Application of improved ant colony algorithm in fault-section location of complex distribution network

Although good application effect of locating faulty section in complex distribution network can be attained by applying ant colony algorithm, however there are also disadvantages such as too long search time and computation time. For this reason, traditional ant colony algorithm should be improved. Firstly, a switching function that can dynamically adapt to topological structure of distribution network is constructed; then a method to set the initial values of ant colony´s pheromone and the disturbance rule of the solution are led in; finally the method to apply the improved ant colony in fault section location of distribution network with multi power supplies is determined. The advantages of the improved ant colony algorithm in calculation speed and error tolerance are verified by results of calculation example.