Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Distribution feeder energy conservation by using

heuristics fuzzy approach
Kun-Yuan Huang*, Hong-Chan Chin
Department of Electrical Engineering, Cheng-Shiu Institute of Technology Kao-Hsiung 833, Taiwan, ROC

Abstract
This paper presents a feeder recon®guration algorithm for the line loss reduction and feeder load balance. A heuristics based fuzzy strategy
and constrained fuzzy operation are applied in the problem for the purpose of ef®ciency. A new network con®guration is obtained through the
proposed algorithm, by which line loss reduction and feeder load balance can be achieved at the same time. The effectiveness of the proposed
approach is demonstrated by employing the feeder switch operation scheme to a practical distribution system of Taiwan Power Company.
The desired switching operations can be ful®lled in a very ef®cient manner, as indicated from the results. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.
Keywords: Feeder recon®guration; Constrained fuzzy operation; Switching operation

1. Introduction and optimization algorithm [11], have been proposed in

The primary aim of recon®guring the distribution
system lies both in reducing power loss and in enhanc-
ing the system security during normal operations. The
load of the feeder can be transferred by changing the
open/close status of the switches. However, there are
numerous switches in a typical distribution system and
the number of possible switching operations is tremendous.
Therefore, a good strategy in the switching operation
scheme is needed to carry out the goals of reducing power
loss and enhancing the system security through load
balance.
The feeder recon®guration problem has been dealt
with in various papers. Aoki et al. [1] developed a
method for load transfer, in which the load indices
were used for load balancing. A formula or approximate
power ¯ow method was proposed by Civanlar et al. [2],
Baran and Wu [3], to reduce power loss through switch
operations in a distribution system. Shirmohammadi and
Hong [4] evolved an approach in which the optimal
con®guration was achieved by opening the lowest current
branches. Many other methods, such as mathematical
programming techniques [5±7], expert systems [8±10]
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 1886-7-7310606, ext. 311; fax: 1886-7-
7105821.
E-mail addresses: kyh0425@ksmail.seed.net.tw (K.-Y. Huang),
hcchin@cc.csit.edu.tw (H.-C. Chin).
0142-0615/02/$ - see front matter q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0142-061 5(01)00056-4
recent years.
An algorithm based on fuzzy operation [12] is proposed
to deal with the feeder recon®guration problem in this paper.
The approach tries to minimize power loss and acquire the
load balance at the same time. Therefore, two membership
functions are de®ned in the strategy for the power loss
and load balance. Moreover, a heuristic based fuzzy set
approach is built to avoid heavy numerical computing.
The desired switching operations, as con®rmed by the
computational results, can be attained very ef®ciently with
the proposed algorithm.
2. Problem formulation
Two rules must be obeyed for proper feeder recon-
®guration. One is that the operation of closing a switch
should always be followed by opening a switch; hence,
the radial network structure can be retained. The other
is that the network topology should remain intact. The
notation …X; Y† is utilized for denoting the operation of
`opening the switch X and closing the switch Y'. The
particular feeder to release load in this paper is called
the relief feeder, and the feeder to accept load is called the
burden feeder.
The objective of the feeder recon®guration lies in
®nding the best switching sequence so that the real-
power loss minimization and the load balance can be
accomplished. Therefore, two notations, Irfi and Ibfi are
440 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445

further employed to the relief and burden feeders indi- Therefore, the minimum power loss can be obtained by
vidually. The detail descriptions of the two parameters substituting Eq. (3) in Eq. (2). It can be established as
are written as follows follows

Irfi : current of relief feeder fi after relieving load by …En 2 Em †2

switching; DPmin ˆ 2 …4†
Rloop
Ibfi : current of burden feeder fi after accepting load by
switching. The transferable current must be close to I…xopt †; for
acquiring the near minimum power loss, as revealed in
The ideal load level for a distribution system feeder Eq. (4). Consequently, an optimal transferable current
is de®ned by Eq. (1), which is called ideal current of (OTC), Iotc ; is de®ned as Eq. (3) to evaluate the level of
the feeder. the loss reduction caused by transferring a group of loads
from one feeder to another.
Idi ˆ LRsys £ RCfi …1† The quick decision-making process is also indispensable
for an ef®cient algorithm; thus, a heuristic based fuzzy
where Idi is the ideal current of feeder fi at feeder operation is applied towards avoiding the numerical burden.
source; LRsys is the loading
P ratio of the system;
P LRsys ˆ Consequently, the search space of the feasible solutions can
AC
P sys =RCsys ; AC sys ˆ AC T k
; RC sys ˆ min …RCTk ; be con®ned by looking for a group of selected switching
RCfi †; RCfi is the rated current of feeder fi at source, operations instead of exhaustive search.
feeder fi is connected to Tk ; ACTk is the actual current
of Tk ; RCTk is the rated current of Tk and Tk is the
transformer k.
Note that LRsys , 1 is assumed. 3. A search strategy with fuzzy operations
A simple equation was designed by Civanlar et al. [2]
for estimating the amount of the loss change in the Two fuzzy-set models are developed for loss reduction
distribution system with perfect VAR compensation. The and load balance.
loss change results from transferring a group of loads
from feeder-II to feeder-I. The relationship of the feeders
is shown in Fig. 1. 3.1. Fuzzy-set model of the real power loss

DP ˆ 2I…x†…Em 2 En † 1 Rloop ‰I…x†Š2 …2† The feeder current ¯ow close to the OTC, requires to be
identi®ed for the objective of minimizing the system power
loss. The OTC can be obtained from Eq. (3). Moreover, the
where DP is the power loss reduction/increase when it is
amount of the transfer current resulting from any branch
negative/positive; I…´† is the current distribution along the
exchange can be estimated `very close', `close', or `not
shortest path; x is the distance from the opened switch to the
close' to the OTC. Therefore, the linguistic terms can be
tie bus; Em is the terminal tie bus voltage of the feeder-I
formulated as a membership function by the fuzzy notation.
before the load transfer; En is the terminal tie bus voltage of
The proposed membership function m~ P is depicted in Fig. 2.
the feeder-II before the load transfer and Rloop is the series
A small difference between feeder current and OTC, as
resistance of the path connecting the two substation buses of
indicated from the ®gure possesses a larger membership
feeder-I and feeder-II.
value, and vice versa. The membership function can be
Because of the quadratic nature of DP; the optimal
distance current I…xopt † can be shown and described as
follows
µ P~
E 2 Em
I…xopt † ˆ n …3†
Rloop
1

Feeder-I Feeder-II

m-2 m-1 m n n-1 n-2

-Ip 0 Ip ∆ Is
Fig. 1. Two-feeder system. Fig. 2. Membership function of power loss.
 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445 441

expressed as follows similarly expressed as Eq. (7). The diagram of m~ Br and m~ Bb

8 is indicated in Fig. 3. A large current variation DI; as
> DIs
>
> 12 for 0 # DIs , Iotc illustrated from the ®gure, is given a small value of the
>
> Iotc
< membership function m~ Br (or m~ Bb †; and vice versa. In addi-
m~ P ˆ DIs …5† tion, the minimum variation of feeder current DI; for the
>
> 11 for 2 Iotc , DIs # 0
>
> Iotc overload problem, can be written as
>
:
0 otherwise DI ˆ Ibfi 2 Idi …8†
where DIs ˆ Isfi 2 Iotc ; Isfi is the section current of feeder fi The load balance level of the selected switch operation
before switching. can further be de®ned when m~ Br and m~ Bb are determined. It
can be expressed as follows
3.2. Fuzzy-set model of the load balance
m~ B …X; Y† ˆ min‰m~ Br …X; Y†; m~ Bb …X; Y†Š …9†
The load current of each feeder approaching Idi is
required for load balance. However, a crisp description is where m~ B …X; Y† is the membership value after switching
not necessary in the fuzzy operation. The linguistic terms …X; Y†:
`close', `very close' and so on can be modeled by the fuzzy The purpose of the feeder recon®guration can be achieved
notation. Therefore, B~ r and B~ b are the notations for the if the decision fuzzy set D~ is derived from the intersection of
membership functions of the current variations for the relief the two membership functions m~ P and m~ B : Therefore, the
and burden feeders, respectively. The load balance level of membership functions m~ D can be determined when the two
~ can be obtained by the `con¯uence'
the candidate switch, B; membership functions m~ P and m~ B are de®ned. However, the
(`intersection') of the membership functions B~ r and B~ b : It optimal decision is the highest membership value of m~ D :
can be written as Thus, an optimal decision fuzzy set D~ can be designated
as follows
B~ ˆ B~ r > B~ b …6†
m~ D …X; Y† ˆ max{min‰m~ P …X; Y†; m~ B …X; Y†Š} …10†

3.2.1. Fuzzy notation of B~ r

The membership function of the relief feeder, B~ r ; can be
4. Feeder switching operation
de®ned as
8
> DI The example of the three-feeder distribution system [13]
>
> 12 for 0 # DI , Ib
>
> Ib is given to interpret the procedure of the heuristics fuzzy
<
search. The overall feeder switching operation ¯ow chart is
m~ Br ˆ DI …7†
>
> 11 for 2 Ib , DI # 0 shown in Fig. 4. The simple distribution system is depicted
>
> I
>
:
b in Fig. 5, and the line data is shown in Table 1. The current
0 otherwise rating of the line in the system is 200 A. The switch currents
are displayed in Table 2. The other parameters of the system
where DI ˆ Irfi 2 Idi ; Ib ˆ ugRCfi 2 Idi u; g ˆ 1:1 is used in
are listed as line loss ˆ 102:6 kW; rated current RCsys ˆ
this paper to allow 10% fuzziness for the feeder rated
600 A; actual loading ACsys ˆ 422:6 A; system loading
current capacity.
ratio LRsys ˆ 0:704; and the ideal load current Idi ˆ
140:8 A:
3.2.2. Fuzzy notation of B~ b
The OTC of each feeder-pair, according to Eq. (3), is
The membership function of the burden feeder, B~ b ; can be
computed as Iotc …1 2 2† ˆ 35 A; Iotc …2 2 3† ˆ 17:98 A;
and Iotc …3 2 1† ˆ 56 A: The current in the path between
µ~B µ~B
r b
feeder-3 and feeder-1 is the maximum, and therefore we
choose this path to perform load transfer. Feeder-1 is
selected as the candidate burden feeder. Three feasible
1 solutions in the path are found to relieve loads, which are
(3d, 1d), (3c, 1d) and (3b, 1d). The membership values of
the switching operations are listed in Table 3. The currents
of the feeder 1, 2 and 3 are 139.1, 178.6 and 104.9 A,
respectively, individually once the ®rst feeder recon®gura-
tion is executed. The total real-power loss of the feeders is
96.9 kW.
-Ip 0 Ip ∆I After the process mentioned above, the OTC of each
feeder-pair would become Iotc …1 2 2† ˆ 26:57 A; Iotc …2 2
Fig. 3. Membership function of relief and burden feeder. 3† ˆ 33:9 A; and Iotc …3 2 1† ˆ 7:89 A: The path from
442 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445

Table 1
Characteristic data of the three feeders simple system (base: 100 MV A, 23 kV)

Bus to bus Resistance Reactance Bus load Bus load Length

(V/km) (V/km) (MW) (MVAR) (km)

1±2 0.20242 0.38911 2.10 0.92 1.25

2±3 0.20242 0.38911 1.75 0.87 0.75
2±5 0.20242 0.38911 1.1 0.52 2.5
6±7 0.20242 0.38911 1.28 0.76 1.05
7±8 0.20242 0.38911 1.65 0.78 1.00
8±9 0.20242 0.38911 1.3 0.78 0.98
7±10 0.20242 0.38911 0.94 0.56 0.79
10±16 0.20242 0.38911 1.08 0.45 1.25
8±11 0.20242 0.38911 1.45 0.59 2.10
12±13 0.20242 0.38911 1.42 0.68 1.50
13±14 0.20242 0.38911 1.98 0.79 0.98
14±15 0.20242 0.38911 1.45 0.67 0.89
15±4 0.20242 0.38911 1.25 0.65 1.18
3±4 0.20242 0.38911 ± ± 2.16
5±11 0.20242 0.38911 ± ± 1.58
13±16 0.20242 0.38911 ± ± 1.50

Table 2
Feeders' current of the simple system (active line loss ˆ 102:6 kW†

Feeder 1 switch Current (A) Feeder 2 switch Current (A) Feeder 3 switch Current (A)

1a 109.5 2a 178.5 3a 134.6

1b 39.9 2b 100.1 3b 102.5
1c 24.5 2c 32.8 3c 61.5
1d 0 2d 46.3 3d 29.3
1e 0 2e 30.3 3e 0
± ± 2f 22.7 ± ±

feeder-2 to feeder-3 is now chosen as the second search.

Start
Network data input
Calculate Idi and total power loss
PTloss
Compute Iotc for each feeder pair
Execute load transfer starting
PNloss = PTloss
from the maximum Iotc
Feeder-3 is selected as the candidate burden feeder. Two
feasible solutions in the path are found to relieve loads,
which are (2f, 3e) and (2d, 3e). The membership values
are also listed in Table 4. The currents of feeder-1, 2 and
3 are 139.1, 155.6 and 127.9 A, respectively, individually
once the second recon®guration is executed. The total
real-power loss of the feeders is 96.2 kW.
The power loss, as indicated from the results, is
decreased obviously from 102.6 to 96.2 kW through

Feeder 1 Feeder 2 Feeder 3

Feeder reconfiguration by the
fuzzy operation 1 6 12
1a 2a 3a
5 10 16
2 1c 7 13
Compute new power loss PNloss 2d 2f 3e
Yes
2b
1e 11
3b
Is further load Yes 1b 2e 8
PNloss < PTloss ? 2c
transfer ? 3 9 14
No
No
Reconfigulation and report 4 15
1d 3d 3c
End

Fig. 4. Feeder switching operation. Fig. 5. Three feeders simple system.

 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445 443

Table 3 1.00
Membership values for the feeder 1±3

Switching m~ P m~ B m~ D Real Power

0.80
operation
Reactive Power

Load (Pu.)
(3d, 1d) 0.523 0.554 0.523
(3c, 1d) 0.900 0.15 0.15 0.60
(3b, 1d) 0.168 0 0

0.40

Table 4
Membership values for the feeder 2±3 0.20
Switching m~ P m~ B m~ D 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
operation Time (Hour)
(2f, 3e) 0.671 0.809 0.671 Fig. 7. Residential load pattern.
(2d, 3e) 0.636 0.869 0.636

the switching operation. Furthermore, the system current 1.0

allocation percentages of the feeders are changed and
listed in Table 5. The feeder currents are more balanced than 0.8
the original after executing the proposed algorithm in the
Real Power
system.
Load (Pu.)
0.6
Reactive Power
0.4
5. Application to feeder energy scheme
0.2
A distribution system in Ref. [14] is tested practically
0.0
5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f 4e 4d 4c 4b 4a
f5 f4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
f6 4f 3m Time (Hour)
f7 6a f3
6b 4k 4h 4g 3c
7a 3a Fig. 8. Commercial load pattern.
6c 3g 3b
7c 3d
7b 4j
7f 6d 6e 4i 3f 3e 3h
7d
3i to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algo-
7e 4m 3j rithm for the recon®guration problem. The case deals with
7m
1h
6h
6f
6g 1n 2e a distribution system in the service area of Kaohsiung
2f
8c 8m 1g 2d District Of®ce of Taiwan Power Company (TPC). The
8d
8e 1f
1d 2c system consists of 4 substations, 9 feeders and 75
8b 2b
switches. The one-line diagram of the system is shown in
8a 2a
f8 9c 9d 9h 1e 1c 1m
f2 Fig. 6. The load patterns were obtained by a ®eld test over a
9b 1i
one-year period.
f9 f1 The system burden is generally classi®ed into three
9a 9e 9f 9g 9i 1b 1a categories: the residential, industrial and commercial loads.
Fig. 6. TPC distribution system. The typical load pattern (daily curve) for each category
can be obtained by the synthesis or survey technique. The

Table 5
Current allocation percentages (total system load current ˆ 422:6 A†

Feeder no. Before recon®guration After recon®guration

Load current (A) Allocation percentage Load current (A) Allocation percentage

1 109.5 26.0 139.1 32.9

2 178.5 42.2 155.6 36.8
3 134.6 31.8 127.9 30.3
444 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445

Table 6 1.0
Load composition percentages for the TPC distribution system
Real Power
Load patterns Feeder 0.8
Reactive Power
f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9

Load (Pu.)
0.6
Residential 100 0 100 0 0 50 100 20 0
Commercial 0 100 0 100 0 0 0 0 100
0.4
Industrial 0 0 0 0 100 50 0 80 0

0.2
Table 7
Feeder energy scheme for the TPC distribution system 0.0

Operation time period Switching operation 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Time (Hour)
3±7 a.m. (3e, 3g), (2f, 6g)
5±8 a.m. (4c, 4e) Fig. 9. Industrial load pattern.
7 a.m.±3 p.m. (3c, 3m)
10 a.m.±1 p.m. (4g, 3g)
11 a.m.±3 p.m. (4g, 4e), (6f, 6g) 1000
11 a.m.±6 p.m. (8e, 8m)
6±11 p.m. (6f, 6g)
7 p.m.±7 a.m. (1e, 8m) 800
Power Loss (Kw)
8 p.m.±2 a.m. (3b, 3m)
8 p.m.±5 a.m. (7e, 7m)
11 p.m.±2 a.m. (2f, 4m)
600
11 p.m.±4 a.m. (4b, 4e)
11 p.m.±5 a.m. (3h, 3j), (1h, 9h)
Original Loss
400
Minimum Loss
load composition percentage is displayed in Table 6, which
is provided by the TPC. Based on the data in Table 6, the
200
hourly current ¯ow of switches is computed by the load ¯ow
program. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Many distribution feeders of the system are over- Time (Hour)
loaded because of the shortage of facilities in summer.
Fig. 10. Daily power loss.
The proposed switch operation scheme can provide a
dispatch guideline to handle the overload problem. The
different daily load patterns in the system are illustrated in distribution system on weekdays in summer is depicted in
Figs. 7±9. Fig. 10. The total daily loss of the system is obvious reduc-
The optimal switching schedule derived from the pro- tion through the proposed feeder switch scheme, as
posed strategy is listed in Table 7. The tie switch `1e', for con®rmed by the ®gure.
example, should be opened and the switch `8m' should be Fault service restoration is the main objective of
closed from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for transferring load from Ref. [14]. Although the load balance problem is mentioned
feeder-1 to feeder-8. Accordingly, the switch `8e' should in the distribution system of the paper, the feeder con-
be opened while the switch `8m' is closed from 11 a.m. to tingency and service restoration are primarily considered.
6 p.m. for transferring load from feeder-8 to feeder-1. The Here, the proposed algorithm considers not only power loss
overload problems are solved satisfactorily by executing reduction but also load balance. Therefore, incorporating
the optimal switching scheme and the load balance and the strategy of Ref. [14] into the proposed algorithm will
energy loss minimization can be ef®ciently achieved, simul- be more practical for the distribution system. It is a good
taneously. The original and minimum hourly loss of the topic to research in the future. However, the comparison of

Table 8
Characteristic comparisons between the two algorithms

Algorithm Objective Computation effort Loss reduction

Strategy of Ref. [14] Fault service restoration Easy ±a

Proposed algorithm Load balance and loss reduction Easy Ef®cient
a
Nonconsideration.
 K.-Y. Huang, H.-C. Chin / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 24 (2002) 439±445
the characteristics between the two algorithms are displayed
in Table 8.
6. Conclusions
A heuristic based fuzzy operation has been developed for
the network recon®guration in this paper. The proper
exchange of the feeder loads is acquired by operating a set
of switches through the proposed algorithm. The fuzzy set is
utilized for describing the level of feeder unbalance and line
loss. Only the tie switches in the neighborhood of the
selected feeders are considered to be switched, and thus
the search space is reduced. If the neighboring tie switches
are not ful®lled, the process is executed by considering the
burden feeder in the next search. Therefore, the strategy
reduces the number of feasible solutions drastically. The
test results validate the effectiveness of the proposed search
algorithm, even in the operational mode.
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