Methods of Simulated Annealing and Particle Swarm Applied to the Optimization of Reactive Power Flow in Electric Power Systems

Abstract

Electric power system is characterized by relatively high demand for lagging reactive power. From the economic viewpoint, reactive power sources should be installed close to its demand. Optimal compensation should ensure minimal costs of the reactive power generation and transmission within the considered system. The optimization of activities related to reactive power compensation concerns the location and power of compensation devices. This is to optimize voltage levels and reactive power flows in the system. The article presents methods of simulated annealing and particle swarm applied to solve an optimization task of the reactive power flow. It has been assumed that active power losses in a power system are the objective function.

Keywords

• optimization
• heuristic algorithms
• power systems
• reactive power control
• compensation