Profit-Based DG Planning Considering Environmental and Operational Issues: A Multiobjective Approach

In this paper, a methodology is presented to find the optimal size, location and technology of distributed generation (DG) units considering economic, technical, and environmental issues simultaneously. This technique can be implemented to both renewable and nonrenewable DGs. From economic perspective, minimizing cost and maximizing profit are investigated separately and compared with each other. In addition, from technical and environmental viewpoints, a complete set of indices are defined. In order to find the optimal solution, multiobjective particle swarm optimization, and fuzzy decision-making techniques are utilized. Furthermore, to evaluate the proposed method more accurately, two scenarios are defined. In fact, the first scenario, which is only based on cost minimization and technical objective functions, plays an introductory role for better comprehension of the second scenario. In the second scenario, which includes the presentation of the methodologies of this paper, the effect of selecting either profit maximization or cost minimization as an economic objective function along with the minimization of technical and environmental objective functions are precisely investigated. By carrying out the simulations on the IEEE 33-bus distribution test system, it is concluded that the cost-based framework is not the most profitable one, whereas the profit-based one may well lead to a more appropriate result from economic viewpoints.