A distribution network is transforming into multi-area distribution networks. Traditional iterative multi-area coordination methods protect the privacy of each area but face a high communication burden and convergence issues. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a non-iterative day-ahead scheduling method based on equivalent projection (EP). A deterministic scheduling model is established for multi-area distribution networks that are connected by soft open points (SOPs). An EP-based multi-area coordination method is proposed to transform the scheduling model into a reduced-dimensional problem that eliminates private data from areas. This enables privacy-preserving multi-area scheduling without iterative information exchange, thereby reducing the communication burden and achieving convergence in day-ahead coordination. Simulation results on the IEEE 33-bus five-region system show that the proposed method reduces online coordination time to 0.17 s compared to 181.06 s for the iterative baseline. Furthermore, tests on the larger IEEE 123-bus five-region system confirm its computational scalability in day-ahead scheduling, achieving a solution within 7.20 s with an optimality gap of 0.40%.
Luo et al. (Fri,) studied this question.