Optimal Placement of DG to Improve the Reliability of Distribution Systems Considering Time Varying Loads using Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents determination of optimum size and location of distributed generators (DGs) for reliability improvement of distribution systems in the presence of time varying loads using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The main innovation of this paper is considering of the annual load duration curve for determination of size and location of DGs for reliability improvement. For this purpose, a load duration curve, including four load levels with different weighting factor is considered. For reliability assessment, the customer-oriented reliability indices such as SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIDI, ASUI and also load- and energy-oriented indices such as ENS are evaluated. In this paper, the effects of system reconfiguration and load shedding are also considered for reliability improvement. The best size and location of DGs in distribution systems are determined based on different reliability indices, separately. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is examined on a standard distribution system consisting of 33 nodes, and comparative studies are conducted in the different cases to investigate the impacts of optimal DGs placement and its size determination on reliability improvement. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed method for reliability improvement.