Determining the optimum cross-sectional area of the medium voltage feeder for loss reduction and voltage profile improvement based on particle swarm algorithm

In this paper, the optimal cross-sectional area of medium voltage feeder will be designed based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) so as to reduce power and energy losses and improve voltage profile in distribution system. To analyze the network status in any step, DC power flow is utilized which is done robustly and with high convergence rate of the system. In the proposed method, medium voltage feeders´ cross-sectional areas are calculated regarding not only economic factors and power loss costs, but also constraints such as current carrying capacity of feeder and maximum permissible voltage drop. Since particle swarm algorithm is used as the optimization tool, with high possibility, obtained solution would be near the absolute optimum point. This method was implemented in MATLAB7 environment. Numerical simulation results and comparison with different references, shows the proposed method capability in desired problem solving.