OPTIMAL PLACEMENT OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION IN A DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Abstract

The conventional power generation is driven by the non-renewable energy source which is costly and produces harmful emission to the nature. So the modem trend of power generation is to switch to renewable energy dependent source to generate the electric power with low cost and less harmful emission to the nature. Thus the 'Distributed Generation' is introduced in the power system. It also compensates the active and reactive power, reducing the active power loss and improving the voltage profile. The main objectives of the project is to place the Distributed Generation optimally on the best location in the distribution network. The basic purpose of the placement of DG is the power loss reduction and voltage profile improvement on the basis of cost minimization i.e. to get the maximum benefit for a particular time span. The benefit minus cost of the installed DG has been considered as an objective function which has to be maximized considering all necessary constraints. The investment cost, operating cost and maintenance cost have been included in the total cost function, the active power demand reduction, line loss reduction and reliability improvement have been included in benefit function. In the constraints, voltage limits, size of DGs and thermal limits, have been considered. For implementation of the DGs, 9_bus, 16_bus, 33_bus and 69_bus test radial distribution network have been taken. The location and size of the DGs are found using particle swarm optimization technique. The simulation results have been obtained using MATLAB platform.