PLACEMENT OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION UNITS IN A DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Abstract

Distributed Generation (DG) is small scale generation mostly connected to distribution networks. Power loss minimization and voltage profile improvements are paramount technical benefits achieved with DG integrated system. However, improperly DG installation may react adversely. Therefore the optimum selection of location and size of DG units play a vital role in DG planning. In this work, attempts have been made to identify optimal location and size of renewable energy based DGs namely Solar Photo-Voltaic (Spy), Wind Turbine Power (WTP) and Small Hydro Power (SHP). Hourly potential of each DG resources and load profile of a distribution network for the four different seasons in a year are estimated based on available data. Based on capacity factor, the suitable rating of each SPV module, WTP unit and SHP are selected. Distribution system loss minimization, DG cost minimization and minimizations of unserved energy are three different objective functions considered for the optimal sizing and placement of DG. The backward forward propagation algorithm implemented in MATLAB is used to calculate total power loss and voltage status of the each node. Because of larger sizes of solution vectors, GA based approach is used as an optimization tool as it has outstanding features of global optimization with highly robustness. The developed method is tested on an 11 kV, 12-bus radial distribution system situated in Kathmandu, Nepal. The obtained results by proposed method indicate the improvement in the system performance as compared to the base case system.