Optimal Location and Sizing of Shunt Capacitors with Distributed Generation in Distribution Systems

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel approach to determine an optimal location and sizing of shunt capacitors for reactive power compensation in distribution systems with distributed generation. Here, the optimal location for installing the shunt capacitors is determined using the loss sensitivity factor approach. The stochastic nature of distributed generation (i.e., wind and solar PV powers) has been considered in this paper. Optimal sizing of shunt capacitors has been determined by considering the power loss minimization as objective function and this problem is solved using the differential evolution algorithm (DEA). The results obtained with DEA are also compared with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms. The effectiveness of this proposed approach has been simulated on the IEEE 15, 33, 69 and 85 bus test systems.