Capacitor Sizing and Placement for Optimal Power System Operation using Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

The demand of the electrical energy is ever increasing and it is desired to use the existing transmission network to its thermal stability limits. The transmission capacity can be increased by the compensation at appropriate locations. The reactive power compensation plays an important role in the planning of power system. This ensures a satisfactory voltage profile and a reduction in power and energy losses within the system. Reactive power also maximizes the real power transmission capability of transmission lines, while minimizing the cost of compensation. In this thesis, the reactive compensation of power system is attempted using the shunt capacitors. The optimal location and sizing of shunt capacitors is attempted using GA, which is a search technique based on the principles of genetics and natural selection. The GA allows a population composed of many individuals to evolve under specified selection rules to state that maximizes the “fitness”. The loss minimization is considered on the objective function in the optimization problem. The program is developed to decide the size and location on the basis of minimization of system loss. It is tested for IEEE-30 bus system. The results are also obtained by fixing the number of capacitors.