Optimal Capacitor Placement Size and Location
of Shunt Capacitor for Reduction of Losses on
Distribution Feeders
T. Samimi Asl* and S. Jamali**
*Estern Azarbayjan Electric Power Distribution co, (Iran), tag_asl@yahoo.com
** Iran university of science and technology (Iran), sjamali@iust.ac.ir
Abstract--The problem of choosing optimal location and
sizes for shunt capacitor in distribution systems is
addressed. The objective of the capacitor placement
procedure is not only to minimize the power losses along
distribution feeders, but also help in maintaining the voltage
profile within acceptable limits. the amount of benefit that
can be reaped by placing the capacitors depend mainly on
how the capacitors are placed on the distribution system.
Abstract-- This work propose a new method, based on
evolutionary algorithms, capable of solving large network
instances that appear in real-word settings. Our
evolutionary approach makes use of a memetic algorithm
that employs a hierarchical organization of the population
in overlapping clusters. This structure leads to special
selection and reproduction schemes, which improve the
algorithms overall performance. This method was tested on
a practical radial distribution network with 13 IEEE buses
and the results have been presented.
Index Terms-- Distribution systems, Capacitor allocation,
power losses, memetic algorithm
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy is continuously dissipated in electric power
systems owing to electrical resistance in transmission and
distribution to 70% of the total losses[1]. Capacitor are
widely used in such networks to reduce reactive losses
due to the inductive reactive portion of the line loading.
There are other benefical effects from the application of
capacitors such as power-factor correction, Power flow
control and improvement of stability. However, the extent
of these benefits greatly depends on how the capacitor are
located on the feeder network and also their sizes.
Mathematically, the capacitor placement problem(CPP)
can be formulated as a nonlinear mixed-integer
optimization problem where the objective function
consists of minimizing the power losses and investment
costs.
In this paper, The work reported in will be extended to
the more general case of the three unbalanced operation.
Several distribution feeders are known to have line
sections carrying a mixture of single, double or three
phase loads. Such systems as well as those having full
three phase but unbalanced loads can be studied using the
presented method in this paper. This work presents a new
approach based on a genetic algorithm(GA) for solving
the PCC. Its main contributions are the use of a memetic
type of GA, where a local search phase is added to the
978-1-4244-2544-0/08/$20.00 ©2009 IEEE
GA, and in the use of a hierarchical organization of the
population in overlapping clusters leading to special
selection and reproduction schemes. The method is
capable of performing capacitor placement studies in larg
distribution systems. Finding near-optimal solution in
short running time.
II. MEMETIC-ALGORITHM APPROACH
MAs are population-based methods that can be taken
as an extension of genetic algorithms(GA). The main
difference between a GA and the MA implemented in this
paper is that the latter includes a local search procedure,
applied on the best individual at the end of every
generation.
The memetic algorithm flowchart is shown in Fig.1.
The representation chosen for the CPP uses a
chromosome divided into two separated parts. The alleles
of the first part can only assume binary values, coding the
candidate locations status(the section of the feeders). If
the allele in position i equals 1, it means that a capacitor
should be placed in the ith feeder section, otherwise not.
The second part is composed of integer values, indexing
the capacitor size. Both parts of the chromosome have n
positions, where n is the number of sections of the feeder.
Fig.2, shows an example of a solution for a feeder with
six sections. Using the indexes defined in table 1. Fig. 2
shows that sections 2, 4 and 5 will receive capacitors with
sizes 300, 150 and 600 kvar, respectively. The other
sections will not receive any capacitor because their
correspondent alleles in the first part of the chromosome
are set to zero[2].
0 1 0 1 1 0 3 2 1 1 4 2
Sections capacitor size
Fig.2 The chromosome is divided in to two parts
III. 3- PROBLEM FORMULATION
The objective function in (1) is an overall cost relating
to power loss and capacitor placement [3]. Equation (2)
shown voltage magnitude at each bus, which must be
maintained between its minimum and maximum voltage
limits.
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 TABLE. 1:
AVAILABLE THREE-PHASE CAPACITOR SIZES
Where Qic is the reactive power compensated at bus i.
Cost($/kvar) Size(kVar) index
IV. 4-SOLUTION METHODOLOGY
75 150 1 The shunt capacitor placement and sizing problem in
97.5 300 2 the presence of linear and nonlinear loads is an
optimization problem in the with discrete
114 450 3 variables(discret values of capacitors). The algorithm
genetic problem steps as follows.
132 600 4
Step1) Input system parameters(line Andload
165 900 5 specifications and system topology)
Step2) Creating the initial population, The
204 1200 6 population utilized in this work the hierarchical structure.
Step3) Calculate power flow.
Step4) Compute the objective function constraints, and
n
COST k ( K P PT , LOSS  ¦ K ic Q ic ) (1) losses.
i 1 Step5) Calculate optimize populations.
V min d Vi d V mox (2) Step6) Apply crossover and mutation
To find offsprings.
Where K P 168 is equivalent annual cost per unit of Step7) If maximum crossover is reached go to 8
otherwise go to 2.
power loss in $/(kW-year), K i is the annual capacitor
Step8) If maximum generation reached go to 9
installation cost liseted in table 1, and i= 1,2, …,n are otherwise go to 1.
the indices of buses selected for compensation. Step 9) End.
The following set of recursive equation is used for
power flow computation. V. 5. SIMULATION RESULTS
( Pi 2  Qi2 ) The proposed genetic algorithm for capacitor
Pi 1 Pi  PLi 1  Ri ,i 1 . (3) placement and sizing were applied to the 4.16 kv, 13–bus
Vi 2 IEEE distribution system(Fig 3). Simulation results are
( Pi 2  Qi2 ) compared in Table 2.
Qi 1 Qi  QLi 1  X i ,i 1 . 2
(4) The IEEE 13-bus network is investigated and the
Vi results are used to compare the network with and without
2 2 Pi2 Qi2 capacitors. The proposed genetic algorithm optimization
Vi1 Vi 2 Ri,i1.Pi  Xi,i1.Qi  Ri2,i1  Xi2,i1 2
(5) approach has been implemented by using the MATLAB
Vi
software. The simulations are run using the three phase
where Pi and Qi are the real and reactive power unbalanced IEEE 13-bus test system shown in Figure3.
The application 13 bus IEEE test feeder is a 4.16kV, 13-
flowing out of bus i, and PLi and Q Li are the real and section feeder system. Detail of the feeder and the load
reactive load powers at bus i. Ri.i 1 and X i ,i 1 are the characteristics are given in [4]. The equivalent annual
resistance and reactance of the line section between buses cost per unit of power loss, K P 168($ / kw  year) and
i and i+1, respectively. The power loss of the line section the limits on the bus voltage are Vmin 0.95 p.u. and
connecting buses i and i+1 computed as equation (6). Vmax 1.05 p.u. . Available capacitor sizes with the
P  Q2
2
corresponding annual costs are listed in Table1. The
PLoss i, i  1 Ri ,i 1 . i 2 i (6)
Vi results for capacitor finding are listed in Table 3.
Figures5, 6 and 7 show voltage profiles after and before
The total power loss of the feeder is calculated by capacitor installation. Figures 8, 9 and 10 shows current
summing up the losses of all line sections of the feeder, profiles after and before capacitor installation. The best
The total power loss equation defined by (7). solution from this algorithm gave a cost function value of
$68576. This converts in to a cost saving of $33454
n 1
PT , Loss ¦ PLoss i, i  1 (7) when compared to a bare system without any capacitors.
i 0

The bus reactive compensation power is equation (8).

n
Q ic d ¦ Q Li (8)
i 1

224
 buses voltage curves (phase3)
1.1
after capacitor
before capacitor

1.05

voltage(pu)
0.95

0.9

0.85

0.8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
buses number

Fig. 7: Voltage profile before and after install of capacitor in phase3

buses current curves (phase1)
700
after capacitor
Fig.3: Network diagram for the 13-bus test system befor capacitor

600
4 cost function curve
x 10
6.88

500

6.875

400

current(A)
6.87
300
cost($/yr)

200
6.865

100

6.86
X: 30
Y: 6.858e+004
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
buses number

6.855
5 10 15 20 25 30
generation
Fig. 8: Current profile before and after install of capacitor in phase1
Fig. 4: Cost of function curves
buses current curves (phase2)
buses voltage curves (phase1) 700
1.1
after capacitor
after capacitor before capacitor
before capacitor
600

1.05

500

400
current(A)
voltage(pu)

0.95
300

0.9
200

0.85 100

0
0.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 buses number
buses number

Fig. 5: Voltage profile before and after install of capacitor in phase1 Fig. 9: Current profile before and after install of capacitor in phase2
buses voltage curves (phase2)
1.1 buses current curves (phase3)
700
after capacitor
befor capacitor

1.05 600

500
1

400
voltage(pu)

current(A)

0.95

300

0.9

200

0.85
100

0.8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
buses number
buses number

Fig. 6: Voltage profile before and after install of capacitor in phase2 Fig. 10: Current profile before and after install of capacitor in phase3

225
 TABLE 2 REFERENCES
COMPUTATIONAL COSTS
Votage [1] S. Sundarajan and A. Pahwa, “Optimal Selection of Capacitors for
Votage Radial Distribution System Using a Gnetic Algorithm,” IEE
Cost Losses
Maximum Minimum Trans. On power systems Vol. 9, No. 3, August 1994.
($) (kw) Condition [2] A. Mendes, P. M. Franca, C. Lyra, C. Pissarra and C. Cavelluci,
(p.u.) (p.u.) "Capacitor Placement in Large-Sized Radial Distribution
Networks", IEE Procceding. Generation. Transmision.
Before Capacitor
102030 232.94 1.05 0.90 Distribution. Vol. 152. No. 4, July 2005.
Instalation [3] J. Pyng Chung, C. Fu Chang, C. Tzong Su,"Ant Direction Hybrid
Differential Evolution for Solving Large Capacitor Placement
After Capacitor Problems" , IEEE. Transaction on power system, Vol, 19, No,4,
68576 155.32 1.05 0.96 NOV, 2004.
Instalation [4] IEEE Distribution Planning Working Group Report, "Radial
Distribution Test Feeders", IEEE Trans. On Power Systems,
Losses August 1991, Volume 6, Number 3, pp 975-985.
- 77.62 - -
Reduction

TABLE. 3
CAPACITOR PLACEMENT RESULTS
7 6 4 3 Bus no.

450 1200 450 450 Capacitor (kVAr)

Fig. 1 Procedure of the proposed method

226