Optimal capacitor banks allocation in distribution systems with distributed generators using antlion optimizer

This paper presents a novel optimization algorithm for solving capacitor banks (C-Bs) allocation problem with and without the existence of distributed generators (DGs). This optimization algorithm is called antlion optimizer (ALO) and it is used to identify optimal locations and sizes of C-Bs or/and DGs. The objective function is to maximize the annual net saving. The proposed optimization algorithm is tested on two standard radial distribution systems; IEEE 33-bus and IEEE 69-bus. The obtained results are getting using Matlab programming environment. They show that the proposed algorithm is effective and has the capability of achieving the maximum annual net saving in all cases of C-Bs or/and DGs allocation. Also the results depict that connecting C-Bs and DGs together to distribution systems is better than connecting one of them alone.