Comparison of optimal capacitor placement methods in radial distribution system with load growth and ZIP load model

Abstract

In this paper, a combined power loss sensitivity (PLS) index-based approach is proposed to determine the optimal location of the capacitors in the radial distribution system (RDS) based on the real and reactive combined loss sensitivity index, as capacitor placement not only reduces real power loss with voltage profile improvement but also reduces reactive power loss due to the reactive power compensation in the network. The results have been obtained with the existing methods of power loss index (PLI) and index vector (IV) method for comparison. Besides, the optimal placement has been obtained with the proposed method as well as existing methods and the total kVar support has been obtained. In addition, the results of net cost savings for the 10-, 34-, and 69-bus systems are obtained for comparison. Moreover, the results have been obtained for a large system of 85 buses to validate the results with combined sensitivity based approach. Furthermore, the load growth factor has been considered in the study which is essential for the planning and expansion of the existing systems, whereas the impact of the realistic load model as ZIP load model has been considered for the study of all the systems.