Study of the Application of Evolutionary Algorithms for the Solution of Capacitor Deployment Problem in Distribution Systems

Capacitor placement in the distribution system has been considered as the best measure to improve voltage profile and power factor. Genetic algorithm (GA) as one of the evolutionary algorithms has been employed to come up with an optimal number of capacitors and location in the distribution system. The method was chosen due to its robustness and its ability to handle many practical constraints and explore all possible combinations on the solutions set, and find optimal solution at reasonable amount of computation time. The discrete nature of the sizes of capacitors and other physical aspects of a distribution system lead to difficulties in the use of conventional algorithms. By deploying appropriate value of capacitors at suitable locations in the distribution systems, the losses can be reduced and hence obtain minimum total operational cost. The standard IEEE Node 13 Test Feeder is the example used to demonstrate the feasibility of the technique.