Reconfiguration of distribution systems with distributed generators using Ant Colony Optimization and Harmony Search algorithms

This paper presents a study for the network reconfiguration problem for loss reduction with distributed generation units (DGs) included in the network. Two heuristic algorithms inspired from natural phenomena are proposed to solve the problem, real ants´-behavior-inspired, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) implemented in the Hyper Cube (HC) framework and musicians´-behavior-inspired, Harmony Search (HS) algorithm. A 32-bus and 69-bus distribution systems were selected for optimizing the configuration with and without DG units installed. The results of reconfiguration using the proposed algorithms show that both of them yield the optimum configuration with minimum power loss for each case study however, the HS required shorter simulation time but more practice of the iterative process than the HC-ACO. Implementing the ACO in the HC framework resulted in a more robust and easier handling of pheromone trails than the standard ACO. Insertion of DGs in the distribution networks contributed to loss reduction with reasonable percentage.