Reconfiguration Strategy for Active Distribution Networks with Soft Open Points

The integration of distributed generation (DG) units with the prober control of soft open points (SOPs) in active distribution networks will contribute in achieving more benefits. This is will have a great influence on power loss reduction, voltage profile improvement and feeder load balancing. This paper presents a strategy for distribution network reconfiguration through designating the optimal number, location and size of DGs. Also, the SOPs operation are optimally managed for enhancing system efficiency and performance in steady state operation. The optimization problem is considered as a multi-objective function has to main objectives; minimizing system power losses and total voltage drop. The problem is solved using a modified particle swarm optimizer (MPSO) which is well-known, trusted and efficient tool for handling all variables of this study. IEEE 33-bus power distribution network is used to examine the validity of the proposed methodology. Moreover, a comparative study with the literatures is performed. The results indicate clearly the efficiency of the proposed method.