Optimal placement of DG and DSTATCOM for loss reduction and voltage profile improvement

Abstract

Due to rapid depletion of fossil fuels availability and huge environmental pollution, focus is now changing from traditional method of power generation to the non-conventional DERs located at distribution voltage level. Technological advancement and more researches in the use of DERs result in the formation of microgrids and active distribution network. Small DER units when placed in a network near to load, makes the network stable as it can work in islanding mode in case of any fault outside the network. This paper proposes a scheme for reduction in losses and improvement of bus voltages in the active distribution network. A DG in the form of small renewable energy resources such as solar PV, wind, biomass, is placed optimally for reduction of losses in the network. However, placement of DG does not result in fulfilment of reactive power needs of the network, resulting in under voltage at several buses. This under voltage problem is solved by the optimal placement of DSTATCOM. DLF technique is used in this paper for load flow calculations and LSF along with voltage deviation is used in objective function for optimal location of DG on MATLAB platform. The methodology is tested on 33-bus radial distribution system. Keywords: Distributed generation, DSTATCOM, Loss Sensitivity Factor, Direct Load Flow, Optimal location