Comparison of PSO models for optimal placement and sizing of Statcom

Voltage profile has been a major concern for power system utilities because of several events of voltage collapse in the recent past. Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices are increasingly used to improve voltage profile and power fl ow control in many utilities. However, owing to the considerable cost of FACTS devices involved, it is important to find the optimal location and sizing of these devices in a power system to obtain maximum benefits of these devices. For finding optimal location and sizing of Statcom in a power system, this paper investigates the application of various models of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. To compare the performance of various PSO algorithms, these were implemented for optimal location and sizing of Statcom for voltage profile improvement in a benchmark 5-bus system. Out of various PSO models: classical PSO, PSO time varying inertia weight (PSOTVIW), PSO random inertia weight (PSO-RANDIW) and PSO-Time varying acceleration coefficients (PSO-TVAC), PSO-TVAC model is found to be superior in terms of computation speed and quality of solution.