Abstract. The motivation behind this paper is the many changes that happen in power distribution networks, theoretical developments, and their consequences on power distribution restoration. The stages of this process are defined with a focus on steps taken after the fault isolation. The final purpose of the operators is defined, as are the rules which must be strictly respected. Power quality issues are stressed. Moreover, recent techniques (metaheuristic and learning methods) are discussed. Heuristic rules also known as expert rules or knowledge based rules used in power restoration are outlined for their supportive role. Finally, a comparison of some selected papers is given. This enables to illustrate how the defined goals and changes in the network are reflected in recent literature. Our conclusion from the study of the state of the art is that there is still a lot of work to be done in developing novel techniques, integrating the goals and inserting the evolving features of power distribution networks
