Optimal placement and sizing of multi-type FACTS devices in power systems using metaheuristic optimisation techniques: An updated review

Abstract The growth of demand, the need for economic efficiency and optimal utilisation of electric power networks and the high cost of construction of new power networks result in inevitable challenges, such as overloading and excessive power transfer along transmission lines, high losses, voltage instability, low power quality, reliability problems and voltage profile problems. To manage the power transmission system, the recently developed Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) can be used for electric transmission networks since it plays an important role in enhancing the static and dynamic performance of power systems. However, location, type and capacity of FACTS devices should be optimised to maximise the resulting benefits. In this paper, different types of FACTS devices are discussed along with their modelling and functions. In addition, the proposed and the compared techniques and approaches in the existing research works, such as analytic approaches, arithmetic programming methods, meta-heuristic optimisation techniques and hybrid methods, are discussed. Analytic approaches have insufficient computation accuracy in determining optimal allocation of FACTS devices and arithmetic programming approaches are often inefficient in managing constrained optimisation problems. However, meta-heuristic approaches are stochastic, population-based optimisation algorithms that are highly efficient in dealing with a multimodal, highly constrained, multi-objective and discrete system. Meta-heuristic techniques are the most commonly used methodologies to determine the optimal allocation of FACTS devices. Furthermore, the utilisation of analytic methods or classical optimisation approaches with meta-heuristic optimisation techniques plays an important role in reducing the search space of the proposed meta-heuristic optimisation technique. In the present paper, an overall review of 50 recent research work studies, including proposed and compared approaches and techniques, objective functions, approaches, the utilised FACTS devices, constraints, contingency conditions and all the analysed and simulated parameters, is provided and discussed in details. In addition, a more weighted discussion of the proposed methods based on meta-heuristic optimisation techniques is provided.