Dynamic phase balancing in the smart distribution networks

A distribution system might be unbalanced due to various reasons which can cause some major problems. Re-phasing strategy is the most effective method for phase balancing performed manually in distribution networks. Dynamic phase balancing is the main objective of this paper that means re-phasing performance at any time of day when unbalance is more than permissible limit. It is possible only in smart distribution networks by installing the automatic re-phasing switches at busbars. Automatic re-phasing eliminates the customer service interruption cost and labour cost available in the manual re-phasing operation. There are two basic operations in the optimal dynamic phase balancing: detecting the best time for re-phasing and considering the load variations in real distribution networks. This paper consists of two scenarios. First scenario is switches installation at all nodes of feeder and second scenario is switches installation at the limited strategic nodes. First scenario focuses on search space reduction by employing a sensitivity analysis method which improves the convergence along with time saving. In order to solve the proposed optimization problem, the modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm (MSFLA) is implemented. Simulation studies greatly demonstrate the benefits achieved from this operation by reducing power loss cost and improving network phase balancing.