Reconfiguration Method for Low Voltage Distribution Networks

Increasing electrification of transportation and heating/cooling systems, and increasing installation of distributed energy resources, strain the electricity distribution networks. To limit the necessary investment- and operational costs, distribution system operators benefit from optimally using their existing grid infrastructure. One important strategy to achieve this, is distribution network reconfiguration. In the past, reconfiguration methods have mostly been developed for medium voltage (MV) distribution grids. Directly applying the same methods on low voltage (LV) distribution grids, which structurally differ from MV grids as they have more feeders and are less meshed, ignores these structural differences, and therefore reduces the methods’ effectiveness.This paper proposes two ways in which heuristic reconfiguration methods can be adapted to the structural properties of LV grids to reduce the solution time: (1( decomposing the problem into independent subproblems, and (2) using a cache to store and reuse summarized power flow results. The improvements are demonstrated for a loss-minimizing heuristic reconfiguration method which also limits congestion risks. For the low voltage test network, the computational time was reduced by 96%, clearly illustrating the advantage of exploiting LV specific grid properties in reconfiguration algorithms.