A proposed strategy for capacitor allocation in radial distribution feeders

Abstract

A new strategy for capacitor allocation in radial distribution systems is presented in this paper. This strategy adds a new constraint to the well-known constraint (allowed voltage violation). The new constraint is the sectional ohmic loss in each branch of the feeder. Sizes and locations of the capacitors are selected in order to achieve the maximum reduction in the total losses in the system. Sometimes this reduction is not achieved in all the branches but the loss in any individual branch of the system is not allowed to increase than it was before the capacitor placement. The proposed strategy is applied to two different distribution systems with 9 and 34-buses respectively. The results of the proposed strategy are compared with previous works. The comparison showed the validity and the superiority of this strategy.