10Jun2026
14:30 Doctoral defense Room 85 of IC2
Topic on
Mathematical Models for Distribution Network Reconfiguration with Distributed Generation and Islanding
Student
Jônatas Trabuco Belotti
Advisor / Teacher
Fábio Luiz Usberti - Co-supervisors: Celso Cavellucci and Hugo Valadares Siqueira
Brief summary
This thesis investigates mathematical formulations and methodological strategies for the problem of reconfiguring electrical power distribution networks, with and without distributed generation (DG), focusing on reducing technical losses and representing operational modes compatible with modern networks. The work is developed incrementally: it starts from the classic deterministic problem as a baseline, deepens the analysis of how to explicitly guarantee connectivity in exact models, and finally, expands the modeling to incorporate DG and allow flexible islanding operation. The main technical contribution is a formulation based on minimum cuts to guarantee radiality directly in the optimization process, reducing the dependence on post-processing checks and corrections and presenting competitive computational performance in networks of different sizes. As a methodological complement, the thesis consolidates a heuristic framework based on Genetic Algorithm for the classic problem, structured in a modular and extensible way, useful as a basis for future extensions and for scenarios where computational limitations make the exclusive use of exact methods unfeasible. Furthermore, a unified model is proposed that can represent, in a single formulation, both connected mode and islanded operation, allowing for controlled selection of which distributed generation (DG) units can act as sources. In this case, the admissible topology ceases to be a single tree and becomes a forest of radially consistent islands. The results indicate that, under appropriate operational rules, islanding can reduce losses without imposing a proportional degradation of computational performance.
Examination Board
Headlines:
| Fábio Luiz Usberti | IC / UNICAMP |
| Claudio Fabiano Motta Toledo | ICMC / USP |
| Leonardo Mendonça Oliveira de Queiroz | ANEEL |
| Kelly Cristina Poldi | IMECC / UNICAMP |
| Santiago Valdés Ravelo | IC / UNICAMP |
Substitutes:
| Franklina Maria Bragion de Toledo | ICMC / USP |
| Alysson Machado Costa | Melbourne University |
| Ruben Interian Kovaliova | IC / UNICAMP |
| Marcos Medeiros Raimundo | IC / UNICAMP |