IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO.

4, NOVEMBER 2008

1747

Reconfiguration and Capacitor Placement

for Loss Reduction of Distribution Systems
by Ant Colony Search Algorithm
Chung-Fu Chang

AbstractThis paper aims to study distribution system operations by the ant colony search algorithm (ACSA). The objective
of this study is to present new algorithms for solving the optimal
feeder reconfiguration problem, the optimal capacitor placement
problem, and the problem of a combination of the two. The ACSA
is a relatively new and powerful swarm intelligence method for
solving optimization problems. It is a population-based approach
that uses exploration of positive feedback as well as greedy
search. The ACSA was inspired from the natural behavior of ants
in locating food sources and bring them back to their colony by
the formation of unique trails. Therefore, through a collection
of cooperative agents called ants, the near-optimal solution to
the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement problems can
be effectively achieved. In addition, the ACSA applies the state
transition, local pheromone-updating, and global pheromone-updating rules to facilitate the computation. Through simultaneous
operation of population agents, process stagnation can be effectively prevented. Optimization capability can be significantly
enhanced. The proposed approach is demonstrated using two
example systems from the literature. Computational results show
that simultaneously taking into account both feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement is more effective than considering
them separately.
Index TermsAnt colony search algorithm (ACSA), capacitor
placement, feeder reconfiguration.

I. INTRODUCTION
ENERALLY, capacitors have been commonly employed
to provide reactive power compensation in distribution
systems. They are used to reduce power losses and to maintain
the voltage profile within acceptable limits. The benefits of compensation depend greatly on how the capacitors are placed in the
system, specifically on the location and size of the added capacitors.
Distribution systems consist of groups of interconnected
radial circuits. The configuration of the system may be varied
by switching operations to transfer loads among the feeders.
Two types of switches are applied in primary distribution
systems, which are normally closed switches (sectionalizing
switches) and normally open switches (tie switches). Both
types of switches are designed for protection configuration
management. Feeder reconfiguration is the process of changing

Manuscript received July 16, 2007; revised February 24, 2008. Current version published October 22, 2008. Paper no. TPWRS-00014-2007.
The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering,WuFeng Institute of Technology, Chiayi 621, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: [email protected].
edu.tw).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2008.2002169

the topology of distribution systems by altering the open or

closed status of switches.
A variety of methods have been devoted to solving optimal
capacitor placement problems by employing mathematical programming techniques. Grainger et al. [1], [2] formulated the
problem as a nonlinear programming problem by treating the
capacitor sizes and the locations as continuous variables. Duran
[3] considered the capacitor sizes as discrete variables and used
dynamic programming to find the optimal solution. A simple
heuristic numerical algorithm that is based on the method of
local variation is proposed in [4], and a sensitivity-based method
to solve optimal capacitor placement problems is presented in
[5]. Chiang et al. [6] used the optimization techniques based on
simulated annealing (SA) to search the global optimum solution
to the capacitor placement problem. In [7][9], the authors used
the genetic algorithm (GA) to select capacitors for radial distribution systems. In [10], the authors proposed a single dynamic
data structure for an evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm
to solve the optimal capacitor allocation.
Civanlar et al. [11] conducted the early research on feeder
reconfiguration for loss reduction. In [12], Baran et al. modeled the problem of loss reduction and load balancing as an
integer programming problem. In [13], the authors used a genetic algorithm to look for the minimum loss configuration. In
[14], the authors presented the use of the power flow method
based on a heuristic algorithm to determine the minimum loss
configuration for radial distribution networks. In [15], [16], the
authors proposed a solution procedure which employed simulated annealing to search for an acceptable non-inferior solution. In [17], the authors proposed a mixed-integer hybrid differential evolution to solve network reconfiguration. In [18], the
authors proposed an economic operation model to solve distribution network configuration. In [19], the authors proposed a
tree encoding and two genetic operators to improve the EA performance for network reconfiguration problems. In [20], the authors proposed a fuzzy multiobjective approach to solve the network reconfiguration problem.
However, most of the previous studies handled capacitor
placement problems without consideration of feeder reconfiguration [1][10], or handled feeder reconfiguration problems
without consideration of capacitor placement [11][20]. They
dealt with the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement
in a separate manner [1][20], which may result in unnecessary
losses and cannot yield the minimum loss configuration. On the
other hand, there are only few examples in the literature on loss
minimization applying heuristic techniques for feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement [21][24]. Therefore, we
present a new algorithm to solve the feeder reconfiguration and

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2008

capacitor placement problems for optimal loss minimization of

distribution systems.
Thanks to the advancement of computational ability, there
has been growing attention in algorithms inspired by the observation of natural phenomena to help solve complex combinatorial problems. Colorni [25], [26] proposed the concept
of ant system (AS) and applied it to the traveling salesman
problems (TSP) [27], [28]. Ant algorithm has been inspired by
the behavior of real ant colonies, in particular, by their foraging behavior. As it is well known, real ants are capable of
finding the shortest path from food sources to the nest without
using visual cues. So far, the ant algorithm has been applied to
various optimization problems, such as the short-term generation scheduling problem [29], unit commitment [30], hydroelectric generation scheduling [31], optimal switch relocation [32],
network-constrained optimization problems [33], power system
restoration [34], optimal recloser placement [35], and selective
harmonic elimination [36].
In this paper, a method employing the ant colony search algorithm (ACSA) is proposed to solve the feeder reconfiguration
and capacitor placement problems. The merits of the ACSA are
parallel search and optimization capabilities. This method was
inspired by the observation of the behaviors of ant colonies. The
ACSA used in this paper uses artificial ants, which to some extent have memory and are not completely blind, thus can be
applied to the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement
problems in which switches are discrete. The state transition
rule, global and local updating rules are introduced to ensure the
optimal solution. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness, two
example systems from the literature are solved, respectively, by
the proposed method, SA and GA. From the computational results, it is observed that the performance of the proposed method
is better than the other methods.

Fig. 1. Single-line diagram of a main feeder.

where
is voltage magnitude of bus ,
and
are
minimum and maximum bus voltage limits, respectively.
is current magnitude and
is maximum current limit of
branch .
A set of simplified feeder-line flow formulations is employed
to avoid complex power flow computation. Referring to Fig. 1,
this set of simplified equations can be described as [12]
(4)
(5)

(6)
where and are the real and reactive line powers flowing out
and
are the real and reactive load
of bus , respectively;
powers at bus i. The resistance and reactance of the line section
between buses and
are denoted by
and
,
respectively. The power loss of the line section connecting buses
and
may be computed as
(7)

II. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

This work discusses the reconfiguration and capacitor placement problems of distribution systems. The objective is to minimize the system power loss, subject to operating constraints
under a certain load pattern. The mathematical model of the
problem can be expressed as follows:
(1)
is the total real power loss of the system. Paramwhere
and
are the penalty constants,
is squared sum
eters
of the violated voltage constraints and
is squared sum of the
violated current constraints. Moreover, the penalty constants are
given below.
1) Constant
is given a values of 0, if the associated
voltage (current) constraint is not violated.
2) A significant value is given to
if the associated
voltage (current) constraint is violated, this makes the objective function move away from the undesirable solution.
The voltage magnitude at each bus must be maintained within
its limits. The current in each branch must satisfy the branchs
capacity. These constraints are expressed as follows:
(2)
(3)

may then be determined

The power loss of the feeder
by summing the losses of all line sections of the feeder, given
by
(8)
The total system power loss
losses of all feeders in the system.

is the sum of power

III. ACSA PARADIGM

A. Ant Colony Behavior
The ACSA imitates the behaviors of real ants. As is well
known, real ants are capable of finding the shortest path from
food sources to the nest without using visual cues. Also,
they are capable of adapting to changes in the environment,
for example, finding a new shortest path once the old one
is no longer feasible due to a new obstacle. Moreover, the
ants manage to establish shortest paths through the medium
that is called pheromone. The pheromone is the material
deposited by the ants, which serves as critical communication
information among ants, thereby guiding the determination of
the next movement. Any trail that is rich of pheromone will
thus become the goal path. The process is illustrated by Fig. 2.

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Fig. 3. Search space of ant placement.

Fig. 2. Example of the real ants behavior.

In Fig. 2(a), the ants are moving from food source A to the
nest B on a straight line. Once an obstacle appears as shown in
Fig. 2(b), the path is cut off. The ants will not be able to follow
the original trail in their movements. Under this situation, they
have the same probability to turn right or left. But after some
time the path CD will have more pheromones and all the ants
will move in the path ACD. As the ants from C to reach F
through D will reach quicker than that of the ants through E,
i.e., CEF. Hence ant at F from B will find pheromone a path
FDCA and will go through it, where Fig. 2(c) depicts that the
shorter path CDF will collect larger amount of pheromone than
the longer path CEF. Therefore, more ants will be increasingly
guided to move on the shorter path. Due to this autocatalytic
process, very soon all ants will choose the shorter path. This
behavior forms the fundamental paradigm of the ant colony
search algorithm.
B. State Transition Rule and Local/global Updating Rule
As illustrated in Fig. 2, by the guidance of the pheromone
intensity, the ants select preferable path. Finally, the favorite
path rich of pheromone becomes the best tour, the solution to
the problem. This concept develops the emergence of the ACSA
method. At first, each ant is placed on a starting state. Each will
build a full path, from the beginning to the end state, through the
repetitive application of state transition rule. While constructing
its tour, an ant also modifies the amount of pheromone on the
visited path by applying the local updating rule. Once all ants
have terminated their tour, the amount of pheromone on edge is
modified again through the global updating rule. In other words,
the pheromone updating rules are designed so that they tend to
give more pheromone to paths which should be visited by ants.
In the following, the state transition rule, the local updating rule
and the global updating rule are briefly introduced.
1) State Transition Rule: The state transition rule used by
the ant system, called a random-proportional rule, is given by
the following, which gives the probability with which ant in
node chooses to move to node :
if
(9)
otherwise
where is the pheromone which deposited on the edge between
node and node , is the inverse of the edge distance,
is

the set of nodes that remain to be visited by ant positioned on

node , and is a parameter which determines the relative importance of pheromone versus distance. Equation (9) indicates
that the state transition rule favors transitions toward nodes connected by shorter edges and with large amount of pheromone.
2) Local Updating Rule: While constructing its tour, each
ant modifies the pheromone by the local updating rule. This can
be written as follows:
(10)
where is the initial pheromone value, and is a heuristically
defined parameter. The local updating rule is intended to shuffle
the search process. Hence the desirability of paths can be dynamically changed. The nodes visited earlier by a certain ant
can be also explored later by other ants. The search space can
be therefore extended. Furthermore, in so doing, ants will make
a better use of pheromone information. Without local updating
all ants would search in a narrow neighborhood of the best previous tour.
3) Global Updating Rule: When tours are completed, the
global updating rule is applied to edges belonging to the best
ant tour. This rule is intended to provide a greater amount of
pheromone to shorter tours, which can be expressed as follows:
(11)
where is the distance of the globally best tour from the beis the pheromone decay paginning of the trail, and
rameter. This rule is intended to make the search more directed;
therefore the capability of finding the optimal solution can be
enhanced through this rule in the problem solving process.
IV. COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURES
A technique employing capacitor placement and feeder reconfiguration to reduce power loss for distribution systems is
presented. The ACSA is employed as the optimization technique. The proposed method mainly involves power loss computation using (4) and (5), bus voltage determination using (6),
and ACSA application. The computational procedures find a series of configuration with different status of switches and with
the addition of capacitors such that the objective function is successively reduced. To solve only capacitor placement problem
in distribution systems by the proposed method, Fig. 3 shows
the search space of ant placement corresponding to the capacitor placement problem for a distribution feeder having buses
and capacitors available for addition. The dark circles and
dark line sections constitute the traveling path for an ant.

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Fig. 4. Composition of an individual.

Fig. 5. Search space of ant reconfiguration.

To solve only feeder reconfiguration problem, the solution

process begins with encoding parameters. A tie switch (TS) and
some sectionalizing switches with the feeders form a loop. A
particular switch of each loop is selected to open to make a
loop radial such that the selected switch naturally becomes a
tie switch. The network reconfiguration problem is identical to
the problem of selecting an appropriate tie switch for each loop
to minimize the power loss. A coding scheme that recognizes
the positions of the tie switches is proposed. The total number
of tie switches is kept constant, regardless of any change in the
systems topology or the tie switches positions. Fig. 4 shows an
individual that is composed of tie switches positions. Different
switches from a loop are, respectively, selected for cutting the
loop circuit and trying to become a tie switch. After each loop is
made radial, a configuration is proposed. Fig. 5 shows the search
space of ant reconfiguration corresponding to the feeder reconfiguration problem; it uses a three-feeder distribution system as
example. Where, the obstacle represents the open status of sectionalizing switches or tie switches. The dark line sections constitute the traveling path for an ant. Furthermore, both feeder
reconfiguration and capacitor placement are considered simultaneously applied to distribution systems. Fig. 6 shows the full
search space of ant placement and reconfiguration. Where, the
left side of Fig. 6 is the search space of ant placement, and another side of Fig. 6 is the search space of ant reconfiguration.
Here, the search space of ant reconfiguration can be expressed as
extension of the search space in Fig. 5. In other words, in Fig. 6,
three loops of the search space of ant reconfiguration; it can be
regard as the search space of three-feeder distribution system in
Fig. 5. Similarly, the dark line sections constitute the traveling
path for an ant in full search space. Fig. 7 shows a flowchart of
the ACSA for solving the capacitor placement and reconfiguration problems. The main computational processes are briefly
stated below.
Step 1) Initiation
At first, the colonies of ants are randomly selected
and which estimated the initial fitness in the different permutations. A random number generator
can be employed to generate the number of ants
within the feasible search space. In addition, these
ants are positioned on different nodes, while the initial pheromone value of is also given at this step.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2008

Step 2) Estimation of the fitness

When all ants have finished a tour, the fitness of each
ant is estimated. Usually, fitness function is defined
to estimate the performance of each ant. In this step,
the fitness of all ants are assessed based on the corresponding objective function, which is expressed as
(1). Then, the pheromone can be added to the particular direction in which the ants have chosen. At
this stage, a roulette selection algorithm can be employed based on the computed fitness [37]. Then,
by spinning this designated roulette, a new permutation of pheromone associated with different paths
is formed. In other words, based on a roulette selection method, a path (fitness) with higher amount
of pheromone will easily be selected as a new path.
Hence, it would be more suitable for guiding the ants
to the direction.
Step 3) Ant placement and reconfiguration
The ant placement and reconfiguration are based on
the level of pheromone and distance. As (9) shows,
each ant selects the next node to move taking into acand
values. A greater
count the
means that there has been a lot of traffic on this edge;
hence, it is more desirable to approach the optimal
indisolution. On the other hand, a greater
cates that the closer node should be chosen with a
higher probability. In the capacitor placement and
network reconfiguration study, this can be seen as
the difference between the original total power loss
and the new total power loss. Therefore, in this step,
the ant placement and reconfiguration process helps
convey ants by selecting directions based on these
two parameters.
Step 4) Local/global updating rule
While constructing a solution of the capacitor placement and network reconfiguration problem, ants
visit edges and change their pheromone level by
applying the local updating rule of (10). Its purpose
is not only broadening the search space, but dynamically increasing the diversity of ant colony. After
iterations, all ants have completed a tour, the
pheromone level is updated by applying the global
updating rule of (11) for the trail that belongs to the
best selected path. Therefore, according to this rule,
the shortest path found by the ants is allowed to
update its pheromone. Also, this shortest path will
be saved as a record for the later comparison with
the succeeding iteration.
Step 5) Termination of the algorithm
End the process if the maximum iteration number
is reached or all ants have selected the same tour
is satisfied; otherwise repeat the outer loop. In addition, the number of ants and the number of iterations were experimentally determined. All the tour
visited by ants in each iteration should be evaluated.
If a better path found in the process, it will be saved
for later reference.
A simple capacitor placement example is employed to illustrate how the system be deployed in a distribution company
using the ACSA method. Here, a node in the ACSA represents

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1751

Fig. 8. Five-bus distribution feeder.

Fig. 6. Full search space of ant placement and reconfiguration.

Fig. 9. A 5

Fig. 7. Flowchart of the proposed method.

a different selection of capacitor addition for a bus in the capacitor placement problem; the edge distance of the edge connecting node and node represents the cost of the capacitor
added at bus
. A particular bus is bus 1, the edge
distance of the edge connecting the s/s bus (i.e., bus
) and
bus 1 represents the cost of the capacitor added at bus 1. Assume
that there is a five-bus (not including secondary substation bus
s/s) distribution feeder as shown in Fig. 8, and each bus has five
available capacitor sizes to choose from. Consequently, a 5 5
matrix can be formed, as shown in Fig. 9, to express what is
mentioned above.
The path indicated in Fig. 9 means capacitor sizes 3, 2, 3, 1,
and 4 have been chosen for buses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively.

2 5 capacitor placement space.

In terminology of the ACSA, it is described that each bus has

five nodes (i.e., five available capacitor sizes) and from each
bus to its next bus there are five edges. For example, the path
node 3
indicated in Fig. 9 has five edges, there are edge (s/s
of bus 1) (not indicated in the figure), edge (node 3 of bus 1
node 2 of bus 2), edge (node 2 of bus 2 node 3 of bus 3), edge
(node 3 of bus 3 node 1 of bus 4), and edge (node 1 of bus 4
node 4 of bus 5), Thus, there are five edge distances and five
amounts of pheromone corresponding to these five edges.
Assume that there are five ants moving from bus
1 to bus 5 with five different paths indicated as
.
For example, the path for ant 1 is node 2 of bus 1
node
1 of bus 2
node 2 of bus 3
node 1 of bus 4
node
3 of bus 5. In the capacitor placement problem, this path
means that buses 1 to 5 choose capacitor sizes 2, 1, 2, 1, and
3, respectively. Furthermore, assume that the path distances
for these five paths are 200, 250, 300, 350, and 400, indicated
. Here, the path distance is
as
the sum of the edge distances of itself. For example, path
1 has a path distance of 200, which is the sum of the edge
node 2 of bus 1), edge (node 2 of
distances of edge (s/s
node 1 of bus 2), edge (node 1 of bus 2
node 2
bus 1
of bus 3), edge (node 2 of bus 3
node 1 of bus 4), and
edge (node 1 of bus 4
node 3 of bus 5). In the capacitor
placement problem, path 1 having a path distance of 200
is 200.
means that the for the capacitor placement
The average edge distances for these five paths are calculated
,
as
because each path has five edge distances. The inverse of
the average edge distance is subsequently determined as
. And the distance of the
globally best tour is
. Moreover,
let the initial
,
,
,
and
.
By applying the local updating rule of (10), the local
is
determined. This local
is then substituted into the global
updating rule of (11) to obtain the global
. Finally, this
global
, and are substituted into the state transition
rule of (9) to determine the probability of these five available
capacitor sizes to be selected for placement by these five buses.

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Fig. 10. Probability matrix of capacitor placement.

Fig. 12. Voltage profile comparison for example 1.

Fig. 11. Three-feeder distribution system for example 1.

TABLE I
RESULTS AFTER RECONFIGURATION AND CAPACITOR PLACEMENT

The final computational results of this probability mentioned

above are shown in Fig. 10.
From the probability matrix shown above, it can be seen that
has the highest probability to be selected. Morepath
is very close to path
, which
over, path
has the lowest cost of 200 assumed above. Similar search procedures are repeated to reach a final convergent solution.
V. APPLICATION EXAMPLES
To demonstrate the effectiveness, two example systems from
the literature are investigated using the proposed ACSA method
and the GA and SA methods, and the results are compared.
These methods have been programmed using MATLAB and run
on a Pentium IV 1.3-GHz personal computer.
1) Example 1: The first example is a three-feeder distribution system [11] shown in Fig. 11. The system consists of three
feeders, 13 normally closed sectionalizing switches, and three
normally open tie switches. The system load is assumed to be
MVA. Details of the data of this exconstant and
ample system can be found in [11]. Moreover, practical sizes
available for the switched capacitor banks are 300, 600, 900,
1200, 1500, and 1800 kVAr. Details of the parameter of these
algorithms are described below.
To solve the capacitor placement problem, for ACSA application, parameters were selected as the number of ants to be 5,
,
,
, and the maximum generation;
450. For SA application, parameters were selected as the initial
temperature; 5000, the temperature reduction ratio; 0.98, and
the maximum iteration; 4000. For GA application, parameters
were selected as population size; 10, the crossover ratio; 0.5,
the mutation ratio; 0.03, and the maximum generation; 450. To
solve the feeder reconfiguration placement problem, for ACSA
application, parameters were selected as the number of ants to
be 5,
,
,
, and the maximum generation;
30. For SA application, parameters were selected as the initial
temperature; 500, the temperature reduction ratio; 0.95, and the
maximum iteration; 200. For GA application, parameters were

selected as population size; 5, the crossover ratio; 0.5, the mutation ratio; 0.03, and the maximum generation; 50. Furthermore,
both simultaneously solving the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement problems, for ACSA application, parameters
,
,
were selected as the number of ants to be 5,
, and the maximum generation; 500. For SA application, parameters were selected as the initial temperature; 5000,
the temperature reduction ratio; 0.99, and the maximum iteration; 5000. For GA application, parameters were selected as

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TABLE II
RESULTS OF THREE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS IN ACSA FOR EXAMPLE 1

TABLE III
NUMERICAL RESULTS OF EXAMPLE 1

population size; 10, the crossover ratio; 0.5, the mutation ratio;
0.03, and the maximum generation; 500.
Table I shows the computational results of simultaneously
considering the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement
in ACSA, which including the tie switch, power loss, voltage
profile, required capacitor addition, and CPU time before and
after operation. It can be observed from Table I, that the voltage
profile and power loss reduction of the system are improved.
Fig. 12 shows the voltage profile comparison before and after
for considering the capacitor placement and reconfiguration. For
comparison, we also considered two different operation situations; one considering only capacitor placement and one considering only feeder reconfiguration. Table II shows the computational results of three different operation situations in ACSA.
Computational results show that simultaneously taking into
account both feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement is
more effective than considering them separately. In addition, to

investigate performance of the proposed algorithm, the SA and

GA are also applied to solve this program. This example was
repeatedly solved for 100 runs. The best and worst computation
results among 100 runs are expressed in Table III. The average
value for the best solutions of 100 runs and the average CPU
time are also shown in this table. From the computational results
of Table III, it is observed that the average loss reduction ratio
and average CPU times obtained by the ACSA are less than
those of the SA and GA.
2) Example 2: The second example is a practical distribution network of Taiwan Power Company (TPC)[17]. Its conductors mainly employ both overhead lines ACSR 477 MCM and
underground lines copper conductors 500 MCM. The system
is shown in Fig. 13. It is a three-phase, 11.4-kV system. The
system consists of 11 feeders, 83 normally closed switches,
and 13 normally open tie switches. Three-phase balance and
constant load are assumed. Details of the data of this example

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 23, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2008

TABLE IV
NUMERICAL RESULTS OF EXAMPLE 2

solutions of those 100 runs. From the numerical results, it is

observed that the average loss reduction ratio obtained by the
ACSA is less than those of the SA and GA. Similarly, computational results show that simultaneously taking into account both
feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement is more effective than using only one technique. In addition, it can be seen
from Table IV, the loss reduction is higher. This is because the
capacitor placement is very effective for reactive power compensation, and for solving the feeder reconfiguration problem,
the power loss is effectively minimized by rerouting the active
power flow through reconfiguring the network. Furthermore,
when simultaneously account both feeder reconfiguration and
capacitor placement, the loss reduction is much higher than considering them separately.
VI. CONCLUSION

Fig. 13. Distribution system of Taiwan Power Company for example 2.

system can be found in [17]. Similarly, practical sizes available

for the switched capacitor banks are 300, 600, 900, 1200, 1500,
and 1800 kVAr.
To solve the capacitor placement problem using ACSA, pa,
rameters were selected as the number of ants to be 5,
,
, and the maximum generation; 4500. To
solve the feeder reconfiguration problem using ACSA, parameters were selected as the number of ants to be 5,
,
,
, and the maximum generation; 500. In addition, both simultaneously solving the feeder reconfiguration and
capacitor placement problems using ACSA, parameters were
selected as the number of ants to be 5,
,
,
, and the maximum generation to be; 5000.
For comparison, the SA and GA are also applied to solve this
problem. Table IV expressed the best and worst computation
results among the 100 runs and the average results for the best

A new powerful swarm intelligence algorithm has been presented in this paper for the feeder reconfiguration and capacitor
placement of distribution systems. The merits of the ACSA are
parallel search and optimization capabilities. This method was
inspired by observation of the behaviors of ant colonies. The
objective of this study is to present new algorithms for solving
the optimal capacitor placement problem, the optimal feeder reconfiguration problem, and the problem of a combination of the
two.
From the application results, it was observed that the feeder
reconfiguration and capacitor placement process not only reduce the power loss but also improve the voltage profile. In addition, the computational results of example 1 and example 2
showed that the performance of the ACSA method is better than
those obtained by the SA and GA.
Furthermore, from example 2, it is observed that the ACSA
method is especially suitable for application to large-scale distribution systems. Computational results show that simultaneously taking into account both feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement is more effective than considering only one
technique. Test results further confirm that the ACSA method
can efficiently search the optimal or near-optimal solution for

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feeder reconfiguration and capacitor placement problems. Obviously, the study can be beneficial to automation management
control of distribution systems.
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1982.
[3] H. Duran, Optimum number, location, and size of shunt capacitors in
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[5] J. L. Bala, P. A. Kuntz, and R. M. Taylor, Sensitivity-based optimal
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Chung-Fu Chang was born in 1964. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan, R.O.C.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at WuFeng Institute of Technology, Chiayi, Taiwan. His field of interest includes distribution system planning, reliability engineering, optimization techniques, and AI application.