Optimal capacitor placement and sizing in radial distribution system using an improved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm

Locate and determine the optimal capacity shunt capacitors in to reduce power losses and improve voltage profile and use the maximum capacity of transmission lines, one of the common problems in the design and control of power systems. Shunt capacitors are used to power loss reduction and improving voltage profile in order to utilize maximum capacity of transfer lines. This paper proposed a novel method, Improved Particle Swarm Optimization (IPSO), to placement capacitor in radial distribution systems. This approach has used a combination of shuffled Frog-leaping algorithm (SFLA) and particle swarm algorithm (PSO). The objective function is combination of the power losses cost and the cost of installing capacitors, to determine the location and optimal size of capacitors and constraint including minimum and maximum voltage limitations. The simulation applied on a 34-bus distribution network, and compared with existing methods. The effectiveness of the suggested approach is in power losses and total cost reduction as well.