Recloser optimization in electrical distribution systems using reliability analysis with heuristic algorithm

The main objective of this research is to improve the reliability of the electrical system under study by reducing both the frequency of outages (SAIFI) and the downtime of electrical service (SAIDI). These problems are largely affected by adverse weather conditions, vegetation growth, and bird contact. To carry out the analysis, the 5011 urban feeder of Canton La Troncal was selected, since it presents critical values in terms of reliability compared to other feeders. The proposed methodology involves a mathematical model of heuristic optimization based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Two scenarios are defined for the modeling: the first focuses on relocating the existing recloser and the second on analyzing the impact of adding additional protection equipment. These scenarios are validated and demonstrate their effectiveness, achieving an improvement of 29.05% in the first case and 70.93% in the second case within a real conventional distribution system.