Capacitor placement in distribution systems for power loss reduction and voltage improvement: a new methodology

For compensating reactive power, shunt capacitors are often installed in electrical distribution networks. Consequently, in such systems, power loss reduces, voltage profile improves and feeder capacity releases. However, finding optimal size and location of capacitors in distribution networks is a complex combinatorial optimisation problem. In such problem, an objective function which is usually defined based on power losses and capacitor installation costs should be minimised subject to operational limitations. In this study, a newly developed metaheuristic technique, named crow search algorithm (CSA), is proposed for finding the optimal placement of the capacitors in a distribution network. CSA is a population-based technique inspired by the greedy behaviour of crows in finding better food sources. The main reasons of using CSA are its easy implementation, few parameters to adjust, fast convergence speed and high efficiency. In the case studies, simulated results indicate that the proposed CSA produces more accurate results than the other studied search methods.