Optimal Capacitor Placement in a Radial Distribution System using Harmony Search Algorithm

Abstract

Modern electric energy are generated from generating station and it deliver to the customer through transmission and distribution network. Most electrical equipment such as motors, lamps and heaters required constant voltage in order to operate. Transmission and distribution system are not required to carry active power but it must also carry magnetizing for inductive load at consumer side. It is essential that the generator at generating station produce active and reactive power. In order to supply and produce reactive power, shunt capacitor are widely used. There are several benefit of shunt capacitor installation in distribution system such as reactive power compensation, power factor correction, system capacity released , power support , reduction in loss and voltage improvement. In this study, the placement of shunt capacitor and optimal capacitor size will be carried out. The result are then compare with others technique in term of capacitor installation cost saving. In this study, loss reduction and voltage profile improvement are studied. It is shown that almost 14% of the losses contribute at distribution system. It also very important to determine the appropriate location of capacitor in order to reduce the system power loss and total capacitor cost. In this study, the main objective is to find the optimal capacitor placement using a new meta-heuristic approach, Harmony Search Algorithm in radial distribution system which is then to reduce power loss and improve the system voltage profile. Simple backward forward sweep power flow is used to determine the power flow in the system. The performance of proposed algorithm is test using 9 bus system and compare with other meta-heuristic approach, Particle Swarm Optimization.