Structural Decomposition Approach for Distribution Network Reconfiguration

Network reconfiguration (NR) is a highly complex combinatorial problem with discrete and nonlinear characteristics. With the expansion of the distribution network (DN), solving the NR problem faces the challenge of high dimensions. In this article, we propose a structural decomposition approach (SDA), where the NR problem is suitably allocated to three processes: partition, reconfiguration of equivalent networks, and merging. According to the loop in the original DN, the loop-oriented network partition model is proposed to divide the original DN into multiple equivalent networks, including a loop region and a compressed region. The reconfiguration model is built for the equivalent networks, and the solutions for the loop region and compressed region can be obtained. Then the merging model with the correction method is proposed to merge all reconfiguration solutions of equivalent networks, deal with the inconsistent solutions of different equivalent networks, and obtain the optimal reconfiguration solution of the original DN. Numerical case studies were conducted on the IEEE 33-bus and 119-bus DNs. Compared with other heuristic algorithms for solving NR problem, SDA reduces computation time by 70% while ensuring the optimality of NR strategies. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and exceptional performance of the proposed method.