An integrated approach for power loss reduction in primary distribution system

Power loss reduction is issue of main concern to the network operators. Various techniques such as capacitor placement, network reconfiguration and DG placement are considered to minimize the distribution system losses. DG and capacitor placement in the presence of network reconfiguration may rejoice optimal benefit in terms of loss reduction, voltage improvement, network up-gradation cost deferral, etc. Therefore, in this paper, various combinations of methods for power loss reduction are considered. It is concluded that simultaneous placement and sizing of DG and capacitor in the presence of network reconfiguration is most optimal combination. The mixed integer non-linear optimization problem of simultaneous placement of DG and capacitor units in the presence of network reconfiguration is solved. Due to its non-convex nature, this Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) problem is solved using Harmony Search algorithm. The proposed formulation is tested on IEEE 33-bus distribution system. Loss reduction with capacitor, DG and network reconfiguration is compared with the independent placement of DG, capacitor, and network reconfiguration options. Power loss reduction and flat voltage profile with lesser computational time proves the importance of integrated model.