Smart and coordinated allocation of static VAR compensators, shunt capacitors and distributed generators in power systems toward power loss minimization

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a smart coordinated allocation of distributed generation (DG) units, shunt-connected capacitors (SC), and static VAR compensators (SVC) for power loss minimization. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming and is solved using a BONMIN solver embedded in General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). The proposed method’s evaluation was performed on the IEEE 33-bus test system, where three cases were discussed. GAMS/BONMIN was used to find optimal locations and power outputs of DGs in the first case. Simulation results, in this case, showed that losses were reduced by 48.42% with one DG unit, 58.58% with two DG units, and 65.44% with three optimally allocated DG units. In the second case, the proposed method was used to coordinate DGs and SCs, while in the third case, coordinated allocation of DG and SVC was investigated. The results showed that SC/SVC coordination further reduces active power losses. With three SCs allocated, the reduction in the active power losses was 93.5% compared to the base case, and 82.18% compared to losses in the case where only 3 DGs are connected, while in the case of three SVC allocated, it was 93.85% compared to the base case, and 82.21% compared to the case where 3 DGs are connected. The second and third cases also showed that the coordination of SC/SVC leads to an improved voltage profile, where the bus voltages are close to the acceptable range, and voltage fluctuation is significantly reduced. The comparison between different non-linear programming solvers embedded in GAMS for solving optimal power flow was also presented.