Placement of Fault Current Limiters in a Power System Through a Two-Stage Optimization Approach

With the sustainable growth in the number of new power plants and scale of transmission systems, the probability of the current exceeding the short-circuit rating of circuit breakers increases. A fault current limiter (FCL), which can be used to reduce current surges, has attracted considerable attention from utilities. However, the appropriate placement of FCLs in a power system for obtaining the most effective cost-to-benefit solution is crucial. This paper proposes a two-stage placement approach, where Stage I combines the hierarchical fuzzy logic decision (HFLD) method and Hashing-integrated generic algorithm (HIGA). The HFLD method is used for sorting feasible solutions, and the HIGA determines an optimal FCL placement in the reduced search space. Particle swarm optimization is then employed in Stage II for optimizing the FCL parameters. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach in solving the optimal FCL placement problem, the method is verified using the IEEE 30-bus system and system of a manufacturing factory in Taiwan. The numerical results show that the proposed method achieves a favorable solution in a short time with fewer placements of FCLs.