Voltage Regulation and Loss Minimization in Reconfigured Distribution Systems with Capacitors and OLTC in the Presence of PV Penetration

Optimal reactive power management is one of the key operational aspects for efficient planning of distribution system. This study has become more challenging with renewable energy sources integration into the system. Objective of this paper is to address optimal reactive power planning in distribution system using hybrid optimization. This paper presents a comprehensive model for solving capacitor allocation, PV penetration and feeder reconfiguration simultaneously. The objective function considered in this paper includes cost of capacitor, PV and energy loss. The proposed work includes: (i) capacitor allocation using ant lion optimization, (ii) capacitor rating determination using general algebraic modeling system, (iii) reconfiguration of distribution system using genetic algorithm, (iv) investigated different case studies to realize the impact of various load models and load growth factors on reactive power compensation and network reconfiguration, (v) real-time procedure to determine rating of capacitor banks for practical distribution systems, (vi) reactive power dispatch for realistic time-varying load model considering coordination among capacitors, on-load tap changer and photo-voltaic (PV) penetration. The analysis is carried out considering uncertainty of load demand and PV power generation. The proposed methodology is implemented on IEEE 33-bus distribution system and real-time existing Indian distribution network to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed methodology. It is observed that voltage-dependent load models have a significant impact on system performance and rating of capacitor banks. The proposed strategy ensures optimal solution compared to other existing techniques.