The optimization of reactive power sources placement in public repartition and distribution systems for power quality improvement

The important changes that occurred during the last years regarding the shifting of the consumption share from high voltage (HV) to medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV), the diversification and the increase of the number of non-linear and/or non-symmetrical consumers, the removal of the reactive power sources (shunt capacitor banks - SCB) that contained polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PBC) placed in the electricity repartition and distribution systems (ERDS), etc., led to the appearance of some complex problems related to the maintaining of the quality of electricity delivered to the consumers through ERDS. Using multi-criteria optimization processes, the paper presents mathematical models, algorithms and computation software intended for the best management of the reactive power sources, both in the nodes of the electricity repartition systems (ERS) and the electricity distribution systems (EDS). Thus, either traditional algorithms or algorithms based on possibilities offered by artificial intelligence are used.