Performance enhancement of radial distribution system using simultaneous network reconfiguration and switched capacitor bank placement

This paper presents simultaneous radial distribution network reconfiguration and switched capacitor bank allocation to enhance the performance of distribution systems. The paper primarily targets minimizing active and reactive power losses and improving the voltage profile of all buses. In the paper, network re-structuring and switched capacitor bank integration are performed to optimally allocate and size switchable capacitor banks and to select the optimal structure of the network. Additionally, a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm is incorporated for both network reconfiguration and optimal capacitor bank allocation, considering different loading condition scenarios such as light, normal and heavy load. The simulation results show that the voltage deviation and active and reactive power losses are substantially reduced for all loading scenarios when the proposed method is applied. This shows that MPSO algorithm is effective in maintaining the bus voltage profile within the allowable threshold value and in significantly minimizing the corresponding power losses. Furthermore, the performance comparison of MPSO and conventional particle swarm optimization in terms of voltage profile and active and reactive power loss has been conducted, and it has been found that the proposed method (MPSO) is more effective to enhance the performance of radial distribution systems.