PHASE BALANCING USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

M. Gandomkar
Islamic Azad University of Saveh, IRAN

ABSTRACT
Unbalanced loads and feeders increase power system investment and operating costs. Single-phase lateral loads phase
swapping is one of the popular methods to balance the systems. Phase swapping is a large-scale combinatorial
optimization problem and it is necessary to apply a proper optimization method. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm (GA)
is used to solve the phase swapping problem for single-phase loads. An example is used to illustrate the proposed
method.

combinatorial optimization problem and is NP-complete

(non-deterministic polynomial time complete). Thus its
computing effort increases exponentially with the size
of candidate set. It is formulated into Mixed-Integer
Programming (MIP), which is suitable for the linear
objective function [ 11. But in many cases, the function
may not well represent some decision-making criteria.
For example, minimizing energy losses will make the
objective function as a non-linear integer function,
which is difficult to be solved analytically. While
intelligent computation methods, such as Fuzzy Logic,
Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing are
powerful to solve nonlinear integer programming
problems. Simulated Annealing has been used to phase
balancing problem [2]. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm
(GA), which is a powerful optimization method for
large-scale NP-complete problems, is applied to solve
the phase swapping problem.

Keywords: Phase Balancing, Genetic Algorithm (GA),

Phase Swapping, Distribution Networks

INTRODUCTION
Due to single-phase, two-phase, unbalanced three-phase
loads and unbalanced impedance, the distribution
systems operate in unbalanced fashion. Unbalanced
feeders not only increase energy losses and the risk of
overload situations, but they also affect power quality
and electricity price. A severely unbalanced circuit can
result in excessive voltage drops on the heavily phase.
Even a feeder system is designed as a balanced feeder
based on the given load data, load prediction errors and
unbalanced load growth will induce feeder imbalance.
The purpose of phase balancing is to find the optimal
phase swapping scheme to balance an unbalanced
feeder system with minimum cost[ 11.
There are two approaches for phase balancing: one is
feeder reconfiguration at the system level; the other is
phase swapping at the feeder level. Feeder
reconfiguration has been extensively studied in the past
several decades while phase swapping has been ignored,
Since feeder reconfiguration is approximately primarily
designed for load balancing among the feeders, most
researchers do not consider phase balancing as an
objective in feeder reconfiguration [Z].

PROBLEM FORMULATION
Solving the problem is to optimize the power losses
with a proposed load re-phasing schedule, subject to
certain constraints, For a LV feeder, the solution of the
problem based on trial and error will be time-consuming
and sub-optimal. In practice, the possible re-phasing
numbers are limited, too. To investigate the effects of
voltage drops, conductor capacity and losses, a full
unsymmetricaI load flow model have to be considered
in the phase balancing formulation. The losses function
can be stated as:

Phase swapping is normally camed out during

maintenance and restoration periods. Phase swapping is
a direct and effective way to balance a feeder in terms
of phases. For the time being engineers already use
phase swapping to balance phase loading based on their
experience and trial and error methods. The procedure is
labor intensive, sub-optimal, and time-consuming.

i d

Where:

Iai,
Ibi,
lCi
:current of i th segment of LV network for
A,B,C phases respectively
Raj,Rbi,RCi:resistance of i th segment of LV network

In phase swapping algorithm, control variables are the

phase swapping options at each candidate node and the
cost function is to minimize the power losses subject to
load flow equations, capacity constraints, vokage and
phase balancing requirements[Z]. It is a large scale

for A,B,C phases respectively

Ini,Rni:neutral current & resistance of i th segment

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solution. The more suitable solution a chromosome is,

the bigger of the fitness function. In above rules of
coding, each chromosome will be a suitable re-phasing
schedule. With encoding the chromosome, the new
feeder phase connections are determined, Then the
power flow is run and if all of constraints were
considered, total losses of feeder can be calculated, and
that is the fitness value.

I :maximum segment number of LV network

The problem can thus be stated as:
Minimize F Subject to
- The node voltage cannot violate between its
upper and lower limit ,
- The conductors capacity cannot be over.

- Load phase (single or double phase) must be

considered.
-

Reproduction Operator
In this operator, the elitism is the main essence. The
mating pool is composed of the population in proportion
to their fitness, The excellent chromosome willcopy
more to the mating pool. Oppositely, the disappointing
may be deleted and disappear. In this research, it uses
the 'roulette wheel selection'.

Re-phasing number(s) must be considered

GA METHOD

in this paper, a GA is used to obtain a solution within

practical time. GAS are heuristic search algorithm based
on the mechanism of natural selection and genetics and
several properties as follows [3]:

Crossover Operator
Crossover operator will proceed as follows. Every
individual of population after reproduction has its own
probability created at random. The operation is applied
with a fixed probability, called crossover probability Pc.
The probability is compared to Pc, then which
performed 'crossover' the chromosomes are selected.
Example is shown as follow:

- GAS work with a set of codedvariables that is

called population of strings.
- GAS search from a population of points as
multiagents.
- GAS use only payoff (objective function)
information, not derivatives or others.
-

String 1: 1101011~10011
String 2: 101101 llOlll0
Crossover point
String 1: ~101011~01110
String 2: I01 1011110011

GASuse probabilistic transition rules.

GAS are an efficient tool to solve optimization

problems. They follow an evolutionary strategy: starting
from an initial population of individuals, each one
representing a possible solution, the evolution process
modifies by means of suitable operators in order to form
the next generation, until a convergence criterion is
fulfilled. The solution is retrieved from the best
individual of the last population. GAS can easily
determine the optimum of any objective function, even
if discrete or if its derivatives are not defined.

In this study, as number of connected phase(s) for each

node must be considered ( single or double phase), and
base on probabilistic o f solution, afler crossover
operation the above limitation may be violated. That
must be checked and corrected, if it is necessary. Also
regard to chromosome structure, crossover points were
considered multiple of 3.

Mutation Operator
The GA process may lead to a local optimal solution
without mutation. Only by the crossover operation, the
population may contain the same individuals after some
generation. Mutation operation causes CA search from a
local area jumping to another area. That will ensure to
get the near gIobaI optimal solution. In mutation for
each bit, inversion of 1 to 0, or vice versa, is conducted
according to a probability called mutation probability
Pm. Chromosome structure must be checked after
mutation similar to crossover.

Coding
A coding process is the most important part in GA
applications, in which variables are encoded to the
string (chromosome). As in practice, re-phasing cannot
be done on all of the nodes, re-phasing possible nodes
(RPN) must be predetermined. For each of WNs, 3 bits
are considered, which 1 in each bit position means
connect to phase A,B,C , respectively .Example is
shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Load connection
Pattern
Singlephase load(C) I 0 0 1
Doublephaseload(BC)
0 1 1

GA SEARCH

The steps of the proposed algorithm based on GA are

summarily show as:
1. Data preparation
2. Coding and encoding
3. Reproduction
4. Power flow

Thus, the chromosome has 3' RF" bits.

Evaluating of Fitness Function

In the GA process, the fitness hnction is a possibility
index of the final solution. It mirrors the properties of a

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5. Checking constraints
6. Calculating fitness (losses)
7. Crossover, check and correct the chromosome
8. Mutation, check and correct the chromosome
9.If convergence, print out results. else, go to step 3.

TEST RESULTS
A LV distribution feeder is used to illustrate the genetic
algorithm for phase balancing problem. The feeder
specifications before the re-phasing are shown in
TableZ.

Num. Of
Laterals
135

TB(B) IC(C)

h(A)

170

345

PLoss(kw)

260

108

10

20 30 40

50

60 70

80

90

GA generations

Figure 2 Loss reduction with GA generations

ResuIt of loss reduction rate with number of phase

movement after of phase balancing is shown in Figurel.

CONCLUSION
Phase balancing problem is becoming more important in
the deregulated environments, because it can be
improve circuit losses, line capacity, voltage drops and
the electricity price.
The paper proposes a CA method to find the optimal
phase movement to balance a LV feeder. The proposed
algorithm has been tested successfidly on a LV
distribution feeder with 135 laterals. It is used to
determine the most cost-effective laterals to move.

The results show that with a few phase movements, the

circuit losses can be improved. These results also show
the GA is an effective tool to provide phase balancing
solution.

10

Number of phase movement

Figure1 Loss reduction with phase movement

REFERENCES
After balancing, the feeder specifications are as Table3.

Num. Of
Phase Move

IA(A)

Table3
IB(B) Ic(C)

1. J.Zhu, M.Y.Chow and F.Zhang, Phase Swapping to

Balance a Radial Feeder System, presented inIEEE.
PES. Winter Meeting 98 ,
2. J.Zhu, G.Bilbro and M.Y.Chow, Phase Balancing
using Simulated Annealing, IEEE Transactions on
Power System, Vo1.14, No.4, Nov.1999, PP 1508-1513
3. L.Davis, Handbook of Genetic Algorithms, Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1991 .

PLoss(kw)
RI5

10

Results show that with only 4 phase movements power

losses reduce about 18%.

Table 4

I Population I Crossover
Size
I Probability
45

I 0.78

1 Mutation I

AUTHOR ADDRESS

I Probability
I 0.03

The author can be contacted at

Department of Electrical Engineering
Islamic Azad University of Saveh, IRAN

In this study, the best values for GA parameters

(population size, crossover and mutation probability)
were analyzed. The optimum values are shown in
Table4. Also change of objective function with GA
generation is shown in Figure 2.

email:Gandomkar@iau-saveh.ac.ir

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