Optimal Selection of Conductor in RDS Considering Weather Condition

In planning radial distribution system, optimal selection of conductor plays an important role because the cost of the system (fixed and variable cost) depends upon the size of the conductor. This paper presents a simple algorithm to optimize the cost of the system which consists of investment cost for feeder line and cost for energy loss. For accurate calculation of power losses and to improve the correctness of load flow solutions, the effect of ambience conditions on branch resistance should be considered. In this paper, an attempt has been made to incorporate weather conditions while solving radial distribution systems and a weather sensitive modified load flow algorithm is presented. In addition, branch wise minimization technique (BWMT) is used for the economical selection of conductor. The proposed method has been tested on several radial distribution systems and results found are noteworthy.