Application of hybrid multiagent-based particle swarm optimization to optimal reactive power dispatch

Reactive power dispatch (RPD) is an optimization problem that determines variables, such as reactive power outputs of generators, output of shunt capacitors/reactors, etc., and minimizes the transmission losses, satisfying a given set of constraints. To solve the optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD), this article proposes a new method, called hybrid multiagent-based particle swarm optimization, which does not allow the search to struck at local optima and search in different zones of the search space. Simulation results show that the proposed approach converges to better solutions faster than the earlier approaches when evaluated on IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems.