Voltage/VAR Control with Reactive Power Injection in Distribution Networks using a Proper Metaheuristic Approach

Abstract

The paper propose a proper approach to the voltage/VAR control problem in distribution systems. Our approach splits the problem in two important tasks and solves them sequentially. The first aspects aim to identify the optimal control of the voltage in all buses, and the second deals with reactive power injections by the capacitors allocation problem. Both of them was solved using a metaheuristic approach, a modified Bat Algorithm and use voltage drop index and power losses minimization as objective functions. The feasibility of the recommended method was tested using a real Romanian distribution grid and the results achieved in MATLAB environment was compared with another two inspired algorithms i.e. the genetic algorithm and fireworks. All this results confirm the efficiency and robustness of our proper modified metaheuristic algorithm with increased efficacy both for diminishing the real losses and voltage profile amelioration in real distribution grids, in accordance also with the energy savings.