CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN SMALL HYDRO POWER SYSTEM FOR LOSS REDUCTION

Abstract

Power distribution in isolated small hydro system is like a distribution of electric power in radial distribution system. Being a small size of plant one can not afford to have too many losses in power distribution. The objective of the proposed work is to minimise the loss associated with the reactive component of branch currents by placing shunt capacitors. This method first determines a sequence of nodes to be compensated by the method of singly located capacitor minimisation technique. The size of the optimal capacitor at the compensated nodes is then determined by optimising the loss saving equation with respect to the capacitor currents using multi located capacitor minimisation technique. The performance of the proposed method is investigated on distribution systems consisting of 15-buses, 33-buses and 69-buses. It is found that a significant loss saving can be achieved by placing optimal capacitors in the system.