A heuristic multi-objective approach with trade off/risk analysis issues for passive harmonic filters planning I. Problem formulation and solution algorithm

Distribution system planners have frequently to choose among different solutions either in deterministic framework or under problem data uncertainty. In these conditions, adequate methods are needed to choose the optimal solution. This paper refers to electrical distribution systems with static converters and formulates the planning problem of passive filtering systems as a multi-objective optimization problem. A heuristic simplified approach including tradeoff/risk analysis issues is proposed to solve the problem with the aim of optimizing several objectives and meeting proper equality and inequality constraints. The approach is able to quickly find solutions on the Pareto frontier that can help the Decision Maker in selecting the final planning alternative to be practically operated. Both deterministic and uncertain frameworks are taken into account. This paper is a companion paper to a paper of the same title, Part II [1], in which the proposed approach is applied on a 17-busbars distribution test system.