OPTIMAL LOCATION OF VOLTAGE REGULATORS IN RADIAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS

Abstract—. In rural power systems, the automatic voltage regulators help to reduce energy losses and to improve the energy quality of electric utilities, compensating the voltage drops through distribution lines. The use of automatic voltage regulators is constrained, especially in developing countries, due to their elevated investment cost. In order to help electric companies (utilities) in the decision making process, this paper presents a method to define the number of voltage regulators and their optimal position in radial networks. The bi-objective task is based on the minimization of an individual penalty objective function, considering the voltage deviations and energy losses in the network. The optimization program is formulated as Genetic Algorithm problem. Keywords— Optimization methods, Voltage regulators, Power distribution, Voltage control, Losses, Genetic algorithms. 1 NOMENCLATURE BE NVR : Benefit Index for each NVR case gulator V j Re ∆ : Voltage variation of each regulator

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