A Compact Genetic Algorithm structure used for the optimum allocation of power quality monitors based on electrical circuit topology

This paper presents a methodology for solving the optimum allocation problem of power quality monitors in transmission power systems. The objective function was modelled to minimize the total cost of the monitoring problem while maximizing the redundancy of measurements. The proposed approach was implemented as a non linear integer problem that is not easily solved by conventional techniques, therefore a Compact Genetic Algorithm (cGA) structure was used to solve the problem. Moreover the cGA implementation requires fewer computational resources during its execution. The appropriate constraints were deduced based on electrical circuit topology independently of the load parameters. The proposed methodology was applied to different IEEE test systems for validation.