Service restoration in electric distribution systems using evolutionary algorithms

This study proposes an efficient and computationally feasible solution approach based on evolutionary algorithms to the distribution system restoration problem. When a fault occurs in a distribution system, the faulted area should be isolated from the system and as much load as possible has to be restored to this area. The solution of this problem, which can be defined as obtaining an optimum system configuration providing minimization of de-energized areas on the system after a fault occurred, is known as service restoration in distribution networks. This is achieved by finding an optimal operation configuration via changing the status of sectionalizing switches, taking into account the objectives and the constraints of the system. This makes the distribution system restoration problem a complex combinatorial optimization problem with multiple constraints. Therefore, to solve this problem, an evolutionary algorithm approach is proposed. The proposed evolutionary algorithm is applied to a radial configured distribution system model and analysis results are presented.