This paper proposes a novel structure for differential evolutionary algorithm (DEA) to maximize the customer satisfaction by optimal sectionalizer placement (OSP) in the presence of distributed generation (DG) units. To achieve this goal, the binary DEA (BDEA) is suggested by adding sigmoid function to simple DEA that makes the algorithm more robust and faster for OSP problem which has only two statuses: open/close (zero/one). The OSP problem has been formulated as a function of reliability index and sectionalizer cost and these terms have been presented as membership functions which are related by weighting factors. Simulation results have been performed in Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS), the priority of the BDEA has been compared with the ant colony optimization (ACO) technique

Keywords: Differential evolutionary algorithm, Optimal sectionalizer placement, Reliability improvement