A Comparative Analysis Between Particle Swarm Optimization and Mathematical Programming for Optimal Location of Maintenance Facilities

This paper addresses the problem of maintenance facilities (depot) location in electric power distribution systems with a focus on strategic planning. Power interruptions can be harmful for both society and distribution companies. Determining the optimal number and sites of depot location to handle power interruptions in the long term can improve the quality of service. Through a good depot location, the distance from depots to work orders (WO) is minimized, operational costs can be minimized and customer interruption duration is reduced, which is a good indicator of the reliability of the system. The problem was solved by a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. In addition to the real instance, some synthetic ones were generated to compare both approaches in large-sized scenarios. The computational results show that the two approaches are complementary strategies, being presented the scenarios where each proposal could provide better results.