Optimal Capacitor Placement in Distribution Networks Using Genetic Algorithm

One of the on-going studies in the power distribution system is optimal placement of capacitors to which designers pay attention since many years ago. The most important benefit of capacitor placement is loss reduction, voltage profi le improvement, increment of power factor and freeing up the power system capacity. This paper presents a new approach for capacitor allocation in a sample distribution system. The problem formulation considers most of effective parameters in the capacitorinstallation. One of the distinguished characteristics of the implementation of the Genetic Algorithm for optimal capacitor placement in distribution system is its multifunction capability. The proposed method on capacitor placement and detecting optimumcapacitance has been implemented and tested in a 9 -bus IEEE sample network in DIGSILENT and MATLAB environments.