Optimal Reconfiguration of Power Distribution Network for Stability Voltage and Power Quality Improvements

This work presents a network reconfiguration method aimed at improving, simultaneously, stability voltage and harmonic distortion in a distribution system where non-linear loads are present. In such reconfiguration process, the meta-heuristic Particle Swarm Optimization, which uses a local search, is deployed to evaluate the stability voltage and harmonic distortion using the maximum loading supported by the network and the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in a multi-objective cost function. The methodology is applied to the IEEE 33-bus distribution network. The results prove the efficiency of the developed method to find the best topologies of the electrical network in relation to the maximum loading supported by the network and the level of harmonic distortion.