Power system topology modification for fault current reduction using a tabu search algorithm

The paper discusses the topology optimization of power systems for reduction of fault current level. The countermeasures of interest are bus splitting and line opening which modify power network topology. When the selected measures are applied, the magnitudes of Thévenin impedances at the critical locations would be increased and hence the fault current levels might get lower to the acceptable level. In this paper, a Tabu search on the solution space with binary variables was adopted as the solution technique to find adequate topology changing schemes to satisfying the fault level security criteria.