Radial Electrical Distribution Systems Automation Using Genetic Algorithm

Abstract. The majority of outage events experienced by customersare due to electrical distribution failures. Increasing networkreliability is a necessity in order to reduce interruption events.Distribution network automation can trim down outage events andincrease system reliability. Network automation has to be doneusing optimization approaches. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is arelatively new technique used in power systems optimizationproblems. Distribution network automation is one of the aspectstackled using GA. However, practical application to distributionnetwork automation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never beendone. In Saudi Arabia, the practice in distribution networkautomation is based on experience but not on scientific approaches.This paper presents an effective application of the GA optimizationtechnique to determine the optimum location of protective devicesin practical radial distribution network in the Kingdom. The effectof different objective functions, constraints and GA parameters onthe optimal location of such devices is examined.