Search

In a distribution system, in order to enhance the reliability of power supply, the distribution feeder is divided into several sections by installing sectionalizing switches, and then each of the sectionalized sections is connected to a different feeder. For example, one feeder is divided into three sections by two sectionalizing switches, and then each of the divided sections is connected to the other feeder through sectionalizing switch. Since a distribution system with many feeders has many sectionalizing switches, the system configuration is determined by states (opened or closed) of sectionalizing switches. Usually, a power utility tries to obtain distribution loss-minimum configuration among large numbers of configuration candidates. However, it is very difficult to determine the loss-minimum configuration such that the mathematical optimality is guaranteed, because it is well known that determination of a distribution system's configuration is to decide whether each sectionalizing switch is opened or closed by solving a combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, the authors propose a determination method of loss-minimum configuration by which the mathematical optimality is guaranteed for a three-sectionalized three-connected distribution feeder network. A problem to determine the loss-minimum configuration is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problems with four operational constraints ( feeder capacity, voltage limit, radial structure, and three-sectionalization). In the proposed method, after picking up all partial configurations satisfied with radial structure constraint by using enumeration method, optimal combination of partial configurations is determined under the other operational constraints by using conventional optimization method. Numerical simulations are carried out for a distribution network model with 140 sectionalizing switches in order to examine the validity of the proposed algorithm in comparison with one of conventional meta-heuristics (tabu search). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(1): 56– 65, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20530 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service restoration in distribution systems can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. It is the problem to determine power sources for each load considering various operational constraints in distribution systems. Up to now, the problem has been dealt with using conventional methods such as the branch and bound method, expert systems, neural networks, and fuzzy reasoning. Recently, modern heuristic methods such as genetic algorithms (GA), simulated annealing (SA), and tabu search (TS) have been attracting notice as efficient methods for solving large combinatorial optimization problems. Moreover, reactive tabu search (RTS) can solve the parameter tuning problem, which is recognized as the essential problem of the TS. Therefore, RTS, GA, and SA can be efficient search methods for service restoration in distribution systems. This paper develops an RTS for service restoration and compares RTS, GA, and PSA (parallel SA) for the problem. The feasibility of the proposed methods is shown and compared on a typical distribution system model with promising results. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 133(3): 71–82, 2000 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An immune system has powerful abilities such as memory, recognition, and learning to respond to invading antigens. The concept is expected to be applicable to many engineering applications. This paper proposes an optimization algorithm that imitates the immune system in order to solve multi-optimization problems partly by using a genetic algorithm. Through illustrative examples of multimodal functions such as the Shubert function, the proposed algorithm is shown to be effective in searching for a set of global solutions. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 122(2): 30–37, 1998 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tabu search is a novel technique for solving combinatorial optimization problems. The process in which the tabu search method seeks to transcend local optimality is based on an evaluation function which chooses the highest-evaluation move in terms of objective function and tabu restrictions. This paper presents a tabu search algorithm for finding a minimum-cost partition of the nodes of a directed acyclic graph into subsets of a given size, subject to the constraint that the precedence relations are satisfied. A standard tabu search approach cannot realize good solutions for this problem, because the problem is a complex multiple partitioning problem in which the number of subsets and the number of nodes in each subset are unsettled. For this problem, we use an appropriate data structure for this method and develop effective neighborhood structure and heuristics. We also assess the effectiveness of the developed algorithm. The results show that this algorithm is effective in obtaining a near-optimal solution to this problem. The running time of the procedure is proportional to the number of nodes in the graph. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 119(4): 42–51, 1997 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]