ABSTRACT
Optimal, optimize, and optimization are terms prone to misuse. Though the con-
cept of optimization and the techniques to achieve it are powerful, few people
truly understand their implications and are able to apply them in a rigorous and
systematic manner. System optimization has always been a favorite topic in aca-
demia, but until recently has had little applicability to distribution systems. With
the exponential increase in computation power, applying optimization techniques
to practical distribution reliability problems is becoming feasible, and a deeper
understanding of optimization is warranted.
