A novel population-based optimization algorithm for optimal distribution capacitor planning

Optimal distribution capacitor planning is an important task for economic operation of power systems. The optimal distribution capacitor planning is a combinatorial optimization problem which considers both power losses and cost of capacitor installation subject to bus voltage constraints. Discrete nature of capacitors, different load are considered in the problem formulation. This paper presents a novel reliable and efficient algorithm based on biogeography-based optimization technique for the solution of capacitor placement problem. Biogeography-based optimization technique is inspired by geographical distribution of biological organisms. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated on a sample test system. The results obtained by the proposed methods are compared with other methods. The results show that the proposed technique is capable of producing comparable results.