A Fuzzy Approach for Placement of Capacitors with Considering Harmonic Distortions

This paper presents a fuzzy-based approach for the placement of capacitor banks in a harmonics-polluted distribution system. In the problem the objective function is the total system power loss, while the constraints are the RMS voltage and the total harmonic voltage distortion (THDv) limits at each bus, as well as the limit of the available capacitor units to be placed. In the study the system power loss, the bus RMS voltage, the THDv at each bus, and the capacitor site suitability are modeled as fuzzy membership functions. A useful solution algorithm is then proposed to find the best capacitor locations by testing an actual distribution system. Numerical experiences show that the proposed method yields favorable results for the capacitor placement problem.