Integrating and Comparing Radiality Constraints for Optimized Distribution System Reconfiguration

TL;DR

This paper analyzes various radiality constraints for distribution system reconfiguration, comparing their computational efficiency to optimize power loss reduction in electrical networks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of radiality constraint formulations, highlighting their impact on computational performance in distribution network reconfiguration.

Findings

Significant differences in computational efficiency among radiality constraints

Performance varies depending on the constraint formulation used

Insights aid in selecting optimal constraints for practical applications

Abstract

The reconfiguration of electrical power distribution systems is a crucial optimization problem aimed at minimizing power losses by altering the system topology through the operation of interconnection switches. This problem, typically modelled as a mixed integer nonlinear program demands high computational resources for large scale networks and requires specialized radiality constraints for maintaining the tree like structure of distribution networks. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis that integrates and compares the computational burden associated with different radiality constraint formulations proposed in the specialized literature for the reconfiguration of distribution systems. By using consistent hardware and software setups, we evaluate the performance of these constraints across several well known test cases. Our findings reveal significant differences in computational efficiency depending on the chosen set of radiality constraints, providing valuable insights for optimizing reconfiguration strategies in practical distribution networks.