Evolutionary Optimization of Electric Power Distribution Using the Dandelion Code

Planning primary electric power distribution involves solving an optimization problem using nonlinear components, which makes it difficult to obtain the optimum solution when the problem has dimensions that are found in reality, in terms of both the installation cost and the power loss cost. To tackle this problem, heuristic methods have been used, but even when sacrificing quality, finding the optimum solution still represents a computational challenge. In this paper, we study this problem using genetic algorithms. With the help of a coding scheme based on the dandelion code, these genetic algorithms allow larger instances of the problem to be solved. With the stated approach, we have solved instances of up to 40,000 consumer nodes when considering 20 substations; the total cost deviates 3.1% with respect to a lower bound that considers only the construction costs of the network. Copyright © 2012 Jorge Sabattin et al.