Hybrid Grey Wolf Optimizer Based Optimal Capacitor Placement in Radial Distribution Systems

The problem of optimal capacitor placement (OCP), or the determination of both the optimal bus locations and sizes in radial distribution systems (RDS) has been solved in this article using a new metaheuristic algorithm named as the hybrid grey wolf optimizer (HGWO). The grey wolf optimizer (GWO) is hybridized with the addition of mutation and crossover, to create the hybrid grey wolf optimizer (HGWO). The enhanced performance of the HGWO has been proved by comparison of the solutions and the convergence curves of GWO and HGWO. The objective of the OCP problem-a discrete, non-convex optimization problem-is minimization of the cost of capacitor installations and total real power loss. The proposed HGWO approach has been applied to solve the IEEE 34-, 69-, 119 bus RDSs and a practical 22-bus RDS. Comparisons of the results obtained against those reported in the literature show that the HGWO performs very well, and hence is a highly suitable optimization approach for solving OCP problems.