Value of Distribution Network Reconfiguration in Presence of Renewable Energy Resources

Proliferation of renewable energy resources in distribution networks has captured distribution companies' attention towards more active management tools. Thanks to the smart grid paradigm, hourly network reconfiguration, which is still among immature ideas, can bring the activeness required to handle fluctuating output of renewable resources. The aim of this study is to analyze the worthiness of the hourly reconfiguration in the presence of renewable energy resources. For doing so, a mathematical model is devised to minimize daily network losses via applying hourly reconfigurations. The model is a mixed integer second-order cone programming problem and is solved via MOSEK solver. The electrical demand variations as well as renewable power generation fluctuations during a day are taken into account. The proposed method is applied to the Baran 33-bus system and the results including a great deal of sensitivity analyses on key parameters are presented and discussed.