Application of Tabu Search for Optimal Placement and Sizing of Distributed Generation for Loss Reduction

This paper presents the optimal and sizing of distributed generation (DG) placement in a radial distribution system for loss reduction. The main emphasis of this paper is to identify proper locations for installing DGs in a distribution system to reduce active power loss and improve bus voltages. Nevertheless, proper placement and sizing of DG units are not straightforward to be identified as a number of their positions and capacities need to be determined. It is therefore proposed in this paper to solve a DG placement problem based on a Tabu search algorithm. The objective function of the problem is to minimize the system loss subject to power flow constraints, bus voltage limits, pre specified number of DGs, and their allowable total installed capacity, and only one distributed generator for one installation position. The effectiveness of the methodology is demonstrated by a practical sized distribution system consisting of 69 bus and 48 load points. The results show that the optimal DG placement and sizing can be identified to give the minimum power loss while respecting all the constraints.