Particle Swarm Optimization Based Capacitor Placement on Radial Distribution Systems

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 particle swarm optimization respectively. The concept of loss sensitivity factors and can be considered as the new contribution in the area of distribution systems. 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. particle swarm optimization is well applied and found to be very effective in radial distribution systems. The proposed method is tested on 10,15, 34, 69 and 85 bus distribution systems.