Allocation of Reactive Power with Capacitor Bank Placement Considering the Use of Nonlinear Loads Using Particle Swarm Optimization

The bus voltage level on each bus in the distribution system (DS) is greatly influenced by the presence of reactive power (Q). Under voltage conditions can occur if the system lacks a Q value. Capacitor banks are the most effective solution in overcoming this problem. However, it can have a negative effect if the location and size to be placed is not optimal. The use of nonlinear loads can generate the spread of harmonic distortion and resonance can occur in the placement of capacitor banks. This research is the effect of optimizing reactive power allocation from the placement and size of capacitor banks considering the spread of harmonic distortion using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) which is validated on the ULP (subdistrict) Sungguminasa 165-bus DS based on MATLAB 2018b programming. Minimizing the %THDv and losses values is the objective function of the optimization process carried out in several case studies. Placing 4 capacitor units in case 4 with a total capacity of 1217 kVAr is able to reduce total losses by up to 3.14% or 12.24 kW, reduce the average %THDv value up to 0.566% and increase the average bus voltage level up to 0.254%.