Capacitor Allocation Study Considering Integration of Distributed Photovoltaic (PV) Systems in Power Distribution Networks using Enhanced PSO

Current advances in renewable energy, along with the infrastructure and government regulations changes, have greatly improved the penetration of distributed generation of photovoltaic (DG PV) in the electricity distribution systems. This integration plays a crucial role in supplying contemporary electrical systems. The absence of reactive power compensation sources such as capacitors while the PVs integrate may increase total system losses and voltage-instability threats. Therefore, capacitor planning is highly required due to the intensive use of DG PV. This paper proposes an optimization of the capacitor and DG PV allocation and sizing by considering the uncertainty condition resulting from the fluctuating DG PV output. The appearance of uncertainty parameters in the problem formulation makes the load flow analysis have to be performed using the probabilistic approach. Then the losses arising from the probabilistic load flow are considered as the objective function to formulate the allocation of capacitors and DG PV problem. The installed location and sizing of the capacitor and DG PV are optimally determined using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). the output of this optimization includes the loss minimization, voltage profile enhancement, the best location and size for installation of capacitors, and DG PV.