Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch Using Self-Balanced Differential Evolution Algorithm

Abstract

Reactive Power Dispatch (RPD) is one of the major optimization problems in power system which has multi-variable and nonlinear characteristic with equality and inequality constraints. Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is a simple but powerful algorithm widely used to solve power system optimization problems. In this paper a new and novel variant called Self-Balanced Differential Evolution (SBDE) is developed to improve the performance of DE algorithm and balance the exploration and exploitation processes. Two different objective functions have been considered viz., the minimization of total real power loss and total bus voltage deviation under normal and stressed conditions. Voltage magnitude of the generator, transformer tap ratio and reactive power of capacitor banks are considered as control variables. The proposed approach is applied in IEEE 57-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems for performance assessment. The obtained results demonstrate the proficiency of the proposed approach and the results are compared with the results reported in the literature.