Optimal size and location of distributed generations using Differential Evolution (DE)

Abstract

To improve the overall efficiency of power system, the performance of distribution system must be improved. This paper presents a new methodology using Differential Evolution (DE) for the placement of DG units in electrical distribution systems to reduce the power losses and to improve the voltage profile. Unlike the conventional evolutionary algorithms that depend on predefined probability distribution function for mutation process, differential evolution uses the differences of randomly sampled pairs of objective vectors for its mutation process. The Due to the increasing interest on renewable sources in recent times, the studies on integration of distributed generation to the power grid have rapidly increased. The distributed generation (DG) sources are added to the network mainly to reduce the power losses by supplying a net amount of power. In order to minimize the line losses of power systems, it is equally important to define the size and location of local generation. The suggested method is programmed under MATLAB software and is tested on IEEE 33-bus test system and the results are presented. The method is found to be effective and applicable for practical network.