Enhancing Radial Distribution Network Performance Through Network Reconfiguration and Capacitor Placement: A Comparative Study.

Significant power losses and a subpar voltage profile compromise the performance of radial distribution networks. The radial distribution system's performance can be upgraded by utilizing different techniques. The paper thoroughly analyzes two least expensive techniques--network reconfiguration and capacitor placement--for diminishing power losses and upgrading the radial distribution system's voltage profile, which boosts the system's performance. The methodology involves formulating an objective function that minimizes the overall real power loss in a radial distribution network while subject to equality and inequality requirements, which are addressed by dingo optimization algorithm for each technique. A standard IEEE 33-bus network was utilized as a test case, and simulations were performed utilizingMATLAB/SIMULINK package. The results demonstrate that network reconfiguration outperformed capacitor placement technique, with total real power loss diminishing by 36.76% versus 34.44% for capacitor placement technique. Further, the minimum voltage magnitude is compared with capacitor placement technique, which was 0.9393 pu; the least voltage magnitude compared with network reconfiguration technique was 0.9824 pu. Therefore, network reconfiguration is a smart choice for improving the efficiency of radial distribution networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]