Loss Minimization and Reliability Improvement in Distribution Systems Using Hybrid Optimization for DG Siting

Distributed generation (DG) is an important approach to increase distribution system reliability by providing an alternate source of power to critical load locations. The authors present a novel technique to reduce active power loss, enhance reliability and voltage profile by allocating the DG in distribution network (DN). The proposed novel technique is a hybrid method in which genetic algorithm (GA) is combined with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to address the multiobjective problem. The minimization of power outage cost and active power loss costs are two objectives which is optimized by the AHP-GA technique. In this method the weights for multicriteria are obtained using AHP in first stage, and in second stage GA is used to optimize the objective function. The proposed technique is validated on IEEE 69-node distribution networks. The results demonstrate significant benefits: a reduction in total cost about 62.70 % due to losses, a decrease in line loss of 79.73%, a reduction in reactive power loss of 76.83%, and an improvement of more than 45% in reliability indices. This approach improves optimization efficiency by reducing search space, balancing cost, reliability, and system performance in practical distribution system.