Conference Proceedings

Abstract

The optimal capacitor placement problem involves determination of the location, number, type and sizes of capacitor to be placed in a distribution system in the most efficient manner. The main objective of optimal capacitor allocation is to reduce the peak power losses of the system while striving to minimize the cost of the capacitors in the system. This paper describes an approach to minimize the active losses in electrical distribution systems with the help of the optimal capacitor bank placement. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique along with the gradient method is employed in order to have the perfect placement of the Capacitor Banks. We have used the gradient method along with the metaheuristic so as to accelerate the convergence of the ACO algorithm. The optimization algorithm described here has been applied successfully in two real systems. Results obtained by simulation of real systems, are presented to validate the proposed solution method.