Employing MISOCP Relaxations to Solve Distribution Optimal Network Reconfiguration

Optimal Network Reconfiguration (ONR) proved to be a useful tool to assist distribution system operators in ensuring quality of supply of smart distribution grids. By minimizing the active power losses and optimizing power quality indices, this paper presents a Mixed-Integer Second Order Cone Programming (MISOCP)-based approach to solve ONR improving grid reliability and integrating fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) practices together with network constraints. Numerical experiments on two realistic primary distribution network models with 102 buses and 1014 buses, respectively, and distributed generation, demonstrate the validity of the methodology in obtaining feasible solutions under different operating conditions, overcoming the challenges related to the nonlinearity of power flow equations and the combinatoriality of the problem.