OPTIMAL DISTRIBUTED GENERATION ALLOCATION

IN MV DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS
G. Celli, Member, IEEE, F. Pilo, Member, IEEE
Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering
University of Cagliari
Piazza dArmi 09 123 Cagliari, Italy
permits the best location of generators to be found so that
power losses in an existing distribution network are minimized,
and investments for electric grid upgrade, due to the growth of
the energy demand of loads, can be deferred or reduced.
Furthermore, the voltage profile and the three phases short
circuit currents are checked and only those solutions able to
remain within the range imposed by the planner are accepted.
In order to perform this optimization a new software
procedure, based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA), has been
developed and tested on real size MV distribution networks.
The structure of the paper is the following: in section I1 the
most important features of DG are briefly described, in section
111 some generalities on Genetic Algorithms are provided, in
section IV the proposed GA for the optimal allocation of DG
units is presented and, finally, in section V some results are
shown and discussed.

Abstract: The necessity for flexible electric systems,

changing regulatory and economic scenarios, energy savings
and environmental impact are providing impetus to the
development of Distributed Generation (DG), which is
predicted to play an increasing role in the electric power
system of the future. With so much new distributed generation
being installed, it is critical that the power system impacts be
assessed accurately so that DG can be applied in a manner that
avoids causing degradation of power quality, reliability and
control of the utility system. For these reasons, the paper
proposes a new software procedure, based on a Genetic
Algorithm, capable to establish the optimal distributed
generation allocation on an existing MV distribution network,
considering all the technical constraints, like feeder capacity
limits, feeder voltage profile and three-phase short circuit
current in the network nodes.
Keywords: MV Distribution Networks, Distributed
Generation, Genetic Algorithms, Network Planning.

11. DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

I. INTRODUCTION
Distributed Generation (DG) includes the application of
small generators, scattered throughout a power system, to
provide the electric power needed by electrical customers. DG
often offers a valuable alternative to traditional sources of
electric power for industrial, commercial and residential
applications. DG makes a large use of the latest modern
technology and can be efficient, reliable, and simple to own
and operate that it can compete with electrical power systems.
In some cases DG can offer significantly lower cost and higher
reliability than a customer can obtain from the electrical grid.
In others, it can augment the grid so that the combination of
grid and DG can provide higher performance than either could
alone. But regardless, it offers an alternative that utility
planners should explore in their search for the best solution to
electric supply problems [ 1-31.
Power system planning involves identification of the best
equipment, along with its locations, manner of interconnection
to the system, and schedule of deployment. Since cost is an
important attribute in power planning, almost invariably one of
the planners chief goals is to minimize overall cost [3, 41.
Whatever planning philosophy or paradigm is adopted for
planning a power system, DG can influence other resources
(i.e. transmission and distribution) and its correct impact is of
the greatest importance to take the right decisions. In this
paper, the important task of planning the optimal number and
position of DG generators has been faced. This optimization
0-7803-6681-6/01/$10.00 02001 IEEE

81

The need for more flexible electric systems, changing

regulatory and economic scenarios, energy savings,
environmental impact and the need to protect sensitive loads
against network disturbances are providing impetus to the
development of dispersed generation and storage systems
based on a variety of technologies.
In particular, the term DG implies the use of any modular
technology that is sited throughout a utilitys service area
(interconnected to the distribution or sub-transmission system)
to lower the cost of service. DG can comprise diesel and
intemal combustion engines, small gas turbines, fuel cells and
photovoltaics. The purpose of these plants is to cope with the
growing demand for electricity in certain areas and render
certain activities self-sufficient in terms of power production
thus achieving energy savings [ 1-31.
The main reasons for the increasingly widespread use of
dispersed generation can be summed up as follows:
DG units are closer to customers so that Transmission and
Distribution (T&D) costs are avoided or reduced;
the latest technology has made available plants ranging in
capacity from 1OkW to 15MW.
some technologies have been perfected and are widely
practiced (gas turbines, intemal combustion engines), others
are finding wider application in recent years (wind, solar
energy) and some particularly promising technologies are
currently being experimented or launched (fuel cells, solar
panels integrated into buildings);
it is easier to find sites for small generators;

CHP (Combined Heat and Power) groups do not require

large and expensive heat networks;
natural gas, often used as fuel in DG stations is distributed
almost everywhere and stable prices are to be expected;
usually DG plants require shorter installation times and the
investment risk is not so high;
DG plants yield fairly good efficiencies especially in
cogeneration and in combined cycles (larger plants);
the liberalization of the electricity market contributes to
creating opportunities for new utilities in the power generation
sector;
T&D costs have risen while DG costs have dropped, as a
result the avoided costs produced by DG are increasing;
DG offers great values as it provides a flexible way to
choose a wide range of combinations of cost and reliability.
For these reasons, the first signs of a possible technological
change are beginning to arise on the international scene, that
could involve in the next future the presence of a consistently
generation produced with small and medium size plants
directly connected to the distribution network (MV and LV)
and characterized by good efficiencies and low emissions.
In this context, the need to provide access to the distribution
network to any company intending to install DG groups
clashes with the need for utilities to manage these networks,
maintaining adequate levels of security and quality.
Consequently, the utilities are now faced not only with the
technical problems involved in managing the networks that
have been passing from passive to active (voltage regulation,
protection policy, disturbances and interfacing problems), but
also with new tasks. Undeniably, system planning and
operation have become a much more uncertain task than in the
past. For example, electric utilities may decide to resort to DG
in the place of enforcing transmission and distribution plants.
This will create new problems and probably the need of new
tools for developing and managing these systems.

The strategy followed by GAS is very simple. To ensure an

amelioration in the population, in each generation a selection
operator sees to it that the solutions with higher fitness have
greater possibilities of reproducing. At this point some
individuals are coupled and cross-bred by means of a crossover
operator, which recombines the salient information brought by
the parent structures in a significantly non-destructive way.
The crossover operator produces offspring, that will then
replace some of the old individuals of the population. Lastly,
the strings can undergo mutation, which involves selecting,
with little probability, a string element and changing the
symbol contained therein with another symbol of the alphabet
being used (Fig. 1).
Once the procedures performed by the three operators have
been completed, the offspring produced are evaluated and
compared with their parents. If the GA is generational, then the
offspring will replace all their parents, creating a new
population. If on the other hand the GA is steady state then the
offspring will replace their parents only if they are better.
Several parameters normally influence the search for the
optimum solution by GAS: population size, the probability of
mutation, the maximum number of generations to be explored,
etc.. These parameters should be accurately calibrated,
adapting them to the size of the problem in question.

IV. GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR THE OPTIMAL

ALLOCATION OF DG UNITS
The distribution network planning generally considers a
temporal horizon of 5-20 years. During these years it is
normally hypothesized that loads draw more energy fiom the
grid, that new MVILV nodes appear and, eventually, that one
or more substations can be built. The dynamic nature of the
problem, jointly with its dimension (normally, thousands of
MVILV nodes should be considered simultaneously), makes
really difficult to examine all possible network configurations
to find the optimal network arrangement that minimizes the
cost of construction, maintenance and energy losses. If the
network architecture is assumed to be invariable during the
planning period, changes in load energy demand or the
appearance of new loads could require investments for network

III. GENETIC ALGORITHMS

Genetic Algorithms are a family of computational models that
rely on the concepts of evolutionary processes [5, 61. It is a
well known fact that according to the laws of natural selection,
in the course of several generations, only those individuals
better adapted to the environment will manage to survive and
to pass on their genes to succeeding generations.
Correspondingly, the GAS operate on a set (population) of
possible solutions (individuals) of a generic problem, applying
selection and reproduction criteria whereby new solutions
(offspring) are generated containing the information enclosed
in the solutions fiom which they originated (parents). Clearly,
the better the solution, the more possibilities there are of
reproducing and passing on genes to the offspring.
The first step to be taken in implementing these algorithms is
to encode a potential solution in a simple data structure of the
chromosomal type (generally a vector) in which each element
is represented by means of a specific alphabet (usually binary).
Once the initial population has been randomly generated, every
solution is evaluated by means of the objective function.

Population

SELECTION

CROSSOVER

Parents

Offspring

Fig. 1. GA operators
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MUTATION

upgrade. DG, in addition to the advantage of reducing power

losses, can be a valuable option for the planning engineer to
defer or reduce investments for grid upgrade. Moreover, the
greater attention should be paid in the siting and sizing of DG
units because their installation in non optimal locations can
result in an increasing of power losses having opposite effects
than those described. For these reasons, optimization tools,
able to find the correct siting and sizing of DG units in a given
network, can be a valid aid for the planner who has to face with
the worldwide growth of DG penetration. In the paper, a GA
optimization technique has been developed for the optimal DG
allocation in MV distribution networks that is deeply described
in the following sections.

the objective fimction (OF) for each solution is evaluated

verifying all the technical constraints; if one of them is
violated, the individual is discarded.
Regarding the population size, the best results have been
found assuming it equal to the dimension of the problem, i.e.
the number of nodes in the network.
In the second phase, the genetic operators are applied in
order to produce the new solutions. In the paper the following
implementation details for the operators have been considered:
Selection: the remainder stochastic sampling without
replacement scheme has been adopted, whereby the
number of selections of each individual is calculated in
the following way: expected individual count values are
calculated as a fraction between the OF value of the
individual and the average of OF value of the whole
population. Then integer parts of the expected numbers
are assigned, and fiactional parts are treated as
probabilities. For example, a solution with an expected
number of copies of 1.4 would receive one sure single
copy and another with probability 0.4. This process
continues until the population is hll.
Crossover: the uniform crossover is adopted, by which
each allele is swapped with probability 0.5.
Mutation: all the vector elements are mutated, according
to a small mutation probability, choosing a different value
in the defined alphabet.
Each offspring is accepted if all technical constraints are
verified and the total amount of DG does not exceed the
maximum level of DG penetration.
After several tests, a generational GA model has been
implemented, because it seems to guarantee better solutions
than the steady state model, even if with a greater number of
iterations. Therefore, the offspring replaces all their parents,
creating the new population. The procedure terminates when a
maximum number of generations has been explored.

A. Coding of the solution

The first important aspect of a correct implementation of the
GA is the coding of the potential solution. Considering that the
network structure is fixed, all the branches between nodes are
known, and the evaluation of the objective function depends
only on size and location of the DG units. For this reason each
solution can be coded by using a vector, whose size is equal to
the number of nodes, in which each element contains the
information on the presence or not of a DG unit. In order to
perform not only the siting but also the sizing of DG, a
prefixed number (NDG) of generator sizes have been assumed
and classified (e.g. size number 1 corresponds to a 100 kVA
DG unit, size number 2 corresponds to a 200 kVA DG unit,
etc.). Therefore, each element of the vector solution is
represented by means of the following alphabet:

0
1, ... ,NDG

no DG located on the node;

size index of the DG installed in the node.

Of course, the vector elements corresponding to the HV/MV

primary substations are fixed to 0.
The type of code used is suitable for every kind of network
structure (radial, meshed, etc.), that influences only the
assessment of the usual technical constraints (voltage profile
and thermal feeder capacity) considered during the evaluation
of the objective function, but does not affect the optimal
allocation procedure. In the paper the algorithm has been
applied to open loop distribution networks, that are
commonly used in Italy, described in subheading D.

C. Evaluation ofthe objectivefunction

The objective function to be optimized within the technical
constraints refers to the total cost of the network which
considers [7, 81:
- site of the substations and loads
- geographical, geological and urbanistic features of the area
concerned
- power demands of the loads and their growth versus time
duration of the planning period
- some cost parameters such as inflation and interest rates
- unit cost of kWh lost due to Joule effect (cost of losses)
- construction and maintenance costs of feeders of different
cross-sections and for different types of lines (overhead,
underground).
Due to the current Italian standard, that does not admit
islanded portion of MV network directly supplied by DG, the
most common reliability indices for long interruptions are not
modified by DG units and thus no service quality
improvements can be achieved by normal customers. For this
reason, the costs of disruptions are not considered in the

B. GA Implementation
In the first phase, an initial population of possible solutions
is randomly generated by means of the following procedure:
for each solution a value of DG penetration is chosen
between 0 and a maximum limit of DG penetration, fixed
by the planner on the ground of economical and network
security justifications;
a number of DG units of different sizes is randomly
chosen until the total amount of power installed reaches
the DG penetration level assigned;
the DG units are randomly located among the nodes of
the network;

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- coeff is the utilization factor of energy losses under full

objective function. Of course, each customer with DG units can

use them to supply, totally or partially, its loads during gnd
faults or scheduled interruptions, increasing the availability of
energy and reducing the number and duration of interruptions.
The objective function to be minimized in the problem at
hand is thus represented by the total cost CO, of the generic
network, with present value taken at the beginning of the whole
planning period of N years. This cost can be expressed by
using the sum:

load, different for overhead and underground,

- 8760 are the number of hours per year,
- yj is the resistance per km of line [!2/km],
- Lj is the branch length [km],

is the phase current in thefh branch [A] at the beginning

of the Phsubperiod,
- ccpj is a corrective coefficient of the losses due to the
simultaneityof loads.

-N ,
COG =

C c o j
j=l

D. Distribution Network Structure

(1)

Distribution networks always have a radial structure and are

often subdivided into two different levels: trunk feeders and
lateral branches. The degree of reliability obtainable with this
network arrangement is limited by the fact that a fault in one
part of the network results in outage in a large number of load
points. To improve service reliability, emergency ties provide
alternative routes for power supply in case of outages or
scheduled interruptions. Emergency ties end with an open
switch so that radial structure is maintained during normal
conditions; firthermore trunks are subdivided in some
segments by means of normally closed switches, generally
positioned in MVILV nodes. During emergencies segments
can be reswitched to isolate damaged sections and route power
around outaged equipment to customers who would otherwise
have to remain out of service until repairs were made [9]. An
important class of such networks are the open loop networks
which are usually employed in urban power distribution
systems. If there are no laterals (pure open loop networks)
then service restoration is ensured through the emergency tie
that connects the ends of the feeder. An intermediate
alternative is to install laterals (spurious open loop networks)
in which top priority customers are supplied through the main
feeder and can be completely re-energized in the event of a
fault. The main characteristic of both open loop networks is
that only two branches can converge in a trunk node
(topological constraint) [lo]. Automatic switching devices
along trunk feeders and emergency ties may reduce both the
duration of service interruption and the number of customers
affected thereby (Fig. 2) [9, 101.

where N T is
~ ~the number of network nodes, Ncp is the
number of substations, NTorNcpthe number of branches in the
network and C, the present cost of thej branch.
The cost of every branchj is the sum of the construction,
residual, management costs, and cost of losses in the
subperiods, transferred to the cash value at the beginning of the
planning period by using economical expressions based on the
inflation rate, the interest rate and the load growth rate (all of
them constant) [7] .
The cost of every branch can be expressed by using:

k=l

where C, is the total cost of the branch j , Cwpthe portion of

cost independent of power flow, CoMkthe cost term
proportional to the power flow through the branch in the Ph
subperiod (cost of losses) and m is the number of subperiods
into which the planning period of N years has been divided.
Denoting with:
- COGis the constructioncosts,
- R, is the residual value,

CO@is the management costs,

- ej is a binary factor that is equal to 1 for a resized branch

and 0 for an existing one.

the cost C
,, independent of power, can be written by using

(3):
Coil = ej. . ( c o c j - Roj ) + C0g-j

(3)

The cost of resizing the$ branch Codtakes into account the

year of reconstruction to transfer the cash value to the
beginning of the planning period, while the residual value R,
considers the fact that the planning period does not coincide
with the life duration of the component.
The cost of Joule losses in the Ph subperiod Copjkcan be
calculated transferring, to the cash value at the beginning of the
planning period, the annual cost of such losses CHk, evaluated
by using:
cpjk

=CkWh.(38760.coeffrj.Lj.ccpj z : k )

4k

Emergency connection

A) Pure open loop network with no lateral MV nodes

<2>
Emergency connection

(4)

where:
- Ckwhis the cost of kWh,

B) Spurious open loop network with lateral MV nodes

Fig. 2. -Open loop networks

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E. TechnicalConstraints
Each individual produced by GA operators has to comply
with all technical constraints usually adopted by planning
engineers, i.e. the voltage profile along the network trunks and
the three-phase short circuit currents in the network nodes [ 11,
121. Indeed, the presence of generation nodes in the
distribution system can cause a voltage drop or an overvoltage
in some points of the network. This situation depends
particularly on the transformer control system used. Generally
speaking, the connection of a generator to a network can result
in an increase in the voltage that depends on the power
supplied by the generator. For this reason, in the proposed
methodology the voltage profile is checked and only those DG
allocations able to maintain the voltage within prefixed ranges
both in normal and emergency situations are evaluated.
Calculations are performed by determining the impedance
matrix 2 of each feeder examined and by calculating the
voltage in each node of the network. The calculation of Z can
be noticeable simplified considering the particular network
architecture (open loop network).
The presence of DG can change the magnitude, duration,
and direction of the fault current. The fault current is modified
since the connection of rotating generators modifies the
characteristics (impedance) of distribution networks. In this
context, one needs to verify that the alteration in magmtude,
duration and direction of the fault current due to dispersed
generation groups does not affect the selectivity of protection
devices. In fact, the selectivity must be checked for each
connection of a new generator to the distribution network. In
the paper, fault currents are calculated for each DG
configuration examined by using the diagonal elements of the
short circuit matrix and the voltages in each node. Again all
those situations which do not comply with this technical
constraint cannot be accepted.

MV/LV node with DG unit

Fig. 3. Test network 154 nodes

proposed. The maximum level of DG penetration rate admitted
for the study is 20% of the total amount of power demand.
The cost of Joule losses has been taken as 0.05 US$/kWh,
the cost for section unity has been assumed 0.3 US$/*
for
buried cables and 0,5 US$/mm for overhead lines (no
adjunctive costs for digging or poles, considering that no new
paths are built).
In Table I, the costs of investments for grid upgrade and of
power losses are reported for the network in Fig. 3, without DG
and with the optimal arrangement of DG units obtained with
the proposed GA.
It is worth noticing that DG units allow reducing both costs
considerably. In particular, the greater saving is represented by
the reduction of the investments for upgrading the existing
branches. This is really an important result, considering that
T&D costs represent almost 30-50 % of the kWh cost and the
deferment of investments will produce benefits to both utilities
and final customers regardless the type of distribution energy
market adopted.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In order to show the capability of the proposed
methodologies, an area of the real M Y Italian network has been
considered. As shown in Fig. 3, it is constituted by 148 nodes
divided into 3 HVMV substations and 145 MVLV trunk
nodes. The whole chosen area covers a surface of about 600
km. The period taken into consideration for the planning study
is 20 years long, with all nodes existing at the beginning of the
period. For each MVLV node, a constant power demand
growth rate of 3% per year has been assumed; the size of the
installed transformer ranges from 100 kVA to 630 kVA. The
majority of the branches is of the overhead type, but some
buried cables exist. The thermal capacity constraint is verified
for all the branches at the beginning of the planning period, but
some of them will have to be resized according to the growing
energy demand.
In order to test the proposed methodology, DG units have
been considered, ranging between 100-500 kVA. It is
straightforward noticing that there are no limits on the size of
DG units that can be treat by the optimization procedure

Table I. Comparison between costs for the

MV distribution network in Fig. 3
Without DG
Cost of investments
Cost of losses

I Total cost

85

With DG

1,000,000 US$

5,000 US$

626,000 US$

486,000 US$

1,626,000 US$

491,000 US$

[6] T. Back, D. Fogel, Z. Michalewicz, Handbook of Evolutionary

Computation, Oxford University Press, New York, 1997.
[7] Invemizzi, F. Mocci, M. Tosi: Planning and Design Optimization
of MV Distribution, Proc. of T&D World '95 Conference, New
Orleans, USA, 1995,pp. 549-557.
[SI F. Mocci, C. Muscas, F. Pilo: Network planning and service
reliability optimization in MV distribution systems, Proc. of
ESMO95 Conference, Columbus (U.S.A), 95CH35755, pp. 3646.
[9] G. Celli, F. Pilo: Optimal Sectionalizing Switches Allocation in
Distribution Networks, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 14, no.
3, July 1999,pp.1167-1172.
[IO] B. Cannas, G. Celli, F. Pilo: Optimal MV distribution networks
planning with heuristic techniques, Proc. of AFRICON'99
Conference, Cape Town (South Afiica), 28 Sept.-1 Oct. 1999,
pp. 995-1000.
[ I I] N. Hadisaid, J. F. Canard, F. Dumas: Dispersed generation
impact on distribution networks, IEEE Computer Applications in
Power, Vol. 12,No. 2, April 1999,pp. 22-28.
[12] P. P. Barker, R. W. de Mello: Determining the Impact of
Distributed Generation on Power Systems: Part I - Radial
Distribution Systems, Proc. of IEEE PES Summer Meeting,
Seattle (USA), 16-20 July 2000, vol. 3, pp. 1645-1656. ISBN 07803-6420-1.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
DG is predicted to play an increasing role in the electric
power system of the near future. In fact, studies have predicted
that distributed generation may account for up to 20% of all
new generation going online by the year 2010. With so much
new distributed generation being installed, it is critical that the
power system impacts be assessed accurately so that these DG
units can be applied in a manner that avoids causing
degradation of power quality, reliability, and control of the
utility system. On the other hand, DG has much potential to
improve distribution system performance and it should be
encouraged. For this reason, it is really important that
distribution planners can have useful and efficient tools to take
into account the opportunities of DG, avoiding costly and time
consuming impact studies. On the basis of these
considerations, the paper deals with the important task of
finding the optimal siting and sizing of DG units for a given
network so that the cost of power losses during a prefixed
period of study can be minimized and investments for grid
upgrades can be deferred. As shown in the discussion, the GA
developed by the authors can be successfully applied in real
size scenarios with several hundreds of nodes. The examples of
application show that considerable savings can be achieved
simply by adding some generation units in the right position.
Further studies will deal with the development of new models
for DG units that can consider not only synchronous
generators, but also generation units with electronic power
conditioners for network interfacing.

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Gianni Celli (M 1999) was bom in Cagliari,
Italy, in 1969. He graduated in Electrical
Engineering at the University of Cagliari in 1994.
He became Assistant Professor of Power System
in 1997 at the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering of the University of Cagliari. Current
research interests are in the field of MV
distribution network planning optimization,
power quality and use of neural Networks in the field of Power
System. He is IEEE member.

VII. REFERENCES
[l] CIGRE WG 37-23: Impact of increasing contribution of
dispersed generation on the power system - Final Report. Electra,
September 1998.
[2] CIRED WGO4: Dispersed generation - Preliminary Report,
CIRED'99, Nizza (Fr), 2-5 Giugno1999.
[3] H. L. Willis, W. G. Scott, Distributed Power Generation, Marcel
Dekker, New York, 2000.
[4] Muscas, F. Pilo, W. Palenzona: Expansion of large MV
networks: a methodology for the research of optimal network
configuration, Proc. of CIRED96 Conference, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, pp. 69-74.
[5] D. E. Goldberg, Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization &
Machine Learning, Addison Wesley, 1989.

Fabrizio Pilo (M 1998) was bom in Sassari,

Italy, 1966. He received the Dr. Eng. degree in
Electrical Engineering at the University of
Cagliari in 1992 and the Ph.D. at the University
of Pisa in 1998. Since 1996 he has been Assistant
Professor of Electrical Engineering at the
Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering of the University of Cagliari. His
current research interests include electrical power systems, network
planning and optimization and neural networks. He is IEEE and AEI
member.

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