Optimal Capacitor Placement in Radial Distribution System Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Voltage Profile Improvement and Loss Reduction

High distribution system losses are mainly due to inadequate investments in R& D for system improvement and improper planning during installation, which has resulted in unplanned extensions of the distribution lines, overloading of the system elements like transformers and OH lines/conductors and lack of adequate reactive power support leading to voltage drop in a system. Capacitors affect the line power flow and voltage conditions on the system equipment by injecting reactive power. These impacts of capacitor may be improve system efficiency or reduce it depending on the distribution system operating conditions and allocation Capacitor. The improper allocation of capacitor units in few circumstances can lower efficiency level. For this purpose, the optimal allocation of shunt capacitors for a given radial distribution system can be useful for the system outlining and improve efficiency. In this paper a new method is used for optimal allocation of shunt capacitor units in radial distribution network to curtail distribution system losses and improve voltage profile. The advantage of Artificial Bee Colony algorithm is that its calculation time is less as it does not need exterior specifications such as cross over rate and mutation rate as in case of genetic algorithm and differential evolution. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm, computer simulations are carried out on IEEE 33 bus system and practical 116 bus system, the simulation results are presented and discussed.