Title: A modified harmony search algorithm applied to capacitor placement of radial distribution networks considering voltage stability index

Authors: Alireza Askarzadeh; Meysam Montazeri; Leandro Dos Santos Coelho

Addresses: Department of Energy Management and Optimization, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran ' Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran ' Industrial and Systems Engineering Graduate Program, Pontifical Catholic University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil; Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil

Abstract: In power system, capacitor placement of distribution networks is a complex combinatorial optimisation problem. In this paper, in order to effectively solve optimal capacitor placement (OCP), an aggregate harmony search (AHS) optimiser, a stochastic population-based metaheuristic algorithm, is proposed which introduces a new pitch adjustment mechanism for harmony search (HS). The objective function contains three goals: 1) minimisation of the power losses; 2) minimisation of the capacitor installation cost; 3) improvement of the voltage stability index at the weakest bus. On two case studies, 23 kV nine-section feeder and 33-bus radial system, simulation results show that the proposed AHS not only finds more accurate results than the other investigated HS variants and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) techniques but also has the best robustness. Promising performance of AHS makes this technique as an efficient alternative to solve capacitor placement problem.

Keywords: capacitor allocation; power loss; voltage stability index; aggregate harmony search; AHS.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIC.2019.099177

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, 2019 Vol.13 No.3, pp.189 - 198

Received: 15 Feb 2018
Accepted: 28 Jul 2018
Published online: 19 Apr 2019 *

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