Capacitor placement in distribution systems for power loss reduction and voltage improvement: a new methodology

• Published in: IET generation, transmission & distribution Vol. 10; no. 14; pp. 3631 - 3638
• Main Author: Askarzadeh, Alireza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 04.11.2016
• Subjects: capacitor installation costs; capacitor placement; Capacitors; combinatorial mathematics; complex combinatorial optimisation problem; crow search algorithm; CSA; Distribution management; distribution networks; distribution systems; Electric potential; electrical distribution networks; feeder capacity; food sources; metaheuristic technique; Networks; objective function; optimisation; Optimization; Placement; population‐based technique; power capacitors; Power loss; power loss reduction; reactive power; reactive power compensation; search problems; shunt capacitors; Voltage; voltage improvement; voltage profile; shunt capacitors; metaheuristic technique; combinatorial mathematics; distribution networks; reactive power compensation; electrical distribution networks; CSA; food sources; optimisation; distribution systems; population-based technique; reactive power; voltage improvement; crow search algorithm; capacitor installation costs; feeder capacity; complex combinatorial optimisation problem; capacitor placement; power loss reduction; voltage profile; search problems; power capacitors; objective function
• ISSN: 1751-8687; 1751-8695
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2016.0419

For compensating reactive power, shunt capacitors are often installed in electrical distribution networks. Consequently, in such systems, power loss reduces, voltage profile improves and feeder capacity releases. However, finding optimal size and location of capacitors in distribution networks is a complex combinatorial optimisation problem. In such problem, an objective function which is usually defined based on power losses and capacitor installation costs should be minimised subject to operational limitations. In this study, a newly developed metaheuristic technique, named crow search algorithm (CSA), is proposed for finding the optimal placement of the capacitors in a distribution network. CSA is a population-based technique inspired by the greedy behaviour of crows in finding better food sources. The main reasons of using CSA are its easy implementation, few parameters to adjust, fast convergence speed and high efficiency. In the case studies, simulated results indicate that the proposed CSA produces more accurate results than the other studied search methods.