Reliability and Costs Optimization for Distribution System Placement Problem

This paper presents a differential evolution (DE) based approach for optimal distribution system reliability planning taking both customer interruption costs and utility costs into consideration. The purpose is to allocate main feeder sectionalizing switches and lateral fuses so as to minimize total costs for different conditions and configurations. For instance, the effects of load transfer and the treatment approach for a failed distribution transformer will be examined. The proposed approach is tested on a reliability test systems, and case studies are investigated. The results obtained show the proposed approach can provide information for value-based decision making in distribution systems reliability planning.