Optimal Planning and Operation of Distribution Systems Considering Distributed Energy Resources and Automatic Reclosers

This paper presents an integrated methodology for planning and operation of distribution systems in an environment of smart grids. The decision variables considered are location and sizing of technologies such as: distributed generation (wind, solar and small scale hydroelectric), energy storage, protection elements for fault isolation and automatic reclosers for load transfer. The integration of these technologies enable a higher automation of the distribution system the which in turn brings advantages such as reduction in the energy and active power losses and improvement in the voltage profile and service quality. The methodology consists of three stages: i) a specialized genetic algorithm for location of devices, ii) a particles swarm optimization algorithm for dimensioning of elements and iii) a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to solve the multi-objective problem associated with the location of reclosers. The tests were performed on a system of 102 nodes to verify the performance of the proposed methodology.