Phase balancing in distribution network using harmony search algorithm and re-phasing technique

Abstract

A large part of the power losses is generated in the distribution network, partly due to the load unbalance in the network. Often, the number of splits is not the same in different phases, and even in the case of equilibrium, due to the difference in the behaviour of the consumers, the unbalance in the network phases are observed and for this reason the distribution network is generally an unbalanced network. The unbalance of the distribution network and the flow of the current in the neutral wire will result in various consequences such as increased power losses, voltage drop, unbalance of three-phase voltages and ultimately consumer dissatisfaction. To reduce this unbalance, various methods and algorithms are presented. In this paper, the re-phasing method using the Harmony Search Algorithm is used to balance the phases in the distribution network. In addition, the proper method of load flow in unbalanced distribution networks is expressed, the selection of the objective function in the re-phasing process is examined and the most appropriate objective function is introduced. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of this method, the simulation for the unbalanced 25-bus network is implemented and compared with the results of other proposed methods. The results show that the proposed method has a very good performance.