Improved Differential Evolution Approach for

Abstract

This paper proposes the application of Improved Differential Evolution (IDE) algorithm to solve the Voltage Stability Constrained Reactive Power Planning (VSCRPP) problem. Minimization of total cost of energy loss and cost of VAR source installments are taken as the objectives incorporating static voltage stability constraints to analyze VAR support decisions in the Reactive Power Planning (RPP) problem. The maximum L-index of the load buses is taken as the indicator of voltage stability. In the proposed approach, generator bus voltage magnitudes, transformer tap settings and reactive power generation of capacitor bank are taken as the control variables and are represented as the combination of floating point numbers and integers. DE/randSF/1/bin strategy scheme of Differential Evolution with self tuned parameter which employs binomial crossover and difference vector based mutation is used for the VSCRPP problem. The proposed VAR planning model is implemented on two typical systems, IEEE 30-bus system and IEEE 57 bus test system using Improved DE. The simulation results of the proposed optimization approach is better than Improved Genetic Algorithm (IGA) with BLX-α crossover and non uniform mutation and other conventional methods.