OPTIMAL PLACEMENT OF RECLOSERS AND SECTIONALIZERS IN A POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM USING BAT ALGORITHM

In power distribution systems, sectionalizers and reclosers are installed to help with fault management. They work in tandem with circuit breakers. To achieve the highest level of system reliability, these should be installed in power distribution systems in the best possible way. In order to achieve this, an optimization problem is modeled in order to find the best location for the devices while simultaneously cutting down on the search space and computation time.Finding the best place for sectionalizers and reclosers in power distribution systems is the formulation of the optimization problem. In order to determine the most profitable installation strategy, the objective function is composed of reliability indices, equipment cost, and power loss incurred. Weighted sum approach has been used to combine all the parameters into a single multi objective function. This objective function is used as the fitness function in the optimization algorithm (bat algorithm) to achieve the best solution. Python console has been used to model a sample distribution system. Bat algorithm has been used to optimize the placement of these devices and the results have been plotted accordingly. The Bat Algorithm as it has a meta heuristic characteristic is not biased and hence is a good fit for deciding the optimal locations of reclosers and sectionalizers in a power distribution system