Optimal design of the distribution infrastructure and the impact of distributed generation

Distribution infrastructures are developed progressively and cannot be optimised in an absolute way without regards for the constraints put by the legacy system. However, trying to optimise the infrastructure as it was possible to build it from scratch with available technologies, although being a kind of virtual exercise, may be useful to address principal questions about the appropriate network architecture and to set guidelines to which developers can refer to in their daily work. Our work was also motivated by the will for ‘seeing’ the impact of distributed generation (DG) on the best solutions. This work is part of the project "Futurelec 1" within the "Centre National de Recherche Technologique (CNRT) of Lille".