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IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL
Energy Loss Minimization in Distribution Systems
Utilizing an Enhanced Reconfiguration Method
Integrating Distributed Generation
Hamid Reza Esmaeilian and Roohollah Fadaeinedjad, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Different types of distributed generation (DG) are
broadly used and optimally placed in a distribution system to
improve its performance. Since the network configuration affects
the system operational conditions, the network reconfiguration
and DG placement should be manipulated simultaneously. Never-
theless, the complexity of the problem may prevent from achieving
the optimal solution. This paper presents a novel hybrid method of
metaheuristic and heuristic algorithms, in order to boost robust-
ness and shorten the computational runtime to achieve network
minimum loss configuration in the presence of DGs. The developed
backward/forward power flow is adopted to consider the PV(Q)
model of DG. Moreover, different patterns of load types are taken
into consideration to perform a practical study. To assess the
capabilities of the proposed method, simulations are carried out
on IEEE 33-bus and 83-bus practical distribution network of
Taiwan Power Company. Furthermore, the proposed method is
applied to a 33-bus unbalanced distribution network to verify
its applicability in unbalanced distribution systems. The obtained
results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method to
find optimal status of switches, as well as locations and sizes of
DG units, in a rather shorter time than other approaches in the
literature.
Index Terms—Distributed generation (DG), distribution net-
work reconfiguration, energy loss reduction, hybrid algorithm.
I. I NTRODUCTION
P LANNING for energy loss reduction in a distribution
system is one of the most crucial issues of distribution
companies. Reconfiguring or open/closed status determination
of the network switches can be a solution to alleviate this
problem [1]. On the other hand, the time-varying nature of
loads and considering a fixed topology for the network (because
of the cost of the commutation devices associated with hourly
reconfiguration [2]) leads to more complexity of the aforemen-
tioned problem. Hence, demand-side generators are proposed
as an efficacious solution to reduce the energy loss.
Employing distributed generation (DG) in the distribution
system leads to deferral of the network expansion, energy loss
reduction, and reliability indexes improvement. These benefits
will be achievable, provided that placement of DG units is per-
Manuscript received December 9, 2013; revised February 15, 2014 and
May 18, 2014; accepted July 9, 2014.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman 76311 33131, Iran
(e-mail: h.r.esm.guat@gmail.com; rfadaein@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSYST.2014.2341579
1932-8184 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
formed properly. Furthermore, due to the time-varying nature
of loads, generation of these resources should be coordinated
with demand. Therefore, the requirement of solving the DG
placement problem has always been requested by distribution
companies. Since the network configuration affects the DG
placement, it should be incorporated in the problem. There are a
few researches that network reconfiguration has been combined
with the DG placement problem to reduce power loss [3], [4].
In [3], the reconfiguration is performed in the presence of DGs,
whereas these two problems are solved separately. In [4], it
has been shown that simultaneous consideration of network
reconfiguration and DG installation is more effective than
considering them separately. In the aforementioned researches,
however, the impact of demand variability considering load
of different types has not been investigated. Moreover, the
only type of DG employed is constant power factor (PQ),
whereas converter-based DGs typically treat as constant voltage
(PV) [5].
Since there are many candidate configurations of a distri-
bution network and also due to the discrete nature of each
switch status, optimal network reconfiguration is considered as
a discrete, constrained combinatorial, and nondifferentiable op-
timization problem. Moreover, it will become more acute when
incorporating DG placement with discrete size and location.
Therefore, a robust method is required to solve such a com-
plicated problem in an effective way. The well-known methods
to solve the reconfiguration problem are classified as follows:
1) heuristic methods such as branch and bound [6], branch
exchange [7], [8], loop cutting [9], and single-loop opti-
mization [10];
2) metaheuristic algorithms such as genetic algorithm (GA)
[11]–[14], simulated annealing (SA) [15], ant colony
optimization (ACO) [16], honeybee mating optimiza-
tion (HBMO) [17], and harmony search algorithm
(HSA) [18].
The heuristic algorithms are very fast to solve the recon-
figuration problem and are appropriate for real-time distribu-
tion automation. Despite rapidness, these algorithms usually
achieve local optimum solutions rather than global optimum
solution. By contrast, the metaheuristic algorithms usually
achieve global optimum solution, but the computation time is
prohibitively high due to the complicated structure of them.
Meanwhile, they should be run many times due to their prob-
abilistic nature and random selections. Therefore, they may be
not suitable for real-time operation [13], [14].
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2 IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL
So far, several methods have been proposed in order to solve
simultaneous reconfiguration and DG/capacitor placement. In
[4], branches, which should be open in the network loops,
and DGs, which should be located in the system, are specified
by the HSA. However, in the searcher agent, the positions of
tie switches are independent of DGs placed. Therefore, the
convergence rate of the algorithm is slow. The loops opening
consecutively based on a branch-exchange heuristic technique
has been proposed in [19] to solve reconfiguration and capacitor
placement, simultaneously. In this method, the positions of tie
switches in the loops are consecutively determined, considering
capacitors specified in the agent. Since the loops’ opening
sequence affects the position of tie switches, hence in [20],
the loops’ selection sequence is determined by the GA, in
addition to the location and size of capacitors. However, due
to large scale of real distribution networks and, in consequence,
existence of numerous loops with many common branches, this
method is time consuming. Because for each combination of
capacitors, there is an optimum opening sequence of the loops.
Therefore, an efficient reconfiguration method adapted to DG
or capacitor placement is requisite.
In this paper, the network reconfiguration is performed using
a novel combinatorial method of heuristic and metaheuristic
algorithms to reduce energy loss under penetration of DG units
and variability of demand. The studied problem is described
in Section II. The proposed reconfiguration method to achieve
the network minimum power loss configuration is expressed in
Section III. Thereupon, the method is developed in Section IV
to achieve the network minimum energy loss configuration in
the presence of DG. The performance of the proposed algorithm
is demonstrated in Section V through application to three test
networks compared with many recent methods. Finally, the
conclusion is elaborated in Section VI.
II. M INIMAL E NERGY L OSS P ROBLEM U SING
R ECONFIGURATION AND DG P LACEMENT
A. Optimization Problem Formulation
The objective function of energy loss minimization through
network reconfiguration and DG placement can be formulated
as follows:
 L n  
  b
Pi2 + Q2i
F = min ki × R i × × τ (1)
Vi2
=1 i=1
subjected to the following operational constraints:
1) |Vimin | ≤ |Vi | ≤ |Vimax |
2) |Ii | ≤ |Iimax |

3) PDG ≤ DGpenetration × Ptotal

4) the radial structure of the network must be maintained in
the reconfigured structure and all loads must be energized
where Pi and Qi are the active and reactive powers through
the ith branch at load interval , respectively; Vi is the sending
bus voltage of the ith branch at load interval ; τ is the
number of hours at the th load interval; Ri and ki are the
resistance and the switch status (0 = open, 1 = close) of branch
i, respectively; nb is the total number of branches; Ii and Iimax
Fig. 1. Single-line diagram of a main feeder.
are the calculated value and the upper limit of the ith branch
current, respectively; Vimax and Vimin are the permissible upper
and lower limits of the bus voltage, respectively; DGpenetration

is the aimed level for DG allocation; PDG is the summation of
productive powers of total DGs employed in the system at load
   
interval ; and Ptotal = PDG + Psubstation , in which Psubstation
is the dispatched power from a substation.
B. Backward–Forward Power Flow in the Presence of PV(Q)
Model of DG
The backward–forward sweep method is commonly used
to perform power flow in distribution networks because of
fast convergence and low computational memory consumption,
in comparison with other methods such as Newton–Raphson
and fast decouple methods. Two basic steps of the algorithm
comprise backward and forward sweeps, which are referred
to Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) and voltage law (KVL),
respectively, as are expressed in the following equations con-
sidering Fig. 1, where Jb , Zb , m, n, and n − 1 denote the
current, the series impedance, the total connected branches, the
receiving node, and the sending node of branch b, respectively.
Furthermore, k, V , and S allude to the iteration, voltage, and
load power injection, respectively. The steps will be repeated
until the convergence is acquired. That is
Sn ∗  m
Jb
(k)
= + Jp(k) (2)
∗
Vnk−1
p=1
Vnk = Vn−1
k
− Zb Jbk . (3)
The DGs can be modeled as PQ or PV in the power flow
equations. The PQ model is considered as negative load injected
into the system. In order to incorporate the PV model, the
following steps are required [5].
Step 1) The generator is considered as a PQ bus with the
specified real power and unit power factor at the
beginning of power flow algorithm.
Step 2) After converging the mentioned backward and for-
ward sweeps, the mismatch between the calculated
voltage magnitude and the specified value at PV
nodes is obtained using
 i  i 
ΔV i = Vsp  − Vcal  i = 1 : npv . (4)
Step 3) If the mismatch is less than the certain tolerance value,
the PV node voltage is converged to the specified
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ESMAEILIAN AND FADAEINEDJAD: ENERGY LOSS MINIMIZATION IN SYSTEMS UTILIZING A RECONFIGURATION
value. Otherwise, the bus voltage is maintained at
the specified value via reactive power compensation
by the DG that can be calculated as follows:
[X]npv ×npv · [ΔQ]npv ×1 = [ΔV ]npv ×1 .
The diagonal entries of the X matrix are the sum-
mation of line reactance between each PV node and
the root node. The off-diagonal entries are the sum-
mation of the common branches’ reactance between
two PV nodes and root node. Meanwhile, ΔQ < 0
and ΔQ > 0 represent the reactive power adsorption
and generation by DG to maintain the voltage in
the specified value, respectively. The reactive power
injected by PV nodes is updated as follows:
Qnew = Qold + ΔQ.
Step 4) In this step, the following constraint is investigated
to consider the reactive power limitation of DGs. In
this paper, the power factor limits are set between
0.8 and 1, lagging/leading. If the reactive power of
any DG exceeds the limits, then its value is fixed to
limits and will treat as a PQ node:
Qmin ≤ Qnew ≤ Qmax .
After executing the backward/forward sweeps again, the
aforementioned steps will be repeated until the voltages of PV
nodes satisfy (4).
III. P ROPOSED R ECONFIGURATION M ETHOD
A. GA
1) Overview of GA: GA is a metaheuristic search algorithm
based on the process of biological evolution. It is established
according to principle of natural selection and the possibility
of life for generations with best fitness. In GA, the problem
variables can be considered as encoded binary strings termed
genes. A set of genes constitutes a chromosome that is one of
the possible solutions of the problem. The basic structure of GA
is as follows. First, a randomly constructed initial population
of chromosomes is generated. Then, the fitness of each chro-
mosome is characterized by a fitness function that is resulted
from the objective function. The selection operator selects
the chromosomes with better fitness among the population.
Using crossover and mutation operators, a new population is
generated. The process will be repeated continuously. By each
iteration, the population improves, and searching continues in
a way toward optimum solution. The iterative loop will be
executed until the termination criterion is met.
2) Structure of a Chromosome for the Reconfiguration Prob-
lem: The number of genes in each chromosome corresponds to
the number of the distribution network loops. Each gene shows
a binary code related to switch number that is going to be open.
The structure of a chromosome is represented as follows, where
ι is the number of the network loops:
ϑ = [SW1 , SW2 , . . . , SWι ].
3
B. Branch Exchange
The branch-exchange method is a heuristic algorithm to
solve the distribution network reconfiguration for loss reduction
(5) introduced by Civanlar et al. [7]. Despite the rapidness, it
may not achieve the network minimum loss configuration. The
shortcoming of this method is that the reconfiguration of the
network depends on the initial switch status.
The improved switch-exchange method (ISEM), which was
proposed by Peponis et al. [8], is employed to perform branch
exchange in this paper. This approach starts with a feasible
initial topology of the network as a radial configuration. One
of the tie switches is closed, and then, another switch is opened
in the created loop, which restores a radial configuration. In
each iteration of the algorithm, after performing power flow,
the two node voltages of all tie lines are computed. The tie
(6) line that has maximum voltage difference between two nodes
is closed, and then, the branch with minimum current flow in
the created loop will be opened. In the loop, the current value
of each branch is calculated by the following equations, where
the branch between buses x and y is closed:
Vx − Vy
Ic = (8)
Z
 loop
Ii + Ic , i ∈ p
Ij = (9)
(7) Ii − Ic , i ∈ q
where Ic corresponds to the rotatory current in the loop created
of bus x to bus y; Zloop is the sum of branch impedance in
the loop; p and q denote the path of bus x and y toward root
bus, respectively; Ii and Ij are the current through each branch
before and after creating the loop, respectively. The tie line will
be replaced with the opened branch, provided that the power
loss is reduced.
The branch-exchange process is stopped when no more loss
reductions are available.
C. Proposed Approach
The concept of incorporating both GA and branch exchange
is characterized as follows. The GA generates random topolo-
gies of the network, and the branch-exchange method, depend-
ing on an initial radial topology, improves the chromosomes
generated by the GA through applying the ISEM to them. Using
this technique, the convergence time is considerably reduced,
and optimal solution will be achieved in much fewer iterations.
The steps of the algorithm to find the network minimum loss
configuration are mentioned as follows.
Step 1) Receive the network data and initialize the GA
parameters.
Step 2) Determine the fundamental loops of the network and
allocate each gene of chromosome to a loop. (Em-
ploying this procedure leads to decrease topologies
that are not radial in the population.)
Step 3) Generate topologies of the network with random
switch status as initial population.
Step 4) Using the applications of graph theory [21], check
radiality of the network. If the topology is not a ra-
dial network, apply a penalty factor to the objective
function; otherwise, go to the next step.
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4 IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL

Step 5) Employ the ISEM in order to modify the structure of

chromosomes.
Step 6) Evaluate the objective function for each
chromosome.
Step 7) Apply the GA operators to generate a new popula-
tion, and then, go to step 4.
The proposed method has high computing efficiency, so that
the optimal configuration is achieved by applying small changes
in switch status of the configurations generated by GA. Indeed,
the proposed method uses the probabilistic search capability
of GA [11]–[14] and the mathematical logic of ISEM [8] to
achieve the optimal configuration. The ISEM directs the search
of GA toward optimal solution and speeds up the convergence
rate. Therefore, the proposed method utilizes the advantages
of a metaheuristic algorithm and a heuristic technique. This
method is very efficacious, particularly to reconfigure large-
scale networks. Fig. 2. Typical DLCs [22].

TABLE I
IV. P ROPOSED S TRATEGY VALUES OF E XPONENTIAL PARAMETERS FOR THE L OAD T YPES [23]

A. Modification of the Proposed Reconfiguration Method to

Obtain Fixed Configuration With Minimum Energy Loss
Demand in a distribution feeder varies from time to time. If
the network is hourly reconfigured to minimize the energy loss, considered for installation are specified by the GA, and their
the cost of commutation devices will be considerable. Further- locations are determined by the sensitivity analysis. Hence
more, online reconfiguration can lead to overvoltage transients  2
and, in consequence, decrease of the system reliability [2].
Peff + Q2eff Rb ∂Plossb 2 × Peff × Rb
Plossb = =⇒ =
Hence, a fixed configuration of the network is required. In order Vn2 ∂Peff Vn2
to achieve the network minimum energy loss configuration, (12)
the proposed reconfiguration method is modified as follows. 1 L
2 × Peff × Rb × τ

LSFn = 2 . (13)
To evaluate each chromosome, the power flow is performed 24 Vn
=1
for entire partitions of load curve. Thereafter, to improve the
structure of each chromosome by ISEM, the ΔE matrix with
size of ntie × 1 is constructed, where ntie is the number of
tie lines. Each element of this matrix is calculated using (10), C. Load Model
where ΔVj is the voltage difference between two nodes of tie Typical daily load curves (DLCs) have been employed to
line j at load interval . Afterward, the maximum element of calculate the energy loss of distribution networks, precisely.
ΔE, i.e., tie line that has maximum voltage difference between Demand on a distribution system is time varying and depends
its nodes on the day, is closed. Thereupon, in the created loop, on load type. There are different types of customer, such as
the branch with minimum current flow on the day, considering commercial, residential, and industrial, with different DLCs in
(11) to be inserted in (9), is opened. The topology will be a distribution system. Hence, the different patterns of load types
modified, provided that the energy loss is reduced. Hence should be taken into account to perform a practical study.
L Daily load profiles for different types of customer employed
=1 ΔVj × τ

ΔEj = j = 1 : ntie (10) in this paper are illustrated in the curves in Fig. 2 [22].
24
ΔE max 1) Polynomial Load Model: In this paper, the static voltage
Ic = . (11) dependence to load powers at each load point is modeled as a
Zloop
polynomial model, according to the following equations. The
respective exponents of the equations are given in Table I [23].
B. Sensitivity Analysis for DG Installation Hence


β P
γP 
The DG placement problem specifies the size and location of αP
V V V
DG units that are going to be installed in the system. In order P =P0 AP +BP +CP (14)
V0 V0 V0
to reduce the search space of the optimization procedure, the 

βQ
 γQ 
αQ
locations of DG units can be determined by sensitivity analysis V V V
Q =Q0 AQ +BQ +CQ (15)
[4]. Considering the system shown in Fig. 1 and the line loss V0 V0 V0
relation expressed in (12), a loss sensitivity factor (LSF) can
be calculated using (13). The buses with higher LSF have where the coefficients A, B, and C are percentages of load
priority for DG installation. Consequently, the sizes of DG units types connected to each bus, so that A + B + C = 1.
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ESMAEILIAN AND FADAEINEDJAD: ENERGY LOSS MINIMIZATION IN SYSTEMS UTILIZING A RECONFIGURATION 5

Fig. 4. IEEE 33-bus distribution network.

Fig. 5. 83-bus distribution network of TPC.

where Pave and Qave are the average active and reactive
powers at load interval ; Pt and Qt are the active and
reactive demand at hour t of load interval ; τ is the number of
hours at the th load interval; and L is the number of intervals
considered.
Fig. 3. Flowchart of the proposed algorithm. The structure of a typical chromosome for dividing the DLC
into three load intervals is represented as follows:
2) Load Interval Division: Due to existence of several ap-
parent load levels during a day based on the reality, the DLC τ1 =11 τ2 =5 τ3 =8
        
can be divided into some intervals to mitigate the computational ϑ = [01011, 00101, 01000] | τ1 + τ2 + τ3 = 24.
burden. The DLC can be optimally partitioned by the GA
considering the following objective function [24]:
 L τ 
  
D. Proposed Algorithm
2 2
F = min (Pave − Pt ) + (Qave − Qt )
Fig. 3 illustrates the flowchart of the proposed algorithm to
=1 t=1
(16) reduce the energy loss in a distribution system through reconfig-
uration and DG placement, considering the time-varying nature
subjected to
of demand. Initially, the load intervals optimum division of

L DLC is accomplished by GA. Subsequently, the optimal status
τ = 24 (17) of switches to achieve fixed configuration and the optimal size
=1 of DGs at each interval in the locations designated by sensitivity
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6 IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF THE A LGORITHMS A PPLIED IN S ECTION V-B
analysis are determined using the proposed hybrid algorithm.
The structure of a typical chromosome of the optimization
problem is represented as follows. The switch status of each
chromosome is modified using the ISEM to reduce more energy
loss, with respect to the placed DGs. Hence
 ture, as shown in Table II. The algorithms were implemented
ϑ = SW1 , SW2 , . . . , SWι , DG11 , DG21 , . . . , DGn1 , . . . ,
 in MATLAB on a PC with 2.8-GHz CPU and 1-GB RAM.
DG1 , DG2 , . . . , DGn , . . . , DGnL .
V. S IMULATION R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
A. Test Cases
Two 33-bus and 83-bus balanced distribution systems have
been used to test and validate the proposed methodology. The
IEEE 33-bus distribution network comprises 5 tie switches
and 32 sectionalizing switches, with a total real and reactive
load of 3715 kW and 2300 kvar, respectively [25]. The power
loss of the network initial configuration shown in Fig. 4 is
202.677 kW, and the lowest bus voltage is 0.913 p.u. The
83-bus network has been studied as a practical distribution
network of Taiwan Power Company (TPC), with 11 feed-
ers connected through 13 tie switches and 83 sectionalizing
switches, as depicted in Fig. 5 [3]. This real network has
been opted to test reconfiguration methods in many previous
papers such as [3], [16], and [17]. The total network loads are
28.35 MW and 20.7 Mvar. The power loss and the minimum
bus voltage of the network embryonic situation are 531.995 kW
and 0.929 p.u., respectively.
The capability of the proposed method to achieve the
distribution system minimum power loss configuration is
demonstrated in Section V-B. Thereafter, the proposed method-
ology is employed to obtain the simultaneous solution of the
reconfiguration and DG placement to reduce energy loss in
Section V-C. Then, in Section V-D, the proposed method is
applied to a 33-bus unbalanced distribution network to illustrate
its applicability in unbalanced systems. The studied network
has a similar configuration to that of the IEEE 33-bus network,
in which load at each bus is randomly distributed among three
phases. The network data were obtained from [26].
B. Minimal Power Loss Reconfiguration
Here, the superiority of the proposed method to solve the
minimal power loss reconfiguration is appraise, in comparison
to some state-of-the-art methods. The ISEM [8], GA [11], [16],
[18], refined GA (RGA) [12], [18], SA [15], [16], ACO [16],
HBMO [17], and HSA [18] are applied to solve the problem,
in addition to the proposed method. The parameters of the
algorithms for the studied systems are obtained from the litera-
Moreover, the constant power load model of the networks is
adopted here.
After reconfiguration, the power losses of the 33-bus and
83-bus networks reduce to 139.551 kW and 469.878 kW,
respectively, which imply reductions of 31.15% and 11.68%
comparing to the initial configurations. The minimum bus
voltages improve to 0.938 p.u. and 0.953 p.u., for the 33-bus
and 83-bus networks, respectively.
The major factors to characterize the capability of a meta-
heuristic algorithm are the best obtained solution (correspond-
ing to the algorithm’s quality), deviation of the best solution
among runs (corresponding to the algorithm’s robustness), and
the effective runtime (defined as the average time to converge).
The effective runtime can be calculated as follows [13]:
g
TC = TM (18)
g max
where g  denotes the average of iterations required to conver-
gence; g max denotes the maximum iteration used as termination
condition; and TM denotes the running time average.
For the purpose of comparison, the computational results
of the algorithms, for 100 runs, of the 33-bus and 83-bus
networks are tabulated in Tables III and IV, respectively. From
quality perspective, all of the metaheuristic algorithms achieve
the optimum solution of the 33-bus network, but the ISEM
converges to local solution. For the 83-bus network, ACO,
HBMO, HSA, and the proposed method obtain the optimum
configuration. Furthermore, RGA provides better quality than
GA and SA. From a robustness point of view, the metaheuristic
algorithms are ranked as the proposed method, HBMO, ACO,
HSA, RGA, GA, and SA. The algorithms are listed as the pro-
posed method, GA, RGA, SA, ACO, HBMO, HSA, and ISEM,
in order of complexity based on TM . Although the proposed
method is at the forefront of the list, TC is considerably short
because the proposed algorithm converges to optimal solution
in much fewer iterations. From comparing results with regard
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ESMAEILIAN AND FADAEINEDJAD: ENERGY LOSS MINIMIZATION IN SYSTEMS UTILIZING A RECONFIGURATION
TABLE III
R ECONFIGURATION R ESULTS OF THE 33-B US N ETWORK
TABLE IV
R ECONFIGURATION R ESULTS OF THE 83-B US N ETWORK OF TPC
to the three mentioned criteria, it can be concluded that the
proposed method provides the better optimization results than
other methods. Moreover, the convergence characteristics of the
algorithms for the best performance are compared in Fig. 6, for
the 33-bus system. It is clear that the proposed method has the
fastest convergence rate among the methods. Thus, the method
can be a suitable candidate to perform reconfiguration in real
large-scale networks with many tie switches.
7
Fig. 6. Comparison of convergence characteristics of the reconfiguration
algorithms for the 33-bus system.
TABLE V
PARAMETERS OF THE A LGORITHMS A PPLIED IN S ECTION V-C
C. Network Reconfiguration and DG Placement to Reduce
Energy Loss
Here, the strategy proposed in the flowchart in Fig. 3 is sim-
ulated on the studied distribution networks. The portions of res-
idential, commercial, and industrial loads at each load point are
set to 40%, 35%, and 25%, respectively. The DLCs indicated in
Fig. 2 are used to simulate, and three load intervals are assumed.
Maximum DG penetration considered to allocate in the system
is 12% of load. The simulations are carried out on three
cases: Case I represents the network reconfiguration, Case II
represents DG placement, and Case III employs reconfigura-
tion and DG placement, simultaneously, to reduce the energy
loss. For the purpose of comparison, the HSA is employed to
solve the problem, in addition to the proposed algorithm. The
crossover rate and mutation rate of the proposed algorithm are
chosen to be 0.8 and 0.05, respectively. The chosen parameters
of the HSA are same as those in [4]. The population size and
the number of iterations of each study case are set on Table V.
The switches selected to be open, the sizes and locations of
DGs at each interval, and the obtained computational results of
the algorithms on the 33-bus network are tabulated in Table VI.
Three DGs are considered to be installed, based on analysis per-
formed in [4]. The energy loss has been reduced by 28.05% by
reconfiguration in Case I, 37.79% by DG placement in Case II,
and 54.12% by simultaneously employing them. Moreover, the
minimum bus voltage has been improved by 1.70% in Case I,
1.91% in Case II, and 3.29% in Case III. From comparing the
results with HSA, both of the methods achieve the optimum
configuration in Case I, although the proposed method accom-
plishes in a shorter time. In Case II, the HSA provides better
results than GA. In Case III, the proposed algorithm converges
to less energy loss in a shorter time compared to HSA. Fur-
thermore, Fig. 7 shows how the proposed method outstrips the
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8 IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL
TABLE VI
S IMULATION R ESULTS OF THE 33-B US N ETWORK
Fig. 7. Comparison between convergence rates of the proposed method and
the HSA for the 33-bus system in Case III.
HSA to obtain a lower energy loss. Therefore, employing the
proposed reconfiguration method with DG placement leads to
achieving more remarkable results than the HSA.
The simulation results of the 83-bus network are shown in
Table VII. The energy loss and maximum voltage deviation are
reduced by 10.19% and 30.95% in Case I, 33.48% and 47.62%
in Case II, and 36.47% and 47.62% in Case III, respectively.
It can be observed that 36.471% of energy loss reduction is
achieved by the proposed algorithm, comparing with 35.997%
by the HSA in Case III. In Case I, it is also observable that the
energy loss obtained by the proposed method is less than that
of the HSA. Therefore, the merit of the proposed algorithm is
superior to HSA.
D. Energy Loss Reduction in an Unbalanced
Distribution System
Distribution networks are generally unbalanced in real oper-
ating conditions, due to the existence of single-phase loads. In
this regard, the proposed method is employed here to reduce the
energy loss of a 33-bus distribution system under unbalanced
loading conditions.
In this paper, the portions of the load types at each load point,
load intervals of the DLCs, and maximum DG penetration
in the system are considered to be similar to Section V-C.
The parameters of the proposed method and HSA, which are
applied to the studied network, are chosen as in Table V. The
simulation results obtained by the algorithms in the three cases,
as described in the previous section, are shown in Table VIII.
In Table VIII, it can be observed that the network energy loss
and maximum voltage deviation are reduced by 27.373% and
26.23%, respectively, using reconfiguration in Case I. In this
case, both of the algorithms obtain an energy loss reduction,
although the proposed method converges in a shorter time. Two
different optimum configurations are found for the balanced
and unbalanced networks, as shown in Tables VI and VIII,
respectively. This shows the importance of considering load im-
balance on the distribution network reconfiguration. In Case II,
DG installation leads to reducing the network energy loss
and maximum voltage deviation by 37.419% and 22.95%,
respectively. In Case III, the energy loss and maximum voltage
deviation are reduced by 53.099% and 42.62%, respectively.
Moreover, it can be observed that the proposed algorithm
obtains the better results than the HSA.
The study conducted here demonstrates the applicability of
the proposed method in unbalanced distribution systems.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented a new approach to reconfigure
distribution systems for power loss minimization. The GA as
a conventional metaheuristic algorithm and the ISEM as a
heuristic algorithm have been blended to achieve the network
minimum loss configuration. The superiority of the proposed
hybrid algorithm has been verified on two 33-bus (under bal-
anced and unbalanced loading conditions) and 83-bus networks
vis-à-vis other reconfiguration methods available in the
literature. The proposed approach has superior quality, high
robustness, and a short effective runtime to achieve optimal
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

ESMAEILIAN AND FADAEINEDJAD: ENERGY LOSS MINIMIZATION IN SYSTEMS UTILIZING A RECONFIGURATION 9

TABLE VII
S IMULATION R ESULTS OF THE 83-B US N ETWORK OF TPC

TABLE VIII
S IMULATION R ESULTS OF THE 33-B US U NBALANCED N ETWORK

configuration. The proposed reconfiguration approach has ca- R EFERENCES

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employed to reduce energy loss, considering the time-varying
nature of different types of load, using a proposing strategy.
The performance of the proposed algorithm was demonstrated
through comparing the obtained computational results to HSA.
The results reflect more reductions for energy loss and runtime.
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Hamid Reza Esmaeilian was born in Kerman, Iran,
in 1986. He received the B.S. and M.Sc. degrees
in electrical engineering from the Shahid Bahonar
University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran, and the Gradu-
ate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, in
2009 and 2013, respectively.
His major research interests include power system
optimization, renewable energy systems, and power
quality.
Roohollah Fadaeinedjad (M’08) was born in Ker-
man, Iran, in 1969. He received the B.S. degree from
Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, in 1992, the M.Sc.
degree from the Isfahan University of Technology,
Isfahan, Iran, in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, in
2008, all in electrical engineering.
From 1996 to 1999, he was a Lecturer with the
Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. From 1999
to 2004, he was with the Protection and Control
Departments of Kerman Regional Electric Company
and Rasanir Company, where he was a Senior Protection Engineer and Project
Manager. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of
the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Graduate University of Advanced
Technology, Kerman, Iran. His research interests include wind energy, control
systems, power electronics, and power system protection.