Solution to the deterministic and stochastic Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch by integration of solar, wind-hydro powers using Modified Artificial Hummingbird Algorithm

Abstract

In electrical power networks, the optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) problem is essential to the system studies to perform reliable and secure operations by maintaining the control variable within their permissible limits. An electric network consisting of thermal generators has been studied widely for optimal power dispatch problems. Increasing renewable energy resources (RERs) penetration into the electric power grid required power flow studies while integrating these resources. It is a strenuous task to incorporate renewable energy resources into the ORPD problem due to the stochastic nature of RERs. This paper solved the stochastic optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) problem considering the uncertainties of renewable resources such as; solar PV, wind turbine, and hydropower generation systems. The time-varying load demand and the power generated from the renewable energy resources are represented using the normal, the lognormal, the Weibull, and the Gumbel probability density function (PDFs). Then, the Monte Carlo simulations reduction of scenarios-based technique is applied to generate a suitable number of scenarios. The second contribution presents an efficient version of the Artificial Hummingbird Algorithm (MAHA) for solving the Stochastic and Non-Stochastic ORPD. The proposed MAHA is based on the levy flight motion and the distance bandwidth motion around the best solution to enhance the exploration and exploitation behavior of the traditional AHA to avoid trapping into the local minima. The proposed algorithm is validated and tested on the IEEE 30-bus system for active power loss reduction, voltage profile improvement, and voltage stability enhancement. The results showed the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed MAHA for solving the ORPD problem compared to the well-known conventional algorithms such as AHA, GWO, SCA, DO, BWO and other state-of-the-art algorithms.