Heuristic Optimization Techniques to Determine Optimal Capacitor Placement and Sizing in Radial Distribution Networks: A Comprehensive Review

Capacitors in power systems are used to supply reactive power to minimize loss and to improve the voltage profile. The appropriate placement of capacitors is also important to ensure that system power losses and total capacitor costs are minimal. The capacitor placement problem is commonly solved using heuristic optimization techniques which are diverse and have been the subject of ongoing enhancements. This paper presents a survey of the literature from the last decade that has focused on the various heuristic optimization techniques applied to determine optimal capacitor placement and size.