Optimal Distribution Networks Reconfiguration for Loss Reduction Via Black Widow Optimizer

In distribution systems, applying the network reconfiguration (NR) technique can cause losses reduction, reliability enrichment, voltage profile improvement, and some other economic benefits. In this paper, the NR technique is developed as an optimization problem. The main aim is to determine the optimum configuration of the system which attains the objective function with realization the operational constraints. The black widow optimizer (BWO) is a novel stochastic optimization approach that is suggested for solving this problem. The objective function is formulated to achieve the maximum annual economic revenue that results from the reduction in energy loss. In addition, the backward/forward sweep method is utilized for the power flow solutions. The suggested approach is applied on two test networks; IEEE 33 and 69-node. The attained findings are gained via the Matlab programming environment. They revealed that the suggested approach is efficient and able to achieve the maximum annual economic revenue. Finally, the superiority of the introduced BWO algorithm is also confirmed by comparing its findings with other optimization techniques.