Abstract--This paper proposes a parallel tabu search (PTS)

based method for distribution network expansion planning in

consideration of distributed generation (DG). It may be
expressed as a combinatorial optimization problem that
determines the location and capacity of feeders and substations
while minimizing the network loss and installation cost. In this
paper, DG is considered in the network expansion planning due
to the importance in the deregulated distribution network. At the
same time, the outage cost is introduced to improve the power
quality in distribution systems. As a result, the formulation
makes the network expansion planning problem much more
complicated. To overcome the problem, this paper applies PTS of
meta-heuristics to the distribution network expansion planning
so that computational effort is reduced and the diversity of
solution candidate is improved to evaluate a better solution. The
proposed method is successfully applied to a sample system.

Keywords--distribution network expansion planning,
distributed generation (DG), reliability, combinatorial
optimization, meta-heuristics, parallel tabu search
I. INTRODUCTION
This paper proposes a new optimization method for
distribution network expansion planning. In distribution
systems, it is necessary to make a plan to determine the
topology of feeders and the location of substations and
optimize the cost as a whole. The cost means the followings:
a) installation cost of feeders
b) installation cost of substations
c) network loss
d) reliability index or outage cost [4-6]
e) capacity cost of substations [7]
The conventional methods consider items a)-c) with d) or e),
but the proposed method takes account of all items a)-e). The
problem of distribution network expansion planning may be
expressed as a combinatorial optimization problem that selects
the solution with the smallest cost function from many
solution candidates. It is well-known that the combinatorial
optimization problem is quite hard to solve because the
number of combinations exponentially increases. It has
several constraints such as the lower and upper voltage

Hiroyuki Mori and Yoshinori Iimura are with Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering, Meiji University, 1-1-1 Higashimita, Tama-ku,
Kawasaki 214-8571, Japan, Phone: +81-44-934-7311, FAX: +81-44-934-7909,
E-mail: hmori@isc.meiji.ac.jp
constraints, radial system conditions, power flow equation, etc.
Thus, the mathematical formulation results in a nonlinear
constrained combinatorial optimization problem.
In recent years, distributed generation (DG) plays a key role to
make distribution systems more flexible. It brings about new
environment in distribution systems. There is a possibility that
the conventional large-scale power plants or the nation-wide
transmission lines are not necessarily since DGs are placed
near loads in distribution systems. As a result, it is important
to consider DG even in distribution network expansion
planning. To our knowledge, DG has not been considered in
distribution network expansion planning. In this paper, an
efficient method is presented to handle distribution network
expansion planning with DG. The conventional methods for
distribution network expansion planning may be classified as
follows:
(1) mathematical programming [1,8]
(2) branch exchange method [2]
(3) meta-heuristics [3,5,7]
Mathematical programming is inclined to give a locally
optimal solution because of the approximation to express
discrete variables as continuous ones or to require huge
computational effort for a real-world problem. The branch
exchange method is able to handle discrete variables to a
certain extent appropriately, but often provides a local
minimum due to the heuristics. On the other hand, meta-
heuristics are different from others in a sense that they aim at
evaluating a highly approximate solution close to a global
minimum. They allow to escape from a local one easily. As a
meta-heuristic method, the followings are well-known in the
engineering fields:
(a) simulated annealing (SA) [9]
(b) genetic algorithm (GA) [10]
(c) tabu search (TS) [11,12]
SA is analogous to the annealing process of metal. It uses a
probabilistic single-point search process. That works to adopt
a worse solution and avoid getting stuck in a local minimum.
The parameter called temperature controls the algorithm to
evaluate better solutions. The solution is searched from high
to low temperature to converge to a better solution. GA stems
from the natural selection in biology to evaluate better
solutions. It is based on the probabilistic multi-point search
Application of Parallel Tabu Search to Distribution
Network Expansion Planning with
Distributed Generation
Hiroyuki Mori, Member, IEEE, and Yoshinori Iimura
0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE
Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy

=
0
1
fi
x

=
0
1
sj
x
process. It has genetic operators such as the crossover,
mutation, reproduction, etc. to make solution candidates more
diverse and improve the solution quality. TS is similar to the
function of the working memory in a sense that some
attributes are stored for a while. It is the extension of the hill-
climbing method and TS has the adaptive memory to store
some attributes for a period. TS has only one parameter
referred to as tabu length to control the adaptive memory.
Unlike SA and GA, TS is a deterministic search algorithm.
The recent studies have shown that TS has better performance
than SA and GA in a large scale problem. However, there is
still room for improving TS in complicated combinatorial
optimization problem. This paper proposes parallel tabu
search (PTS) for distribution network expansion planning with
DG. PTS has a couple of strategies to enhance the
performance of TS in terms of solution accuracy and
computational time [14-18]. One is the decomposition of the
neighborhood into subneighborhoods to reduce computational
effort. The other is the introduction of multiple tabu lengths to
make solution candidate more diverse and evaluate a better
solution. The proposed method is successfully applied to a
sample system.
II. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION
Distribution network expansion planning plays an important
role in distribution system planning. It minimizes the cost
function while satisfying the constraints. The cost function
consists of the installation cost of substations and feeders and
outage cost as well as the network loss. The cost function may
be written as


= =
+ + =
f
s
n
i
n
j
sj cj sj sj fi fi
x c w x c w x c w f
1 1
2
3 2 1
) ) ( (

=
+ +
n
n
n
n n y loss
C L w c P w
1
5 4
(1)
where
f: cost function
w
1
-w
5
: weights
c
fi
: installation cost of feeder i
x
fi
: installation conditions of feeder i such as
(if feeder i is installed)
(Otherwise)
n
f
: number of feeders
c
sj
: installation cost of substation j
x
sj
: installation conditions of substation j such as
(if substation j is installed)
(Otherwise)
c
cj
capacity of substation j
n
s
: number of substations
P
loss
: network active losses
c
y
: duration
L
n
: loads at load point n
C
n
: outage cost of load point n
: failure rate
n
n
: number of load points
The first term of Eqn. (1) shows the installation cost of feeders
while the second one means the installation and capacity cost
of substations. It is assumed that the capacity cost of
substations is proportional to the square of the installation cost.
That implies that a large scale single substation is not
preferable to distribution network expansion planning. The
third term indicates the active power loss of the distribution
network. The last term corresponds to the outage cost that
reflects the duration to be considered, outage cost at each load
points, and outage probability [5]. On the other hand, the
constraints are given as follows:
i) upper and lower bounds of voltage magnitude
ii) thermal limitation of feeders
iii) conditions of radial networks
iv) power flow equation.
Constraint i) is necessary to maintain the voltage profile.
Constraint ii) gives inequality constraint for thermal limitation
to avoid overloaded feeders. Constraint iii) ensures the radial
network configuration for distribution network operation.
Constraint iv) shows the power balance between loads and
generation. As the distribution power flow calculation,
DistFlow is well-spread due to the efficiency in distribution
operation and planning. This paper uses it to speed up
computational time.
III. DISTFLOW WITH CONSIDERATIONS OF DG
This section describes DistFlow [13] that is the power flow
calculation tailored for a radial distribution systems. In recent
years, distributed generation plays a key role in distribution
automation. There is a high possibility that DG is placed at the
ending node to compensate the voltage magnitude. However,
the conventional DistFlow does not consider the case with DG.
Thus, it is necessary to reformulate DistFlow to consider DG
at the ending node. Now, let us consider the line flow equation
from Node j to Node j+1 at Feeder i,

x
ij+1
=f
ij+1
(x
ij
) (2)
where
x
ij
: state variable vector at Node j of Feeder i such as
x
ij
=[P
ij
, Q
ij
, V
ij
2
]
T

where
P
ij
(Q
ij
): active (reactive) power flow at Node j of
Feeder i
V
ij
2
: squared voltage magnitude at Node j of Feeder i
f
ij+1
: branch power flow equation between Nodes j and
j+1

Eqn. (2) implies that solution x
ij
gives x
ij+1
successively.
Voltage magnitude at Node l with lateral i may be expressed
as

V
i0
=V
0l
i=1,,m (3)
where
m: number of feeders in system

The ending node has the following conditions since no power
flows go downstream.

P
in
=0
Q
in
=0 i=1,,m (4)
where
P
in
(Q
in
): active and reactive power loads at terminal Node
n of Feeder i

The solution is iteratively updated until the above conditions
are satisfied. This paper makes assumption that DGs are
placed at the ending node. The conventional DistFlow deals
with the case where no loads or generations are connected
downstream as shown in Fig. 1. As a result, it is necessary to
reformulate DistFlow in a distribution network with DGs. In
this paper, DG is expressed as a P-Q specified node in the
power flow calculation. Therefore, the ending node may be
written as

P
in
=P
DG

Q
in
=Q
DG
(5)
where
P
DG
(Q
DG
): active (reactive) power of DG
IV. PARALLEL TABU SEARCH
The algorithm of Parallel Tabu Search (PTS) is developed to
alleviate a problem of tabu search (TS) [14-18]. PTS has two
strategies to improve TS

a) decomposition of the neighborhood into
subneighborhoods
b) multiple tabu lengths

Strategy a) is effective to reduce computational effort due to
the distributed computing of the neighborhood solution
candidates. The use of the Hamming distance equal to one
allows to calculate the subneighborhood solution
independently. Suppose that two subneighborhoods are
available and two processors are assigned to each
subneighborhoods as shown in Fig. 2(a). The computational
effort reduces to a half in creating solution candidates.
Strategy b) is based on the fact that a different tabu lengths
creates different search process. That implies that multiple
tabu lengths contribute to finding out better solutions. Both
intensification and diversification of solution search are
carried out through the multiple tabu lengths. Fig. 2(b) shows
the concept of multiple tabu lengths where two tabu length are
prepared to find out better solutions. It is assumed that two
processors evaluate solutions independently. Thus, PTS
allows to improve the performance of TS in terms of solution
accuracy and computational effort.
V. PROPOSED METHOD
This paper proposes a new method for distribution network
expansion planning with DG. Distribution network expansion
planning is of main concern as distribution network planning.
It optimizes the following:
a) installation cost of feeders
b) installation cost of substations
c) capacity cost of substations
d) distribution network loss
e) outage cost
It is very important to optimize the factors above, but the
mathematical formulation is much more complicated. In
practice, the problem of distribution network expansion
planning results in a combinatorial optimization problem that
corresponds to a NP hard problem. In this paper, parallel tabu
search (PTS) is used to evaluate a better solution that
corresponds to a highly approximate solution near a global
minimum. The distribution network expansion planning is
described to include distribution generation (DG) in
distribution systems. In this paper, it is assumed that the
candidates of feeders, substations and distributed generation
are determined in advance. All DGs are used for the network
expansion planning. The algorithm may be summarized as
follows:

Step 1: Set initial conditions (initial solution S
k
).
Step 2: Create solution neighborhood around S
k
with PTS.
Step 3: Evaluate the cost function of all the neighborhoods.
Step 4: Evaluate the best solution in the neighborhood and
define it as a new solution.
Step 5: Stop if the iteration criterion is satisfied. Otherwise,
V
00
V
0k P
01
, Q
01
P
0k
, Q
0k
P
10
, Q
10
P
DG
, Q
DG
V
11
P
DG
, Q
DG
Fig. 2 Radial Distribution System with DG
V
00
V
0k P
01
, Q
01
P
0k
, Q
0k
P
10
, Q
10
P
DG
, Q
DG
V
11
P
DG
, Q
DG V
00
V
0k P
01
, Q
01
P
0k
, Q
0k
P
10
, Q
10
P
DG
, Q
DG
V
11
P
DG
, Q
DG
Fig. 2 Radial Distribution System with DG
(b) Multiple Tabu Lengths
Fig. 2 Concept of PTS
: Solution
: Neighborhood of CPU 1
: Neighborhood of CPU 2
CPU 2 CPU 1
: Solution
: Solution of Tabu Length 1
: Solution of Tabu Length 2
(a) Neighborhood Decomposition
(b) Multiple Tabu Lengths
Fig. 2 Concept of PTS
: Solution
: Neighborhood of CPU 1
: Neighborhood of CPU 2
CPU 2 CPU 1
: Solution
: Neighborhood of CPU 1
: Neighborhood of CPU 2
CPU 2 CPU 1
: Solution
: Solution of Tabu Length 1
: Solution of Tabu Length 2
: Solution
: Solution of Tabu Length 1
: Solution of Tabu Length 2
(a) Neighborhood Decomposition

regard the new solution as S
k+1
and return to Step 2.

Fig. 3 shows the flowchart of the proposed method, where two
CPUs are used to carry out PTS. Suppose that computational
time of CPUs 1 and 2 are denoted as t
1
and t
2
. Computational
time of PTS is expressed as max(t
1
, t
2
), where max(t
1
, t
2
)
shows the larger value. It should be noted here that PTS
speeds up computational time with the decomposition of
neighborhood into two subneighborhoods.
VI. SIMULATION
6.1 Simulation Conditions
1) The proposed method was applied to the 32-node
distribution systems as shown in Fig. 4(a) [19], where
Nodes 200, 300 and 400 have substations, Nodes 33 and
34 have DGs and dotted lines are the candidates of feeders
while solid ones are the existing lines. Also, the
installation cost of substation is set as c
fi
=100. The
installation cost of feeders is proportional to the length of
the line. The line parameters (resistance and reactance) are
determined by the same procedure. It is assumed that DG
has the capacity of 400 KVA with power factor 0.8. The
number of feeder candidates is 81. The same number of
bits as the feeders were used to determine the optimal
route. In other words, binary number, 0 or 1 is assigned to
each feeder. If a feeder has bit 1, it is installed. Otherwise,
it is not.
2) PTS evaluates a better solution by using the neighborhood
search with the hamming distance of 2 that means
exchanging a variable with another. The number of
necessary feeders is 34. The conditions of the radial
network require 32 feeders while DGs need two. Therefore,
the problem to be solved is to select 34 from 81 feeders.
The number of combinations results in 7.7710
25
.
3) Two types of outage cost were used to consider the
reliability of distribution network expansion planning. One
START
Set Initial Conditions (k=0)
k=k+1, i=0
Make Neighborhood around
Solution of Feeder Allocation
i=i+1
Calculate Cost Function f
Converged?
END
NO
YES
Calculate Cost Function f
Move to Best Solution in Neighborhood
CPU 1 CPU 2
Fig. 3 Flowchart of Proposed Method
START
Set Initial Conditions (k=0)
k=k+1, i=0
Make Neighborhood around
Solution of Feeder Allocation
i=i+1
Calculate Cost Function f
Converged?
END
NO
YES
Calculate Cost Function f
Move to Best Solution in Neighborhood
CPU 1 CPU 2
START
Set Initial Conditions (k=0)
k=k+1, i=0
Make Neighborhood around
Solution of Feeder Allocation
i=i+1
Calculate Cost Function f
Converged?
END
NO
YES
Calculate Cost Function f
Move to Best Solution in Neighborhood
CPU 1 CPU 2
Fig. 3 Flowchart of Proposed Method
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
(b) Optimized System
(a) Existing System
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
: installed substation : installed DG : existing feeder : new feeder : load bus (commerce)
: substation expansion candidate : DG expansion candidate : feeder candidate : load bus (residence)
Fig. 4 Existing and Optimized Systems
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
(b) Optimized System
(a) Existing System
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
1
2
4
3
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
15
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
100
400
200
300
33
34
: installed substation : installed DG : existing feeder : new feeder : load bus (commerce)
: substation expansion candidate : DG expansion candidate : feeder candidate : load bus (residence)
: installed substation : installed DG : existing feeder : new feeder : load bus (commerce)
: substation expansion candidate : DG expansion candidate : feeder candidate : load bus (residence)
Fig. 4 Existing and Optimized Systems

is the residence type while the other is commerce one.
Eighteen nodes belong to the residence type and the rest is
the commerce one as shown in Fig. 4(a). It is assumed that
the outage cost of feeders is proportional to loads that they
have. Specifically, the outage cost is evaluated with Ref.
[5].
4) The loads of the existing system are based on data of Ref.
[19] while those of the future system are created by
increasing 40-60% of the original loads randomly. For
convenience, the following cases are considered.
Case A: existing system with the original loads
Case B: existing system with future loads
Case C: extended system with future loads
5) To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method,
this paper makes a comparison between PTS and the
conventional methods such as SA, GA and TS in terms of
solution accuracy and computational efficiency. Table 1
shows the parameters of each method that were determined
by the preliminary simulation. Fifty initial solutions were
prepared to examine the influence of the initial solution on
the final solution. It is assumed that PTS has two
subneighborhood and two tabu lengths. Regarding two
tabu lengths, two solutions are calculated with one initial
solution. The calculation was performed on the Fujitsu
Workstation S-7/400Ui m270D(Ultra-5, SPECinit 95: 9.1,
SPECfp 95: 10.1).
6.2 Simulation Results
Fig. 5 shows the best, average, worst and standard deviation
(SD) of the cost function for each method. It can be seen that
PTS of the proposed method is better than SA, GA and TS
regarding the best, average, worst and SD. Looking at the
average cost function, PTS is 1.16-times, 1.14-times and 1.01-
times better than SA, GA and TS, respectively. PTS has better
results than SA and GA although it has the same performance
as TS for the best cost function. Also, PTS has better results
than SA, GA and TS for the worst cost function. It is
noteworthy that SD of PTS is much smaller than others as
shown in Fig. 6. That implies that PTS of deterministic search
is a better method than SA and GA of probabilistic search. At
the same time, PTS has better performance than TS due to the
use of the multiple tabu lengths. Fig. 7 gives the average
computational time of each method, where PTS is 2.55-times,
2.11-times and 1.83-times faster than SA, GA and TS,
respectively. In this paper, two subneighborhoods were used
to speed up computational efficiency. Hence, it can be seen
that about 2 times efficiency was obtained. Therefore, the
proposed method is better than SA, GA and TS in terms of
solution accuracy and computational time. Next, let us take a
look at the results of the optimized network in Fig. 4(b). The
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
Table 1 Parameters of Each Method
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
TS
30 34
400
Tabu Length
Maximum Iterations
Proposed Method
500
2000
0.8
0.01
No. of Populations
No. of Generation
Crossover Rate
Mutation Rate
GA
100000
0.999
3000
Initial Temperature
Cooling Schedule
Convergence Criterion
SA
Parameters Method
Table 1 Parameters of Each Method
Fig. 5 Cost Function of Each Method
Best Average Worst
8.0
7.0
6.5
6.0
7.5
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
10
2
Fig. 6 Standard Deviation
of Cost Functions
Fig. 7 Computational Time
: SA : TS
: GA : PTS
Method
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

D
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
Method
0
5
10
15
20
25
C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
l

T
i
m
e
(
m
s
)
10
4
: Case A, Existing System
: Case B, Existing System (after load growth)
: Case C, Optimizes System (after load growth)
f
1
f
2
f
3
f
4
f
1500
1200
900
600
300
0
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
f
1
: Feeder Installation Cost, f
2
: Substation Cost,
f
3
: Network Loss, f
4
: Outage Cost, f: Total Cost
Fig. 8 Comparison between Existing and Optimized Systems
Fig. 5 Cost Function of Each Method
Best Average Worst
8.0
7.0
6.5
6.0
7.5
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
10
2
Fig. 5 Cost Function of Each Method
Best Average Worst
8.0
7.0
6.5
6.0
7.5
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
10
2
Best Average Worst
8.0
7.0
6.5
6.0
7.5
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
10
2
Fig. 6 Standard Deviation
of Cost Functions
Fig. 7 Computational Time
: SA : TS
: GA : PTS
Method
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

D
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
Method
0
5
10
15
20
25
C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
l

T
i
m
e
(
m
s
)
10
4
: Case A, Existing System
: Case B, Existing System (after load growth)
: Case C, Optimizes System (after load growth)
f
1
f
2
f
3
f
4
f
1500
1200
900
600
300
0
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
f
1
: Feeder Installation Cost, f
2
: Substation Cost,
f
3
: Network Loss, f
4
: Outage Cost, f: Total Cost
Fig. 8 Comparison between Existing and Optimized Systems
Fig. 6 Standard Deviation
of Cost Functions
Fig. 7 Computational Time
: SA : TS
: GA : PTS
: SA : TS
: GA : PTS
Method
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

D
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
Method
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

D
e
v
i
a
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Method
0
5
10
15
20
25
C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
l

T
i
m
e
(
m
s
)
10
4
Method
0
5
10
15
20
25
C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
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n
a
l

T
i
m
e
(
m
s
)
10
4
: Case A, Existing System
: Case B, Existing System (after load growth)
: Case C, Optimizes System (after load growth)
: Case A, Existing System
: Case B, Existing System (after load growth)
: Case C, Optimizes System (after load growth)
f
1
f
2
f
3
f
4
f
1500
1200
900
600
300
0
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
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f
1
f
2
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4
f
1500
1200
900
600
300
0
C
o
s
t

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
f
1
: Feeder Installation Cost, f
2
: Substation Cost,
f
3
: Network Loss, f
4
: Outage Cost, f: Total Cost
Fig. 8 Comparison between Existing and Optimized Systems

difference between the existing and optimized networks is that
one substation at Node 300 and 11 feeders were newly
installed in Fig. 4(b). It can be observed that the substation at
Node 300 contributes to the reduction of the network loss
because of the geographical point close to the ending nodes
that suffer from the voltage dips. Fig. 8 shows a comparison
of Cases A-C regarding each cost. Compared with Case A,
Case B increases each cost because of the load growth in Case
B. That implies that it is necessary to construct the optimal
network by installing feeders, substations and DGs for the
load growth. Case C shows that compared with Case B, the
substation cost, network loss and outage cost significantly
decrease while the feeder installation cost increases a little.
Also, the main difference between Cases A and C is that the
network loss becomes much smaller due to the installation of a
new substation and DGs. As a whole, Case C reduces the cost
of about 29% and 55% for Cases A and B, respectively.
Therefore, the simulation results have shown that the
proposed method is more effective than the conventional
method such as SA, GA and TS in terms of solution accuracy
and computational efficiency.
VII. CONCLUSION
(1) This paper has proposed a new method for distribution
network expansion planning in distribution systems with
distributed generation (DG). In this paper, the outage
cost was considered to improve the power quality in
distribution network expansion planning. The proposed
method makes use of parallel tabu search (PTS) that
extended tabu search of meta-heuristics for solving a
combinatorial optimization problem in a parallel way.
Specifically, a couple of strategies were used to improve
the solution accuracy and computational efficiency.
(2) The proposed method was successfully applied to the 32-
node system with DGs. A comparison was made between
PTS and the other methods such as SA, GA and TS. PTS
was much better than others in terms of solution
accuracy and computational time. In particular, it is
noteworthy that PTS allows to provide more reliable
solutions in a sense that it enhances the standard
deviation of the cost function for 50 initial solutions
significantly and proves to be a robust algorithm. The
obtained solution has succeeded in reducing the original
total cost to 55%. Thus, the proposed is efficient for
solving a distribution network expansion planning
problem.
VIII. REFERENCES
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IX. BIOGRAPHIES
Hiroyuki Mori was born in Tokyo, Japan on November, 1954. He received
the B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees all in Electrical Engineering from Waseda
University, Tokyo, Japan in 1979, 1981, and 1985, respectively. From 1984 to
1985 he was a Research Associate at Waseda University. In 1985 he joined
the faculty in Electrical Engineering at Meiji University, Kawasaki, Japan.
From 1994 to 1995, he was a Visiting Associate Professor of School of
Electrical Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A. He is
currently a Professor of Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at
Meiji University. From 1997 to 2002, he was appointed as a Research
Division Director of Evolutionary Learning Systems at Meiji University High
Technology Research Center. Since 2001, He has been the ISAP Board
Director. His research interests include voltage instability, power flows, state
estimation, load forecasting, system identification, fuzzy, meta-heuristics and
artificial neural networks. Dr. Mori is a member of AAAI, ACM, INNS,
SIAM and IEE of Japan.

Yoshinori Iimura was born in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan on October,
1980. He received the B. Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
from Meiji University, Kawasaki, Japan in 2003. He is currently working for
the M.Sc. degree. His research interests are distribution system analysis and
meta-heuristics. Mr. Iimura is a student member of IEE of Japan.