Multi-Objective Optimal Placement of Recloser and Sectionalizer in Electricity Distribution Feeders

Electricity distribution feeders, due to their geographical dispersion, are subjected to faults caused by adverse weather, vegetation growth, etc., resulting in long outages for customers. Overhead switching devices (i.e. reclosers, sectionalizers, disconnectors and etc.) are known as the most practical solutions to limit the outage area, and consequently increase the distribution system reliability. This paper presents a Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) algorithm for Optimal Placement of Recloser and Sectionalizer to minimize customers' outage cost and increase system reliability with an optimal investment. The algorithm determines the number and optimal locations of reclosers and sectionalizers to fulfill the objectives. The obtained results on the standard 85-node distribution feeder validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.