Comparison of PSO models for optimal placement and sizing of STATCOM

Abstract

Voltage profi le has been a major concern for power system utilities because of several events of voltage collapse in the recent past. Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices are increasingly used to improve voltage profi le and power fl ow control in many utilities. However, owing to the considerable cost of FACTS devices involved, it is important to fi nd the optimal location and sizing of these devices in a power system to obtain maximum benefi ts of these devices. For fi nding optimal location and sizing of Statcom in a power system, this paper investigates the application of various models of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. To compare the performance of various PSO algorithms, these were implemented for optimal location and sizing of Statcom for voltage profi le improvement in a benchmark 5-bus system. Out of various PSO models: classical PSO, PSO time varying inertia weight (PSOTVIW), PSO random inertia weight (PSO-RANDIW) and PSOTime varying acceleration coeffi cients (PSO-TVAC), PSO-TVAC model is found to be superior in terms of computation speed and quality of solution.