Optimal Placement of Capacitor in Radial Distribution System Using Real Coded Genetic Algorithm

Capacitors in power systems are generally used to supply reactive power to reduces losses and improvement of the voltage profile.The appropriate placement of capacitors is also important to ensure that system power losses and total capacitor costs can be reduced. This paper presents a new constraint objective cost function to maximize the net annual savings by minimizing real power loss and optimizing the purchase cost of shunt capacitors while maintaining a better node voltage profile of the system.Here two steps solution methodology i.e. loss sensitivity factors for identification of candidate buses to place the capacitors and real coded genetic algorithm to determine the value of optimal capacitor have been adopted.The effectiveness of the proposed method has been tested on 33-bus IEEE standard radial distribution system.Result shows that after placement of capacitor in candidate buses the energy loss hasbeen reduced.