optimal management of distribution networks in the presence of intelligent methods

power losses reduction and voltage profile improvement are goals for electricity utilities. distribution system reconfiguration and optimal capacitor placement are two of the low cost available tools to power losses reduction and voltage profile improvement. reconfiguring the network means altering its topology by changing the status of normally opened and normally closed switches. this paper proposes the use of plant grows simulation algorithm (pgsa), to optimize the distribution system reconfiguration by minimizing the active power losses, considering as constraints the radial characteristics of the distribution networks and feeder capacity, and use of ocp environment in etap software to optimal capacitor placement to improve the voltage profile. the proposed method is tested on 33 bus test system and the results are significant.