CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The concept of distribution system automation has capture the attention of researchers and utility companies over the last decade. Even though, a lot of research have been undertaken and many works are still ongoing at the moment on “distribution system automation”, due to technological innovations and increasing connection of distributed energy source in to existing distribution network. The research is aimed at developing an optimal reconfiguration model for a radial distribution network using Zaria distribution network as a case study.

The problem of minimizing distribution systems losses has received a global attention due to high cost of electrical energy, need for better quality of service, efficient utilization of available energy and high power loss in power networks (Charlangsut et al, 2012). Under normal operating conditions, any distribution network must supply electrical power to all its customer connected to it, while simultaneously avoiding overloading, feeder thermal overload and abnormal voltage across the line, as well as minimizing active power loss and maintaining radial topology (Carcamo-Gallardo et al, 2008) etc. There are different techniques for reducing losses within the distribution level which include reconfiguration, capacitor placement, load balancing, introduction of higher voltage level and reconductoring (Abdelaziz et al, 2010; Sarfi et al, 1994). These methods of reducing losses are quite numerous but the major concern is about their technical implications on the network. Introduction of new equipment at distribution level offers tremendous financial burden on the utilities that cannot be justified by the potential saving. The use of fixed…..

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