Power distribution system reconfigurations for multiple contingencies

A computer system for simulating power distribution system reconfigurations for multiple contingencies, the computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing program instructions executable by the processor to:
• instantiate a decision tree model configured as a graph with nodes and edges corresponding to simulated outage states of one or more buses in the power distribution system and simulated states of reconfigurable switches in the power distribution system, the model spanning from parent nodes to child nodes in a radial pattern of branches;
• disconnect edges in the model related to each outage;
• and
• determine a reconfiguration path with a plurality of switches reconfigured to a closed state by a Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) algorithm that executes an iterative method where every iteration has four steps:
• selection, expansion, simulation, and backpropagation, wherein the MCTS algorithm calls a spanning tree search (STS) algorithm during the expansion to determine possible decisions to be made by setting open a subset of configurable switches in the model, identifying islands of connected components through aggregation of connected loads, and reconstructing a condensed graph from spanning trees across aggregated components;
• generate a simulation to estimate feeder cable and transformer loading and bus voltages on the reconfigured path in response to a simulation trigger from the MCTS algorithm with a selection of at least one switch closure;
• compare the estimates against constraints including feeder cable capacity ratings, transformer capacity ratings, and minimum bus voltage, the constraints extracted from a power distribution system database;
• and
• classify the reconfiguration as successful under safety and system stability requirements when the constraints are satisfied within the defined tolerance;
• and
• wherein further iterations of the Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) algorithm and the spanning tree search (STS) algorithm repeated to identify additional candidate reconfiguration paths and to rank reconfiguration paths classified as successful.