Sparsity-leveraging Reconfiguration of Smart Distribution Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a convex reformulation of the distribution system reconfiguration problem using group sparsity, enabling efficient identification of network configurations and voltage regulation in power distribution systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel sparsity-based convex approach for system reconfiguration that simplifies the nonconvex problem and incorporates voltage constraints.

Findings

Effectively identifies network configurations by adjusting a sparsity parameter.

Successfully incorporates voltage regulation constraints into the reconfiguration process.

Demonstrates the method's ability to handle various network topologies.

Abstract

A system reconfiguration problem is considered for three-phase power distribution networks featuring distributed generation. In lieu of binary line selection variables, the notion of group sparsity is advocated to re-formulate the nonconvex distribution system reconfiguration (DSR) problem into a convex one. Using the duality theory, it is shown that the line selection task boils down to a shrinkage and thresholding operation on the line currents. Further, numerical tests illustrate the ability of the proposed scheme to identify meshed, weakly-meshed, or even radial configurations by adjusting a sparsity-tuning parameter in the DSR cost. Constraints on the voltages are investigated, and incorporated in the novel DSR problem to effect voltage regulation.