LOAD VARIATIONS BASED OPTIMAL REACTIVE POWER SUPPORT FOR HIGH ECONOMIC GAIN IN DISTRIBUTION ELECTRIC POWER NETWORK

Problems such as high impedance, below normal bus voltages, and Load density of the Distribution Electric Power Network (DEPN) lead to a rise in power losses (real and reactive power losses) with large deviations in node voltage profile. For DEPN planning and operation studies, the power and voltage deviation have been significantly apprehensive. For the past five decades, several researchers have been focusing on DEPN to reduce Power losses to the minimum level. Sitting and sizing of Shunt Capacitor Banks (SSSCB) optimally in the DEPN is of greatest importance in reducing the power losses, power factor improvement, and voltage profile upgradation thereby more Economic Gain (EG). The target of this study is to enhance the performance of the DEPN using Reactive Power Support (RPS) under three different load levels to minimize the capacitor investment cost and maximize the difference in kWh and kVARh using the Sea-Horse Optimizer Algorithm (SHOA). The proposed algorithm has been witnessed with the help of two general test systems (PG&E 69 bus and Indian 118 bus) and one real DEPN (28 bus system, PEA, Thailand). The overall % power loss reduction ranging between 29% and 37% has been observed across the three load variations for all the three test systems. Simulation results reveal that significant improvements in technical and EG are fulfilled which confirms the prospective of the proposed RPS procedure.