Multi-objective service restoration of distribution systems using user-centered methodology

•A 3-stage methodology for flexible service restoration in large-scale distribution systems.•Engage users in the process of generating multiple high-quality restoration schemes.•A group-based PSO for locating promising regions for diversified optimal solutions.•A new termination criterion for PSO to avoid inefficient local search.•Rank-based heuristic method to achieve fast-speed local search.

A multi-objective problem formulation of service restoration and a three-stage methodology tailored to user-centered service restoration for large-scale, unbalanced distribution systems are presented. One feature is that the experience and engineering judgment of operators is integrated into the three-stage methodology. Since solutions suggested by a method need to be compromised with engineering judgment, this methodology involves system users (at Stage II), meta-heuristics (at Stage I), and local heuristics in combination with restoration strategies (at Stage III) for efficient and robust performance in service restoration. An adaptive K-means method is incorporated in the proposed group-based PSO (Stage I) for global search. It also assists users in their decision making. Evaluation results of the proposed user-centered methodology on the IEEE 123-node test system and a 1101-node practical unbalanced network show its effectiveness and flexibility in restoring service after faults.