An intelligent optimization technique for performance improvement in radial distribution network

PurposeThe demand for electricity supply increases day by day due to the rapid growth in the number of industries and consumer devices. The electric power supply needs to be improved by properly arranging distributed generators (DGs). The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for optimum placement of DGs using novel algorithms that leads to loss minimization.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, a novel hybrid optimization is proposed to minimize the losses and improve the voltage profile. The hybridization of the optimization is done through the crow search (CS) algorithm and the black widow (BW) algorithm. The CS algorithm is used for finding some tie-line systems, DG locations, and the BW algorithm is used for finding the rest of the tie-line switches, DG sizes, unlike in usual hybrid optimization techniques.FindingsThe proposed technique is tested on two large-scale radial distribution networks (RDNs), like the 119-bus radial distribution system (RDS) and the 135 RDS, and compared with normal hybrid algorithms.Originality/valueThe main novelty of this hybridization is that it shares the parameters of the objective function. The losses of the RDN can be minimized by reconfiguration and incorporating compensating devices like DGs.