A novel approach for Optimal Capacitor location and sizing in Unbalanced Radial Distribution Network for loss minimization

A novel approach for investigating the problem of both choosing the optimal location and size of shunt capacitors in three-phase unbalanced radial distribution network (URDN) for loss minimization has been presented in this paper. There are two parts in the main objective function formulated: One, the cost related to capacitor purchase, capacitor installation and the other, cost of energy loss. This paper addresses the problem of choosing optimal locations and sizes for shunt capacitors in unbalanced radial distribution network with two algorithms: One, the capacitor placement node identification algorithm for selecting the best locations of capacitor placement, and another the variational technique algorithm for the sizing of capacitors, as per the standard size availability of capacitors. The objective function used in this paper aims at maximizing the net savings in the unbalanced radial distribution network by optimal capacitor placement and sizing. The results obtained with the proposed methodology for 25-bus and IEEE 37-bus Unbalanced Radial Distribution networks demonstrate its applicability.