Abstract
Increasing trend in load demand has introduced many problems in distribution systems like more line losses, low power factor, voltage fluctuations and so on. These issues have become a vital challenge for the power utilities to resolve and maintain the system under healthy conditions. For handling these issues, optimal capacitor placement (OCP) in radial distribution systems employing an optimization approach is explored in this work. The present work proposes a novel application of quasi-opposition based sine cosine algorithm for solving OCP problem. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm is verified over other algorithms using different standard benchmark test functions. For solving OCP problem, at first, the most deserving candidate buses for the OCP are identified using a new proposed sensitivity index that helps in reducing search space for the optimization process. Thereafter, by minimizing the losses and maximizing the net annual profit of the system, the optimal location and selection of the fixed-step capacitor banks are obtained. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been verified by comparing the results obtained with that of other state-of-the-art algorithms on the standard IEEE 85 bus and 118 bus radial distribution test systems considering full load and variable load scenarios.
