260
1, FEBRUARY 2004
Optimal Reconfiguration of Radial Distribution
Systems to Maximize Loadability
B. Venkatesh, Member, IEEE, Rakesh Ranjan, and H. B. Gooi, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents a new method for optimal
reconfiguration of radial distribution systems (RDS). Optimal
reconfiguration involves selection of the best set of branches to
be opened, one each from each loop, such that the resulting RDS
has the desired performance. Amongst the several performance
criteria considered for optimal network reconfiguration, max-
imizing loadability is an important one. Owing to the discrete
nature of the solution space, a fuzzy adaptation of the evolutionary
programming algorithm for optimal reconfiguration of RDS
to maximize loadability is proposed in this paper. This method
maximizes a fuzzy index developed using a maximum loadability
index. A 33-bus RDS is optimally reconfigured by the proposed
method and the results are presented.
Index Terms—Power distribution, power distribution control,
power flow control.
I. INTRODUCTION
S UPERVISORY control and data acquisition (SCADA) sys-
tems are implemented widely for the management of ra-
dial distribution systems (RDS). SCADA automation permits
reconfiguration of the RDS and such a provision may be gain-
fully used for performance enhancement. One of the key perfor-
mance measures that may be optimized amongst several others
is the kW margin to point of maximum loadability. To achieve
this objective, two issues have to be addressed, namely estimate
exact proximity to the point of maximum loadability and an
optimal reconfiguration scheme to reconfigure the network for
maximum loadability. This paper addresses these two issues.
The first part of the paper presents a maximum loadability
index. Several indices and measures for estimation of the prox-
imity of the current operating state of the RDS to the point of
maximum loadability have been proposed in the literature. A
voltage sensitivity analysis-based technique using fourth order
radical was proposed in [1]. It computes an index at each bus
and can identify the bus closest to the point of voltage collapse.
A voltage collapse index for stressed systems was proposed in
[2]. Voltage stability of RDS was analyzed in [3] and has been
studied in [4] using Thevenin’s equivalent circuit. The tech-
niques used in [2]–[4] rely upon the reduction of the RDS to
a single line equivalent. Such an approximation is valid only for
a specific operating point and cannot be used for changing load
especially considering the nonlinear behavior of a RDS near the
point of maximum loadability or voltage collapse as reported.
Manuscript received April 22, 2003.
B. Venkatesh and R. Ranjan are with Multimedia University, Melaka 75450,
Malaysia (e-mail: b.venkatesh@mmu.edu.my; rakesh.ranjan@mmu.edu.my).
H. B. Gooi is with the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798
(e-mail: ehbgooi@ntu.edu.sg).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2003.818739
0885-8950/03$17.00 © 2004 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS VOL. 19, NO.
In [5], a heuristic based search scheme is reported for
enhancement of voltage stability of radial networks. Though
[1]–[4] report works related to the development of indices to
compute loadability of radial systems, few works like [5] report
a scheme to reconfigure the network to enhance loadability or
voltage stability.
Numerous others [6]–[10] reported work on reconfiguration
of radial systems with a focus on reduction of kilowatt losses
and/or load balancing in feeders and/or improving voltage pro-
file.
Extensive work has been done on a similar problem of voltage
stability margin estimation and its optimal enhancement in
power transmission systems [11]–[15]. Similar attention needs
to be bestowed on RDS.
This paper presents a simple maximum loadability index
(MLI) that gives a measure of the proximity of the present
state of a line in the RDS to maximum loadability. MLI gives
an estimate of additional load as a factor of the existing load
that may be drawn before reaching the point of maximum
loadability. The value of MLI may be computed at each bus of
the RDS. A value of MLI close to 1.0 indicates that the feeder
would be unable to supply any more apparent power. Using the
proposed index, the buses close to maximum loadability may
be identified and appropriate action for improvement may be
initiated through an optimal reconfiguration scheme.
The second part of the paper proposes a new scheme for optimal
reconfiguration of RDS. RDS are widely operated at higher
levels of loading to maximize utilization of capital investments.
On perusal of [15], it is obvious that voltage collapse of a line
occurs due to restricted availability of reactive power which
limits the real power transfer capacity. Reconfiguration of the
RDS alters the amount of real and reactive power flow in lines.
It changes the reactive power consumed by the RDS by way
of change in total reactive power (kVAr) losses in lines and
thereby changes the availability of total kVAr in the system.
Optimal reconfiguration may be implemented through SCADA
to route power through the RDS such that the loadability is
maximized.
The problem of RDS reconfiguration requires the determina-
tion of a combination of branches, one each from each loop, to
be switched out such that the resulting configuration of the RDS
has the maximum loadability. It is obvious that as the circuit ele-
ments are switched in and out, certain variables assume discrete
values. Another facet of this problem naturally besieging any
proposed solution strategy is the discontinuous nature of the so-
lution space.
Owing to the discrete problem nature and discontinuous solu-
tion domain, it is imperative to employ a global search method
VENKATESH et al.: OPTIMAL RECONFIGURATION OF RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO MAXIMIZE LOADABILITY 261

like the evolutionary programming algorithm. Further, while

considering the optimization of multiple performance measures
like the voltage profile enhancement of the RDS, it is required
to adopt a suitable objective function modeling method that per- Fig. 1. Model of a transmission line in a RDS with any number of buses.
mits handling of multiple objectives within the framework of
the optimization techniques such as the evolutionary program- Using (3) to substitute for the cosine term in the real part of (2),
ming technique. The proposed model must also be able to handle the following is obtained:
infeasibility when the voltage magnitudes at certain buses are
below or above the prescribed limits and yield the best solution.
This paper proposes the use of a fuzzy adaptation of the evo-
lutionary programming technique (FEP) for optimal reconfigu-
ration. A mathematical expression for the proposed maximum
loadability index is developed in Section II. The performance of (4)
the proposed index is analyzed and presented. The mathemat-
ical problem of optimal reconfiguration of RDS is then defined where
in Section III. Thereafter, fuzzy models of the multiple objec-
tive functions are developed. Through the use of fuzzy opera-
tors, a unique objective function combining the different fuzzy
models is developed in Section IV. These models are incorpo-
rated into the EP technique and the overall algorithm of FEP
for the optimal reconfiguration of RDS is also presented in Sec-
tion IV. Section V presents the study results on a 33-bus RDS. From (4), it is obvious that the voltage solution does not exist
Section VI presents the conclusions. when the term becomes negative. Mathematically, the solu-
tion exists when

II. INDEX FOR MAXIMUM LOADABILITY (5)

A radial system operator would always like to know whether
the network is close to the maximum loadability limit. This
paper presents an index that indicates the maximum additional
load that may be supplied by a feeder. It is based on a simple
solution of a quadratic equation. Consider a RDS with several
buses. Any line between buses i and j of the RDS may be repre-
sented by an equivalent circuit model as in Fig. 1.
The complex power flowing at the receiving end of the line
may be expressed as . It may be computed as below
Maximum loadability is reached when is increased
to the point where becomes zero. In order to determine that
point, the existing load is replaced by the term
assuming a constant load power factor. Introducing
MLI in (5) and equating it to zero to determine the maximum
permissible loading, (5) is modified to get

(6)
(1)
Rewriting (6) as a quadratic equation for MLI and solving it,
one gets (7) shown at the bottom of the page.
On rearranging and expanding the polar form complex numbers On loading the feeder, the value of MLI decreases from a
into Cartesian form, one gets value higher than 1.0 to the value of 1.0 at the point of max-
imum loadability. The value of (MLI-1) indicates the maximum
additional amount of load in percentage in terms of the existing
load that the line between buses i and j can supply.
(2)
The preceding analysis is for a line in a RDS that may have
any number of buses and depicts only the kilovolt ampere (kVA)
Equating only the imaginary part of (2), one gets
capacity of a line to carry load. As an example, consider a trans-
mission line in Fig. 2. The sending end voltage is assumed to
(3) be . The value of MLI is evaluated for various

(7)
262
Fig. 2. Simple model of a transmission line.
TABLE I
RELATION BETWEEN kVA FLOW, VALUE OF MLI AND MAXIMUM
LOADABILITY OF A LINE
values of power flow through the line and the results are tab-
ulated in Table I. For each value, the fourth column of Table I
reports the value of the expression . It
is equal to the maximum possible additional power flow in the
line when the value of MLI is greater than 1.0 or the minimum
power flow decrement to establish solvability of the power flow
equation when the value of MLI is less than 1.0.
At a kVA load of 230, the value of MLI is equal to 0.98. This
indicates that a reduction of load to the extent of 4.58 kVA to
reach 225.42 kVA restores solvability of the power flow equa-
tion for the line and increases MLI to 1.0. In a similar vein, at
a kilovolt ampere load of 50, the value of MLI is equal to 4.51.
This indicates that an increase of power flow by 175.42 kVA
to reach 225.42 kVA reduces MLI to 1.0 and moves the line to
the point of maximum loadability. Fig. 3 depicts graphically the
change in load and its effect on the value of MLI and voltage
magnitude at bus j.
III. MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem of optimal reconfiguration requires the determi-
nation of the best combination of branches, one from each loop,
to be switched out such that the resulting RDS has the best load-
ability and the best voltage profile.
A. Problem Formulation
Consider any bus in the RDS except the main substa-
tion. The bus would be connected to several lines. However,
owing to the radial nature of the RDS, only one line connects
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS VOL. 19, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2004
Fig. 3. Behavior of MLI with respect to changes in kilovolt ampere load at bus
j.
the bus to the main substation of the RDS. As an example,
refer to the 33-bus RDS shown in Fig. 8 and its line data given
in Table IV. Bus no. 3 is connected to buses, 2, 4, and 23 using
lines 2, 3, and 22, respectively. However, one may easily ob-
serve from the single line diagram that only line 2 connecting
bus 2 to bus 3 feeds power to bus 3. Thus, the maximum load
that line 2 can supply would be the maximum kVA amount that
the load at bus 3 and all the downstream buses connected to bus
3 can draw. Thus every bus, excluding the main substation, can
be uniquely associated to a line (called supply line) whose max-
imum loadability limits the kVA capacity drawn at that bus and
connected downstream buses.
The value of MLI evaluated for the supply line associated
with the ith bus is termed as . The actual kVA flow in the
supply line associated with the ith bus is defined as . The
product indicates the maximum loadability at the
ith bus of the RDS. The bus with the least value of the product
obviously is closest to the point of maximum load-
ability. Reconfiguring and maximizing the minimum of all such
product values in a radial system would, therefore, move the
system to achieve highest loadability state.
Mathematically, the problem is stated as
(8)
(9)
where in (9) refers to the voltage magnitude at the bus.
The objective in (8) does not quantify loadability of the RDS it-
self and only serves to guide the algorithm and the entire system
toward the maximum loadability configuration.
VENKATESH et al.: OPTIMAL RECONFIGURATION OF RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO MAXIMIZE LOADABILITY 263

B. Voltage Deviation Index—Measure of Power Quality 1) Randomly generate NC combinations of solution vectors
In order to quantify the extent of violation of limits imposed .
on voltage magnitudes at buses in an N-bus RDS, the following 2) Set iteration count . Evaluate the objective function
voltage deviation index (VDI) is defined: value for each of the combinations for to NC.
3) Generate NC more solution vectors
through a random process.
4) Evaluate the newly generated solution vectors
(10) .
5) Choose the best NC solution vectors amongst the set of
where NVB is the number of buses that violate the prescribed 2NC solution vectors and designate
voltage magnitude limits and is the upper or lower limit the chosen set as .
of the ith bus voltage magnitude when the respective upper or 6) Increment the iteration count .
lower limit violation occurs. 7) If maximum iteration count, go to
During reconfiguration, if the state of the system has voltage Step 4.
limit violations, the proposed solution must try to minimize the 8) Choose the best among the NC solution sets
as the final solution.
VDI and thereby improve the power quality.
When a branch is switched in and another is switched out in Through a random number generation scheme, the first NC
a loop, the solution space is no longer continuous. The variable solution vectors to may be generated. In order to eval-
that defines the status of a branch as to whether it is switched uate the NC solution vectors, the following fuzzy models and
in/out assumes discrete states of zero or one. Owing to the methodology are developed.
discontinuous and discrete nature of the problem, classical
techniques are rendered unsuitable and the use of global search B. Fuzzy Model of Maximum Loadability Objective
techniques is warranted. Further, if more than one objective is Consider the objective function of the problem in (8)–(9). Let
chosen for optimization, a suitable method must be developed the minimum product among all such products in
to check the optimality of the solution. In pursuit of evolving the RDS be defined as
a suitable objective function, fuzzy models of objective in (8)
and the VDI in (10) are developed in the next section and
incorporated into the EP algorithm.

when the combination of branches in the solution vector

IV. DEVELOPMENT OF FUZZY EVOLUTIONARY is switched out. A fuzzy satisfaction parameter is then de-
PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM fined by associating the satisfaction parameter with the solution
In this section, the EP algorithm is developed for this vector as
problem. It is followed by the development of fuzzy models
of the objective function (8) and the VDI (10). These fuzzy (11)
models are incorporated into the EP algorithm forming the
Fuzzy EP algorithm.
where and in (11) refer to the maximum and
minimum values that would occur in the RDS when
A. Basic EP Algorithm for Reconfiguration of RDS the solution vectors to are considered for implemen-
A radial distribution system can have several loops. Each loop tation. The diagrammatic representation of the satisfaction pa-
has several branches. Any one of these branches forming the rameter is shown in Fig. 4.
loops must be switched out such that the radial nature of the
RDS is maintained. The switching in/out of branches alters the C. Fuzzy Model of VDI
flow of power and changes the resulting kW/kVAr losses and Let the value of VDI in the RDS be defined as
voltage profile. At a given time, one branch from each loop is when the combination of branches in
switched out. The objective of the solution technique is to deter- the solution vector is switched out. A fuzzy satisfaction
mine a combination of branches, one each from each loop, such parameter is then defined by associating the satisfaction
that the resulting RDS yields the maximum loadability and the parameter with the solution vector as
best voltage profile.
Let the vector refer to the
(12)
combination of branches switched out in the RDS such that the
ID number of the branch switched out in the loop be stored
in the variable . A total of NL number of loops in the RDS is where and in (12) refer to the maximum and
considered. The EP algorithm initially chooses a certain number minimum values of VDI that would occur in the RDS when the
of combinations as the starting guesses. Let the number of these solution vectors to are considered for implementa-
combinations be defined by the variable NC. The steps of the tion. The diagrammatic representation of the satisfaction param-
EP algorithm are given below. eter is shown in Fig. 5.
264 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS VOL. 19, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2004

Fig. 4. Fuzzy model of the loadability maximization objective.

Fig. 5. Fuzzy model of the VDI minimization objective.

D. Fuzzy Evaluation Method of the Solution Vector

With the two fuzzy models for loadability maximization
and VDI minimization defined in Sections IV-B and IV–C,
the overall evaluation of a solution vector may be done by Fig. 6. Algorithm of the fuzzy EP technique.
selecting any of the fuzzy intersection operators. In this paper,
one of the simplest intersection operators, namely, the product
is chosen as the intersection operator. Thus, the resultant
satisfaction parameter associated with a solution vector is
determined as

(13)

In order to determine the best solution vector amongst the 2NC

solution vectors to , the associated satisfaction pa-
rameter values to have to be evaluated. Then, the so-
lution vector having the highest satisfaction parameter value
is chosen as the best solution vector.

E. Overall Fuzzy EP Algorithm

The overall fuzzy EP algorithm follows the basic EP algo-
rithm described in Section IV.A. It uses the fuzzy scheme for
evaluation of the solution vectors and their ranking. The al-
gorithm is pictorially presented in Fig. 6. The EP algorithm Fig. 7. Convergence characteristics for the proposed fuzzy EP algorithm.
initially chooses NC number of combinations as the starting
guesses using a random generation scheme and evaluates them highest satisfaction parameter value
using (13). Keeping an iteration count and using the already amongt the satisfaction parameters values
available NC solution vectors to , the algorithm gen- which correspond to the solution vectors
erates NC more solution vectors to through a to .
random process given below. Using (13), evaluate the newly generated solution vectors
Consider the jth solution vector from among the NC so- and the algorithm chooses the best
lution vectors to . The corresponding solution vector NC solution vectors among the set of 2NC solution vectors
in the set of NC solution vectors to is . These are designated as the chosen set of
generated as NC solution vectors as . This iterative proce-
dure is continued until a prespecified maximum iteration count
(14) is reached. At the end, the best among the NC solution vectors
is chosen as the optimum.
where
appropriately chosen factor (In the entire V. RESULTS OF THE SYSTEM STUDY
study, it has been chosen to be 0.75.); A 33-bus RDS was considered for the study. The load data,
r random number between 0 and ; transmission line details, and data of tie lines are presented in
minimum (maximum) values of ; Table IV and Fig. 8 along with a single line diagram. In order
VENKATESH et al.: OPTIMAL RECONFIGURATION OF RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO MAXIMIZE LOADABILITY
TABLE II
DETAILS OF THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION
TABLE III
RESULTS OF MAXIMIZING ONLY MAXIMUM LOADABILITY OBJECTIVE
Fig. 8. The 33-bus radial distribution system.
to quantify the maximum loadability of the RDS, the total addi-
tional load that may be drawn from the RDS before it suffers a
collapse is determined. This additional load is referred to as the
kVA Margin to Maximum Loadability (KMML) and is increased
while retaining the existing power factor of the loads and load
distribution in the RDS. In the base case, the total load is equal to
4369.35 kVA and the KMML value is equal to 11 468.10 kVA.
When an additional load equal to KMML ( kVA)
was added to the base case, supply lines to buses 3 and 6 were
carrying maximum allowable power and the voltage magnitudes
at these buses at the point of collapse were 0.578 92 p.u. and
0.384 54 p.u., respectively.
After optimal reconfiguration using the proposed method, the
KMML increased to 17 883.57 kVA. In the reconfigured RDS,
collapse was imminent only at bus 28 when an additional load
equal to KMML ( kVA) was added and the voltage
magnitude at bus 28 at the point of collapse was 0.388 89 p.u.
It was also recorded that the VDI improves from 0.024 89 to
0.002 18. The value of the first objective in the optimal solution
equals 17 794.68 kVA The fuzzy EP algorithm was terminated
265
TABLE IV
DATA FOR 33-BUS TEST SYSTEM [10]
after 150 iterations. It may be also noted that the EP algorithm
takes a reasonable solution time of 62.07 s. The details of the
results are presented in Table II. The convergence pattern is pre-
sented in Fig. 7. The method was tested on several other systems
and yields a good performance. This may be achieved through
proper selection of NC, the number of solution vectors, and the
factor . In this study, NC was chosen as 5 and was taken as
0.75.
In order to compare the performance of the algorithm while
maximizing only the objective of maximum loadability, the al-
gorithm is executed again with the single objective as in (8). The
results, which are summarized in Table III, show that the method
yielded a higher value of the objective equaling 20 014.69 kVA
compared to a value of 17 794.68 kVA in the multiobjective
case.
266
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a versatile index that quantifies the
margin to maximum loadability for any transmission line when
the sending end voltage is kept constant. This index is simple to
use and also guides to compute the extent of load reduction to
restore solvability of power flow equations. This paper further
develops a new optimal reconfiguration method for radial
distribution systems. The proposed scheme is based upon the
derived maximum loadability index. It uses fuzzy modeling
methods to model the two objectives of loadability margin
maximization and obtaining the best voltage profile. The fuzzy
models are used to create an objective function that is then
optimized in the EP framework, giving rise to the fuzzy EP
solution method. The proposed optimal reconfiguration method
is tested on the standard 33-bus RDS and results demonstrate
the effectiveness of the proposed method.
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B. Venkatesh (M’96) is an Associate Professor with Faculty of Engineering
and Technology at Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia. His main research
interests are power system operation and economics.
Rakesh Ranjan received the B.Sc. (Engg.) degree from Muzaffarpur Institute
of Technology (MIT), Muzaffarpur, India, in 1991, the M.E. degree from Birla
Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, India, in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree from
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, in 1996.
Currently, he is with the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Multi-
media University, Melaka, Malaysia. His research interest includes development
of computer model for power distribution systems analysis and control. He has
also co-authored a textbook on signals and systems.
H. B. Gooi (SM’95) is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological Uni-
versity, Singapore. His main research interests are power system operation, eco-
nomics, and computation.