Fault Current Limitation Constraint for the Distribution Network Reconfiguration Problem in Medium Voltage Compensated Distribution Networks

Distribution Network Reconfiguration (DNR) is a method that changes the topology of distribution networks by modifying the state of its switches. It is used to minimize power losses (among other uses) while having to satisfy certain constraints. This optimization problem is known as the DNR problem. This paper proposes a method to include constraints which limit the fault current that would flow in the feeders and the sources at the High Voltage / Medium Voltage (HV/MV) substations during a phase-to-ground fault in case of a medium voltage Compensated Distribution Network (CDN). The motivation of this work is due to the fact that limiting this current under certain thresholds is mandatory in CDN. A Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) formulation is used. The assessment of the effectiveness of the constraints is done on a simple 10 buses network.