Derivation of Novel Estimation Formulas for

Distribution Feeder Reconfiguration

Jen-Hao Teng* Yi-Hwa Liu+ Chia-Yen Chen** Chi-Fa Chen*
*Department of Electrical Engineering +Department of Electrical Engineering ** Department of Computer
I-Shou University National Taiwan University of Science Science, The University of
Kaohsiung, Taiwan and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract: Some efficient and accurate approximation formulas feeder configuration thus becomes a complex
for the variations of line loss, bus voltages and branch currents decision-making process for dispatchers. Extensive
caused by a switch operation are derived in this paper and then numerical computation is often required if the
integrated into feeder reconfiguration problems. Two matrices conventional load flow techniques have to be used.
developed from the topological structures of distribution
systems are used to analyze the relationship between bus Therefore, approximated formulas have great value to
voltages, bus current injections and branch currents. Therefore, improve solution efficiency. This paper tries to derive
the line loss, bus voltages and branch current caused by a some novel approximation formulas for the variations of
switch operation can be approximated accurately and efficiently. line loss, bus voltages and branch currents, caused by a
The proposed formulas are then integrated into branch switching operation, and then integrate those derived
exchange algorithm and used to solve minimum loss formulas into feeder reconfiguration problems. Test
reconfiguration. Test results compare the efficiency and results demonstrate the performance of the proposed
accuracy of the proposed formulas. algorithm.
Keywords: Distribution Automation, Optimum Switching, II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Feeder Reconfiguration, Branch Exchange
Feeder reconfiguration can be used to minimize
I. INTRODUCTION line loss or to relieve overloads for distribution networks.
D istribution Automation (DA) is one of the most Branch currents and bus voltage magnitudes are the
important tools to improve the reliability and operation constraints that commonly need to be taken
efficiency in distribution system planning and operation. into account. Meanwhile, the network must remain radial
Many applications, such as network optimization, var with all loads connected. Therefore, the formulations of
planning, optimum switching/feeder reconfiguration, minimum loss reconfiguration for loss reduction can be
state estimation, short circuit analysis and so forth, are expressed as
necessary to effectively construct DA [1]. Among those
applications, an accurate and efficient feeder NF
reconfiguration program is very important for off-line
min PIoss =Z Ploss (1)
i=l
planning and real-time operation of DA. Many
algorithms dealing with feeder reconfigurations have where NF is the number of feeders in this network.
been proposed [2-11]. Aoki et al. [2] used a
quasi-quadratic nonlinear programming technique to P1s is the loss of feeder i and can be further rewritten
minimize power loss. Civanlar et al. [3] and Baran et al. as
[4] proposed some approximated power flow method for
loss reduction resulting from a switch operation on
distribution networks. Unbalanced three-phase Ss B R' (2)
distribution system was considered in the solution /11
process proposed by [5]. Service restoration was
integrated into the feeder reconfiguration problem as where NlJ is the number of branch of feeder i. BJ and
presented in [6]. A two-stage solution based on a
modified simulated annealing technique for general RJ are the current and line resistance for branch I of
multi-objective optimization was presented in [7]. The feeder i, respectively.
solutions based on expert system, fuzzy set technique The operation constraints for branch currents and bus
and combinatorial optimization solution techniques such voltages can be written as
as genetic algorithm and simulated annealing were also
developed and integrated into the optimal switching BJ < Birmax i =
NF, I =
Nl
problems [8-11]. (3)
Feeder reconfiguration can be used for off-line VZ Vi,rmax
< i =
NF, J NB
B
planning and real-time operation. For real-time operation,
the primary concern for algorithm development should
be the computation efficiency. By contrast, solution where NB is the number of bus of feeder i. VJ is the
accuracy should be the primary concern for off-line
planning. Therefore, a good algorithm should achieve voltage for bus j of feeder i. Bi,max is the maximum
both efficiency and accuracy. Besides, there are
numerous of switches in distribution systems and the alowblcrrntfob h Ior i
number of possible switching operations is tremendous;

1-4244-0549-1/06/$20.00 (2006 IEEE.

 BIBC matrix. The BCBV matrix represents the
Vjiimax are the minimum and maximum allowable
relationship between branch currents and bus voltages.
voltages for busj of feeder i, respectively. The corresponding variations of bus voltages, caused by
a switch operation, can be calculated directly by using
Relationship Matrices for Distribution Networks the BCB V matrix. These two matrices are very useful for
the derivation of the proposed estimation formulas.
The proposed method is developed based on the
BIBC (Bus-Injection to Branch-Current Matrix, BIBC) III. FORMULA DERIVATION
and BCBV (Branch-Current to Bus-Voltage Matrix,
BCBV) matrices. These two matrices provide novel
viewpoints in observing the relationship between bus
voltages, branch currents and bus current injections. The
detailed derivation of these two matrices can be found in
[12]. In this paper, only the building algorithms of these
two matrices are shown. The relationship of bus current
injections and branch currents can be expressed as

[B]= [BIBC] [I] (4)

where B and I are the vectors of branch currents and bus
current injections, respectively.
The constant BIBC matrix is an upper triangular matrix
and has non-zero entries of +1 only. The building
algorithm for BIBC matrix can be developed as follows:
Procedure 1) - For a distribution feeder with m branch
sections and n buses, the dimension of BIBC matrix is
mx(n-1).
Procedure 2) - If a line section (Bk) is located between
bus i and bus j, copy the column of the i-th bus of BIBC
matrix to the column of the j-th bus and fill a +1 to the
position of the k-th row and the j-th bus column.
Procedure 3) - Repeat Procedure 2) until all line sections
are included in the BIBC matrix.
The relationship between branch currents and bus
voltages can be written as
Fig. 1: Switching operation of a two-feeder network
Fig. 1 is an illustration for a switching operation of
a two-feeder network. In Fig. 1, the load point n can be
transferred from feeder j to feeder i by the operation of
closing switch si and opening switch sj. If the load at the
point n is Sn the line loss and bus voltage variations
can be derived. First, based on the load flow solution, the
equivalent current injection variation at load point m can
be expressed as
m
Ai -( Vi ) (7)
m

[Vo ]- [V] = [BCBV] [B] (5) Substituting (7) into (4), the variations of the branch
currents caused by the switch operation can be expressed
where V and VO are the vectors of bus voltages and as
no-load bus voltages, respectively.
Equation (5) can also be rewritten as 0

[AV]= [BCBV] [B] (6) [BIBC'] Al~ (8)

0
where [AV]= [VO]-[V].
The constant BCBV matrix has non-zero entries
consisted of line impedance values. The building
algorithm for BCBV matrix can be developed as follows: where LBIBCi] is the BIBC matrix of feeder i.
Procedure 4) For a distribution feeder with m branch
-
Eq. (8) can be rewritten as
sections and n buses, the dimension of BCBV matrix is
(n-I)xm. Bi] = BIBC'4 (9)
Procedure 5) If a line section (Bk) is located between
-

bus i and bus j, copy the row of the i-th bus of BCBV
matrix to the row of the j-th bus and fill the line where LBIBC'm] is the column vector of LBIBCi]
impedance (Zi) to the position of the j-th bus row and the corresponding to bus m.
k-th column. Therefore, the line loss of feeder i after the switch
Procedure 6) Repeat Procedure 5) until all line sections
-

operation can be estimated by

are included in the BCBV matrix.
The BIBC matrix represents the relationship between bus
N; 2 2
current injections and branch currents. The
corresponding variations of branch currents, caused by a
Pioss B+ AB AI'
R±+ R2i (10)
/11
switch operation, can be calculated directly by using the
 solution procedure implemented can be summarized as:
where Ri is the resistance of branch si. a) Using (4) to (6) to calculate the bus voltages, bus
The bus voltage variations caused by the switch current injections and line loss for each feeder
operation can be expressed as before feeder reconfiguration.
b) Executing branch exchange by closing a normal
open switch and opening a closed switch, and then
LAV'] = LBCBV] LAB ] (1 1) using (7)-(17) to estimate the line loss and bus
voltage variations.
The voltage at bus n after the switch operation can be c) If AP,,,, is less than 0, then exchanges these two
estimated by
switches and update BIBC and BCBV accordingly.
(12) Return to b).
n- m si d) If no switch exchange can further reduce the line
loss then stop the procedure and report the results.
where Zsi is the impedance of line si.
Similarly, the current injection variation for bus n of IV. TEST RESULTS
feederj can be estimated by
Fig. 2 is a two-feeder test system which has two
radial feeders served from two substations. A
(13) sectionalizing switch is assumed on every section of the
n feeder shown in Fig. 2 [3]. The accuracy of the proposed
formulas is compared to the load flow solution by
Thus, the line loss of feeder j after the switch operation successively opening of each located switch in Fig. 2 and
can be estimated by then calculated the line loss and bus voltage variations by
the proposed estimation formulas and the load flow
Nl 3
2 solution. Fig. 3 shows the power loss versus open switch
s =
Bi A
+/ RJ (14) location. In Fig. 3, the LF(kW) and Estimated(kW) mean
1=1 the solutions obtained by load flow and the proposed
method, respectively. The error(%) is the percentage
The line loss before and after the switch operation can be error between the load flow solution and the proposed
expressed as method, it can be calculated by

(15) error(%)=
|LF - Estimated *100 (18)
N' 2
Z B,'±BRI' ± AI, Rj
los
1
F~eeder-B
F__er A
A.j
(16) wXA
/11

The line loss variation caused by the switch operation is I

'0~~ I

AP loss -_
pafter pbefore (17) 4 I
loss loss Fig. 2: Two-feeder test system [3]

Obviously, the proposed formulations can be used to
estimate the variations of line loss, bus voltages and
branch currents caused by switch operations effectively.
For minimum loss problem, if APl%ss is less than 0, then
the switch should be operated and BIBC and BCBV
matrix can be updated accordingly.
The feeder reconfiguration problem as formulated
in Section 11 is a combinatorial and nonlinear
optimization problem. This kind of optimization can be
solved by artificial intelligent methods such as genetic
algorithm, ant colony system or particle swarm etc.
However, a straightforward and effective solution
method such as branch exchange algorithm [4] is more
suitable to be used to demonstrate the accuracy and
efficiency of the proposed formulas. Therefore, the
branch exchange algorithm is used in this paper. The
It can be seen that the error(%) for loss is
negligible when the open switches are close to the tie
switch and increases as the amount of transferred load
increases. The maximum error(%) for loss is almost 10%
in this test system; however, the amount of load
transferred has exceeded 9 MW in this situation. Fig. 4 is
the bus voltage profile while all load points of feeder B
transferred to feeder A. From Fig. 4, it can be seen that
the maximum error(%) for voltage magnitude is less than
10%. Figs. 3 and 4 mean that the proposed method has
high accuracy. Meanwhile, the system status caused by
switch operation can be efficiently calculated and a
systematic procedure can be used to update the network
configuration.
The proposed method is also used to solve the
minimum loss reconfiguration for the network shown in
Fig. 5. Table 1 show the line loss reduction after feeder
reconfiguration. The results obtained by the proposed improve the results. Besides, after the network topology
estimated formulas and LF program are also compared. changes caused by a switch operation, the BIBC and
From Table 1, it can be seen that the proposed formulas BCBV matrices could be updated more efficiently and
are accurate. The line loss is 9.06% less than the original technically. The application of the proposed formulas to
network. The switch operations are the same as those artificial intelligent based methods and the modification
obtained in [3, 7]. of BIBC and BCBV matrices caused by switch operation
will be derived in the future research.
1400 12
-&- LF(kW) Table 1: Loss Reduction Comparison
1200 10 Switch Feeder I II III Loss
1000 Pair Reduction
8, Estimated 91.77kW 360.20kW
W 800 (S15, S19) LF 91.78kW 360.03kW 20.21kW
6 ;.
V
0 600 Error (%) 0.0111% 0.047%
400
4 () Estimated -- 318.52kW 56.55kW
(S21, S17) LF 317.08kW 56.89kW 27.03kW
200 2 Error (%) 0.454% 0.598%
0 0
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5 4 3 2 1 1' 2' 3' 4' 5'
Open Section
F'ig. 3: Power loss versus open-switch location This work was sponsored by National Science
Council, Taiwan, under research grant NSC
92-2213-E-2 14-050.
1.02 1.5
1.3 VII. REFERENCES
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