Power system restoration in distribution network using minimum spanning tree - Kruskal’s algorithm

Abstract

Events such as natural and manmade interference, line, transformer and feeder outages that occur in electric power distribution system negatively impact the continuity of power supply, thus affecting the power demand supply as well as customer’s satisfaction. In that cases, the restoration of power needs to be carried out immediately in order to guarantee the system’s reliability. The power flow path identification is considered as a difficult task especially in a huge system due to large number of switches. Kruskal’s algorithm is presented in this paper to find the minimum power flow path in a power distribution network. The comparison of performance between presented Kruskal’s algorithm and Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) was made in solving a problem regarding network reconfiguration. The proposed load restoration approach is tested on IEEE 33-bus single feeder radial distribution system using MATLAB software. From the results, it is found that the presented Kruskal’s algorithm was able to search for the minimal power flow path that contribute to loss reduction for power restoration after the occurrence of fault.