considers remotely operated SDs (null labor
cost).
C. Stage 3
Selection of the optimal reconfiguration plan. With the al-
ready constructed search space, an optimization algorithm is
then applied; it allows selecting an optimal sequence of radial
operative topologies which considers the total operative costs as
the sum of purchased energy costs plus the switching costs. The
reconfiguration plan search is done with forward dynamic pro-
gramming, because the Bellman optimization principle is met.
In the reconfiguration plan problem, the period time intervals
and the operative topologies are equivalent, to the stages and
stage states that form the structure of problems solved with dy-
namic programming, respectively. The benefits from using the
above approach are a greater robustness to deal with highly com-
binatorial problems, a lower computational effort and faster cal-
culation times. It also guarantees arriving at the optimal global
solution (or a closely lying one) from the considered search
space.
The process to find the optimal reconfiguration plan has three
steps:
D. Step 1
Calculation of the recursive relation for time interval
starting from the operative configuration up to ,
where is the number of feasible configurations for interval .
The recursive relation is expressed as follows:
(10)
where
cumulative operation cost to go from the
present operative topology in the initial
interval to topology in time interval ;
switching cost to change from topology
to ;
energy cost of topology in time interval ;
value of recursive relation for operative
topology in interval .
E. Step 2
Repetition of step 1 for the time intervals from to
, where is the number of period intervals.
F. Step 3
The value of the recursive relation for a specific configuration
of the last stage represents the minimum operation cost of a re-
configuration program to go from the initial stage configuration
to the final stage configuration. Therefore, the global optimal re-
configuration plan, or ED of the MV network, will correspond
to that one associated to the configuration of the last interval
1404 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 2. Initial configuration of the 290-node test network.

Fig. 1. Computing algorithm for the optimal reconfiguration plan.

TABLE I
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEST NETWORK

( ) with the smallest value of recursive relation, as stated

by the following:
Optimal Reconfiguration Plan (11)
Fig. 1 summarizes the steps involved in the global solving
methodology.

IV. NUMERICAL RESULTS

The solution algorithm was implemented on computing soft-
ware based on Fortran 90. Tests were performed for a MV distri-
bution network of Mendoza, Argentina. Fig. 2 shows the single- TABLE II
wire diagram of the simplified network, but it includes only the MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF PURCHASE NODES
reconfigurable branches.
The purchase nodes and their coverage areas for the initial
radial topology are graphically highlighted. Table I summarizes
the basic characteristics. The initial operative topology was de-
termined on the basis of a practical criterion used in other pre-
vious network reconfiguration approaches [9]. It allocates the
demand proportionally to the nominal power of the HV/MV
transformer of each purchase node, while considering the max-
imum demand scenario. Table II shows, for each purchase node,
the rated values of the HV/MV transformers, the active power
dispatch for peak demand, and the names/codes of feeders.
The characterizing parameter for the energy price scenario
is the relative difference of energy price (RDEP), which repre-
sents the maximum percentage difference of prices with respect
to the smallest one. The chosen relative differences of energy
price were 20, 10, 15, 5 and 1%. Considering the price schemes
used in Latin America, the price values are differentiated Table III. The consumed-energy price units are monetary units
according to time bands in hours. The highest prices are linked per megawatts-hour [MU/MWh].
to the maximum demand hour-band; conversely, the lowest The testing period was four weeks. The daily demand is mod-
prices correspond to the hour-band of minimum demand. Under eled in three steps, corresponding to the hour-based bands of
these premises, the price scenario was designed as shown in Table III. Then, the demand curve was modeled through 84
FAJARDO AND VARGAS: RECONFIGURATION OF MV DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS—PART II
TABLE III
PRICE SCENARIOS
TABLE IV
OPERATION COST AND NUMBER OF RECONFIGURATIONS
steps. The demand was estimated with recorded data measured
at the head section of feeders. The demand was allocated to each
MV/LV transformer in proportion to its rated power. Therefore,
84 demand values are estimated for all 187 load nodes of the
network.
The results obtained with the proposed methodology were
compared with a reference configuration plan which entails
keeping the configuration topology of Fig. 2 unaltered for the
entire testing period.
The main results shown in Table IV are the total operation
costs for both the reference plan and the minimum operation
cost plan; the relative decrease in costs; and the number of
topology changes as referred to the optimal reconfiguration
plan.
For the largest relative difference of energy price (20%), the
net cost reduction obtained with the proposed methodology was
larger than 6% of the total operative cost of the reference plan.
1405
TABLE V
ENERGY DISPATCH FOR THE TEST PERIOD
This means a significant reduction in global operative costs
for the instances showing a significant price difference. With a
5% relative difference in energy price, it is possible to achieve
reductions greater than 1% of the total operative costs. Other
reconfiguration plans (not shown here) were found to attain
greater decreases with fewer device maneuvers. However, these
were discarded because voltage violations and/or capacity
limits occurred for about 40% of the demand scenarios. In this
sense the methodology for the optimal reconfiguration plan
is oriented to find a trade-off solution between operative cost
reductions, number of switching, and operative limits of the
network.
Table V shows the energy rating allocation among supply
nodes for the optimal solution, and the total energy supplied for
the testing period, for different price scenarios.
It can be noted how, as the difference in energy prices grows,
the node having the highest price (PN04) gradually loses its de-
mand. Node PN06 takes most of the demand lost by PN04 be-
cause it has a lower price, greater reserve power at the injection
node and several network bonds with the feeders associated to
PN04. On the other hand, Node PN12, in spite of featuring an
equal price to that of PN06, takes very little proportion from
the demand being lost by PN04. This is explained by the lim-
ited capacity of the injection node and that it does not have any
network bond with PN04. As it was expected, the nodes with
smaller price and greater capacity for load-taking are favored in
the reallocation of demand.
In order to evaluate the effect of switching costs on the op-
timal reconfiguration plan, Tables VI and VII show the test re-
sults for two conditions, i.e., null and non null switching costs,
respectively. For the first case, switching maneuver costs of
1.33 MU/maneuver for circuit breakers and reclosers and 0.53
MU/maneuver for the sectionalizers were considered. Only re-
motely-operated SDs were considered (labor cost zero).
From the tables it can be seen that, although the switching cost
represents less than 0.2% of the total operative cost for all cases,
its inclusion reduces the number of SD maneuvers about 92%,
without substantially affecting the net reduction of the operative
cost. Besides, from the operative security viewpoint, it is crucial
to implement operative strategies that attain the pursued cost
reductions with the fewest maneuvers possible. In this sense,
the switching cost is an effective economic signal that penalizes
those solutions presenting little contribution to the reduction of
operative costs and that tend to overload the number of SDs
maneuvers.
1406
TABLE VI
EFFECT OF SWITCHING COSTS ON THE RECONFIGURATION STRATEGIES
TABLE VII
EFFECT OF SWITCHING COSTS ON THE RECONFIGURATION STRATEGIES
TABLE VIII
SENSITIVITY ON THE NUMBER OF MANEUVERS AND OPERATIVE
COSTS UNDER AN INCREASE OF MANEUVER COSTS
Finally, with the aim of observing the sensitivity onto the
number of SDs maneuvers and operative costs when there is an
increase of maneuver cost, the optimal reconfiguration plan was
calculated with 50% and 100% increases in maneuver costs. Re-
sults are shown in Table VIII. This table shows that the operative
costs are little affected by an increase in SDs maneuver costs.
The reason is that the total switching costs keep being a negli-
gible value with respect to the total operative costs, even for a
100% increase in SDs maneuver costs. This, in turn, stems from
the fact that only teleoperated switching equipment was consid-
ered, as is the current trend for all power distribution systems.
However, this is not so for the number of SDs maneuvers. This
parameter was decreased 22% and 46% compared to an increase
in the cost of maneuvers of 50% and 100%, respectively. It is
therefore reasonable to expect that the number of SDs maneu-
vers will be smaller for higher maneuver costs.
In order to compare the effect of applying the traditional loss
minimization reconfiguration criteria versus the minimum op-
eration cost reconfiguration criteria on net operation cost reduc-
tion for the studied network, Table IX shows the advantages of
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008
TABLE IX
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL AND THE PROPOSED CRITERIA
Fig. 3. Flow diagram of algorithms and CPU times.
the proposed criteria. The loss minimization reconfiguration cri-
teria consist in adopting, for each demand scenario, the config-
uration of minimum loss in such a way that the topology is able
to change frequently.
Fig. 3 shows the flow diagram of the algorithms, communica-
tion and CPU times used in the three stages. As it can be seen,
the power flow computation (6553 times) takes nearly the entire
4.6 s of CPU time.
For a 1000-node, 50-loop network it was deemed necessary to
perform approximately 27 000 power flow computations, which
takes 3–4 h. If all available capability and possibilities on com-
puter time reduction as presented in [11], the CPU time could
be reduced nearly three times, that means about one hour.
In addition, it should be noted that the original network can
be compressed many times, as regard the number of nodes and
branches [13], an instance not considered in this paper. This
network compression is possible to achieve by deleting the ra-
dial nodes-branches presenting no supply option. The load of
deleted node-branches is reallocated to upstream nodes that re-
main unaffected (non-reduced) in the equivalent-reduced net-
work. Then, the reduced 1000-node example is equivalent to
solving the complete network with 3000 or 4000 nodes of the
original complete network.
FAJARDO AND VARGAS: RECONFIGURATION OF MV DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS—PART II
V. CONCLUSIONS
The traditional criteria to determine the optimal radial op-
erative topologies of the MV distribution network implicitly
assume that the distribution systems buy energy with a single
price. This premise, however, is not true in competitive markets
of multicost and multipoint alternative supply type, where the
configurations—considered as operatively optimal according to
the traditional criteria—are not necessarily economically advis-
able ones. A main contribution of the method proposed here was
to demonstrate the significant impact the energy price has on the
short and medium term operative costs for distribution networks
with multipoint and multicost alternative supply. For scenarios
with greater price differences in the test case, the reduction in
total operative costs reached about 6%. This means that the ben-
efits attained with the proposed methodology amply surpasses
those obtained with other operative criteria applied to multicost
and multipoint alternative supply type networks.
In general, for multicost and multipoint alternative supply
type networks, the reconfiguration frequency is greater than the
seasonal or annual frequency. In this sense, the results of this
work strengthen the reasons to favor a greater reconfiguration
frequency of MV networks. The main objective of the proposed
methodology is to optimize the operative strategy. In addition,
the work is in accordance with the present trends of worldwide
electrical markets [12], [13] in favoring an increase in reconfig-
uration frequency, by resorting to an increasing degree of net-
work automation aimed at balancing the load or at decreasing
the loss. These factors must be thoroughly evaluated altogether
with other operational aspects, such as the coordination of pro-
tection schemes, and reliability of network operation.
A salient aspect of switching costs is that, although they are
almost negligible when compared to purchase energy costs, they
are an effective economic signal that penalizes the solution cases
that tend to overload the SDs maneuvers. The importance of
considering the switching costs into the objective function of
the optimization problem heavily relies on this fact.
The proposed methodology prioritizes the supply of the de-
mand from the purchase nodes with the lowest price and with
greater capacity to take in new load. From the economic view-
point, the proposed optimal reconfiguration strategies reward
the more competitive generating agents at the expense of less-ef-
ficient ones. In this way, the efficiency in the use of resources is
stimulated, the energy prices for end-users are lowered, and the
operative costs of utilities are reduced, while keeping at all times
the capacity constraints and quality standards for the service.
Finally, the performance about precision and CPU time ren-
ders the methodology useful to real and modern distribution
systems.
1407
REFERENCES
[1] G. Strbac, “Impact of dispersed generation on distribution systems: A
European perspective,” in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting,
Jan. 2002, vol. 1, pp. 118–120.
[2] Jenkins, “Impact of dispersed generation on power systems,”
ELECTRA, no. 199, pp. 6–13, Dec. 2001.
[3] R. Dugan and S. Price, “Issues for distributed generation in the US,”
in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, Jan. 2002, vol. 1, pp.
121–126.
[4] A. Augugliaro, L. Dusonchet, M. G. Ippolito, and E. R. Sanseverino,
“Minimum loss reconfiguration of MV distribution networks through
local control of tie-switches,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 18, no. 3,
pp. 762–771, Jul. 2003.
[5] Y. Hayashi and J. Matsuki, “Loss minimum configuration of distribu-
0
tion system considering N 1 security of dispersed generators,” IEEE
Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 636–642, Feb. 2004.
[6] R. Taleski and D. Rajičić, “Distribution network reconfiguration for
energy loss reduction,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 12, no. 1, pp.
398–406, Feb. 1997.
[7] Y. H. Song, G. S. Wang, A. T. Johns, and P. Y. Wang, “Evolutionary
approach to distribution network reconfiguration for energy saving,” in
Proc. CIRED 97, Jun. 1997, pp. 5.33.1–5.33.8, Conf. Pub. No. 438.
[8] T. Taylor and D. Lubkeman, “Implementation of heuristic search strate-
gies for distribution feeder reconfiguration,” IEEE Trans. Power Del.,
vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 239–246, Jan. 1990.
[9] J.-S. Wu, “A novel approach for feeder and transformer load bal-
ancing,” in Proc. Intelligent System Application to Power Systems
(ISAP’97), Seoul, Korea, Jul. 1996, pp. 623–627.
[10] Q. Zhou, D. Shirmohammadi, and W.-H. E. Liu, “Distribution feeder
reconfiguration for operation cost reduction,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst.,
vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 730–735, May 1997.
[11] O. Fajardo and A. Vargas, “Reconfiguration of MV distribution net-
works with multicost and multipoint alternative supply, Part I: Eco-
nomic dispatch through radialization,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol.
23, no. 3, pp. 1393–1400, Aug. 2008.
[12] Y.-L. Ke, C.-S. Chen, M.-S. Kang, J.-S. Wu, and T.-E. Lee, “Power
distribution system switching operation scheduling for load balancing
by using colored petri nets,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 1,
pp. 629–635, Feb. 2004.
[13] E. López, H. Opazo, L. García, and P. Bastard, “Online reconfiguration
considering variability demand: Applications to real networks,” IEEE
Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 549–553, Feb. 2004.
Omar F. Fajardo received the Electrical Engineer degree in 1996 from Univer-
sidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH) and the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering in 2006 from Universidad Nacional de San Juan, San Juan,
Argentina.
Currently, he is working as a protection systems engineer at a special-
ized company, supplying SCADA, excitation, and protection systems for
hydropower stations, lines, and substations and other electric power devel-
opments. He is interested in system automation and operation issues for
distribution networks and generation.
Alberto Vargas (M’97–SM’02) received the Electromechanical Engineer de-
gree in 1975 from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 2001 from Universidad Nacional de
San Juan, San Juan, Argentina.
At present, he is a Professor of Postgraduate Programs at Instituto de Energía
Eléctrica, Universidad Nacional de San Juan (IEE-UNSJ). Since 1985, he has
been a Chief Researcher of the Electrical Competitive Markets at IEE-UNSJ.
He is a Consulting Program Manager of ASINELSA S.A, a specialized software
company for electric distribution development dealing with Electrical AM/\FM
GIS and DMS applications.
Dr. Vargas is a Senior Member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society.