Optimal allocation of capacitor banks in radial distribution systems for minimization of real power loss and maximization of network savings using bio-inspired optimization algorithms

In this paper, two new algorithms are implemented to solve optimal placement of capacitors in radial distribution systems in two ways that is, optimal placement of fixed size of capacitor banks (Variable Locations Fixed Capacitor banks-VLFQ) and optimal sizing and placement of capacitors (Variable Locations Variable sizing of Capacitors-VLVQ) for real power loss minimization and network savings maximization. The two bio-inspired algorithms Bat Algorithm (BA) and Cuckoo Search (CS): search for all possible locations in the system along with the different sizes of capacitors, in which the optimal sizes of capacitor are chosen to be standard sizes that are available in the market. To check the feasibility, the proposed algorithms are applied on standard 34 and 85 bus radial distribution systems. And the results are compared with results of other methods like Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Harmonic Search (HS), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) and Plant Growth Simulation Algorithm (PGSA), as available in the literature. The proposed approaches are capable of producing high-quality solutions with good performance of convergence. The entire simulation has been developed in MATLAB R2010a software.