Feeder reconfiguration techniques: A review

Feeder reconfiguration (FR) is an operational process that modifies feeder topology structure by changing section as well as tie switches status. The main objective of FR is to find a radial operating configuration that optimizes certain objectives while satisfying operational constraints. Increased number of switches led to a better reconfiguration but at the same time increases investment cost as well as outage time. Hence, optimal composition and placement of switches is required. Mostly feeder reconfiguration problem is formulated as a multi-objective dynamic mixed integer non linear programming problem. The objective functions are cost reduction (investment and operational), loss minimization, improved reliability and voltage profile improvement. In the era of deregulation, distributed generators (DGs) are being employed widely due to certain benefits. Therefore, in this paper different FR techniques with and without DGs have been investigated.