Distributed Optimization for Autonomous Restoration in DER-Rich Distribution System

Autonomous service restoration (ASR) of active distribution network (ADN) reduces service restoration time with the help of measurement devices, smart switches and distributed energy resources (DERs) considering the system's operational and radiality constraints. Restoration scheme can be deployed in both centralized and distributed manner. However, with increasing data points, the requirement for measurement availability at the control center for the decision support makes centralized optimization challenging. The decomposition and coordination scheme of distributed algorithms enhances its ability to solve large scale optimization problems. Moreover, distributed optimization enables robustness, scalability and resiliency compared to centralized optimization. In this work, a) the distributed ASR problem is solved using a novel penalty-driven distributed alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm (PD-ADMM), b) a switch level decomposition and coordination technique is proposed, c) load restoration, DER utilization are considered directly and radiality of ADN is enforced using commodity flow model. The applicability of the algorithm is validated using modified IEEE 33-bus, IEEE 123-bus and 1069-bus test systems for contingency cases, communication failure, scalability, accuracy and sensitivity to number of partitions, starting points, change in DER/solar generation.