Optimization methods to solve the set covering problems

Abstract

Phasor Measurement Unit Placement aims to decrease the cost this phasor equipment while maintaining the observability of the electrical distribution systems. This placement can be modeled as a set covering problem. Synchronized phasor data provides electrical systems’ information with higher quality and frequency than Remote Terminal Units. These data enable the implementation of faster than real-time state estimators. Thus, supervisory control and data acquisition systems can be replaced by automatically monitored systems that add reliability, efficiency, and resilience to smart grid systems. Due to the flexibility and large-scale in the distribution systems, heuristic methods have frequently been applied to this placement problem. Since the use of Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) algorithm is not recurrent, we have decided to implement it together with a topological system observability analysis. Initial population creation, parameterization, elementary reactions of CRO, and local search strategies are presented in this study. Computational results were performed in IEEE power system test cases. The optimization method proposed has obtained optimal results at a lower computation time than the literature. To test in large-scale, we have applied another optimization method to Set Covering Problems from Beasley library, with different parameters. However, the results were not satisfactory indicating that the CRO might not be suitable to some large-scale instances of the Set Covering Problems this library. In this case, further studies are required.