An efficient allocation of D-STATCOM and DG with network reconfiguration in distribution networks

This work solves the optimal allocation problem of distribution static compensator (D-STATCOM) and distributed generation (DG) simultaneously. The network reconfiguration (NR) is also applied in this work for better utilization of the existing distribution network infrastructure. This work proposes a robust and efficient NR algorithm to address the NR problem, including DG and D-STATCOM allocation by considering techno-economic objectives. Power loss minimization is selected as an objective and a gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is used to solve this efficient allocation problem. This approach has been executed on IEEE 33 bus radial distribution system (RDS). The results demonstrate that the application of simultaneous NR, D-STATCOM, and DG allocation has resulted in a reduction in network losses as well as enhancement in the voltage profile of entire RDS. By this simultaneous approach, the power loss has reduced by 77.5% and minimum voltage in the RDS has increased from 0.9131 p.u. to 0.9735 p.u.