A Binary Water Cycle Algorithm for Service Restoration Problem in Power Distribution Systems Considering Distributed Generation

The traditional service restoration methods are experiencing a significant challenge because the performance of such methods is often dominated by very large processing time. Therefore, it is important to develop a fast and an accurate method to solve a complex non-linear optimization problem representing the service restoration problem in a distribution system. In this paper, due to a binary nature of the service restoration problem, the Binary Water Cycle Algorithm (BWCA) is proposed to reduce out-of-service loads and system losses considering operational constraints, the radial topology of the distribution systems, and the influence of the presence of distributed generations (DGs) on the service restoration problem. The proposed method is a modified form of the Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA) that is mainly used for discrete and continuous optimization problems. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by comparing with other well-known meta-heuristic algorithms using a modified IEEE 33-node radial distribution system. The simulation results demonstrate the robustness of this method to provide a precise decision with short convergence time for solving service restoration problems.