OPTIMAL NETWORK EXPANSION PLANNING USING COMBINED DG AND CAPACITOR

This paper presents a multi-stage distribution network expansion planning model with the view point of Distribution Company (DisCo), considering combined Distributed Generation (DG) and capacitor option together with traditional planning method. The objective function comprises: installation and operating costs of DGs, installation cost of capacitors, cost of energy loss, cost of power purchased from grid and costs of substation and feeder upgradation. For solving the proposed problem, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based approach is used. To evaluate and illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, a 9-bus primary distribution system is used. The results obtained on the test system reveals that lowest planning cost along with the technical performance improvement can be achieved by implementing DG and capacitor option together with traditional planning.