Application of genetic algorithm to optimal reactive power dispatch including voltage-dependent load models

This paper presents an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) to solve optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) including static voltage-dependent load models. The parameters of GA, mutation probability, crossover and coding technique, are improved to make GA a practical algorithm in the optimization of real-life large scale power systems. The results of ORPD by IGA are compared with the results obtained using a conventional gradient-based optimization method. The comparison shows that GA is better than the conventional method in solving ORPD problem