A strategy for optimal loading pattern of a typical power system — A case study

This paper presents a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based algorithm to find the optimal location and setting of FACTS devices in order to improve the loading margin as well as voltage stability and small signal stability. Recently, the electric load demand has been continuously growing all over the world. The rapid increase in load demand enforces power systems to operate closer to the limits of instability. But, owing to economical and environmental restraints, the expansion of existing power system is limited. Existing power system loading margin can be enhanced by optimal placement and setting of FACTS devices to accomplish more power transfers with less network expansion cost. The objective function is formulated as maximizing the loadability of the power system with load generation balance as equality constraint as well as voltage stability, generation limit and line limit constraints as inequality constraint. A Central Travancore -15 bus practical system is taken into consideration to test the effectiveness of the proposed approach using MATLAB/PSAT environment.