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Distribution system reconfiguration (DSR) is a multi-objective, nonlinear problem. This paper introduces a new, fast, nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (FNSGA) for the purpose of solving the DSR problem in normal operation by satisfying all objectives simultaneously with a relatively small number of generations and relatively short computation time. The objectives of the problem are to minimize real power losses and improve the voltage profile and load balancing index with minimum switching operations. Instead of generating several ranks from the nondominated set of solutions, this algorithm deals with only one rank; then the most suitable solution is chosen according to the operator's wishes. If there is no preference and all objectives have the same degree of importance, the best solution is determined by simply considering the sum of the normalized objective values. Also, a guided mutation operation is applied instead of a random one to speed up convergence. Radial system topology is satisfied using graph theory by formulating the branch-bus incidence matrix (BBIM) and checking the rank of each topology. To test the algorithm, it was applied to two widely studied test systems and a real one. The results show the efficiency of this algorithm as compared to other methods in terms of achieving all the goals simultaneously with reasonable population and generation sizes and without using a mutation rate, which is usually problem-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]