OPTIMAL CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS USING DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach that determines the optimal location and size of capacitors on radial distribution systems to improve voltage profile and reduce the active power loss. Capacitor placement & sizing are done by Loss Sensitivity Factors and Differential Evolution respectively. Loss Sensitivity Factors offer the important information about the sequence of potential nodes for capacitor placement. These factors are determined using single base case load flow study. Differential Evolution is well applied and found to be very effective in Radial Distribution Systems for capacitor placement. The proposed method has been successfully implemented on IEEE 10, 15, 34, 69 and 85 bus radial distribution systems.