  Power losses reduction is one of the main targets for any electrical energy
distribution company. In this paper, we face the problem of joint optimization
of both topology and network parameters in a real smart grid. We consider a
portion of the Italian electric distribution network managed by the ACEA
Distribuzione S.p.A. located in Rome. We perform both the power factor
correction (PFC) for tuning the generators and the distributed feeder
reconfiguration (DFR) to set the state of the breakers. This joint optimization
problem is faced considering a suitable objective function and by adopting
genetic algorithms as global optimization strategy. We analyze admissible
network configurations, showing that some of these violate constraints on
current and voltage at branches and nodes. Such violations depend only on pure
topological properties of the configurations. We perform tests by feeding the
simulation environment with real data concerning hourly samples of dissipated
and generated active and reactive power values of the ACEA smart grid. Results
show that removing the configurations violating the electrical constraints from
the solution space leads to interesting improvements in terms of power loss
reduction. To conclude, we provide also an electrical interpretation of the
phenomenon using graph-based pattern analysis techniques.
