Assessing Wind Turbines Placement in a Distribution Market Environment by Using Particle Swarm Optimization

A hybrid optimization method for optimal allocation of wind turbines (WTs) that combines particle swarm optimization (PSO) and market-based optimal power flow (OPF) with security constraints is proposed in this paper. The method maximizes the net present value (NPV) associated with WTs investment in a distribution market environment. The PSO is used to choose the optimal size while the market-based OPF to determine the optimal number of WTs at each candidate bus. The stochastic nature of both load demand and wind power generation is modeled by hourly time series analysis considering different combinations of wind generation and load demand. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated with an 84-bus 11.4-kV radial distribution system.