Optimal reactive power dispatch for real power loss minimization and voltage stability enhancement using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Abstract

Reactive Power Dispatch (RPD) plays important role in power system reliability and security. This paper proposes the Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) for real power loss minimization, voltage deviation minimization and voltage stability enhancement using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Algorithm. ORPD is a mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem which includes both continuous and discrete control variables. The ABC algorithm is used to find the setting of control variables such as generator voltage magnitude, tap position of tap changing transformer and reactive power output of the compensation devices. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE 30 and 57 bus systems, Simulation results show that the proposed approach converges to better solutions and much faster than the earlier reported approaches in the literature. The optimization strategy is general and can be used to solve other power system optimization problems.