A Discrete-Continuous PSO for the Optimal Integration of D-STATCOMs into Electrical Distribution Systems by Considering Annual Power Loss and Investment Costs

Abstract

Currently, with the quick increase in global population, the energetic crisis, the environmental problematic, and the development of the power electronic devices generated the need to include new technologies for supporting and potentiating electrical distributions systems; Distribution Static Compensators (D-STATCOMs) are highly used for this task due to the advantages that this technology presents: reduction in power loss, operation costs, and chargeability of branches, among others. The possibility to include this kind of technology within the electrical system has shown the need to develop efficient methodologies from the point of view of quality solution, repeatability and processing times by considering operation and investment costs as well as the technical conditions of the electrical grids under a scenario of variable power demand and then representing the real operation of the electrical grid. With the aim to propose a solution for this requirement, this paper presents a new Discrete-Continuous Particle Swarm Optimization (DCPSO) algorithm to solve the problem of the optimal integration of D-STATCOMs into Electrical Distribution Systems (EDSs). In this case, the objective function is the minimization of annual operating costs by using a weighted mono-objective function composed of the annual power loss and the investment cost and by including all constraints associated with the operation of an EDS in a distributed reactive compensation environmentinside the mathematical formulation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed solution method, this study implemented two tests systems (i.e., 33- and 69-bus), as well as four comparison methods, and different considerations related to the inclusion of D-STATCOMs in the EDSs. Furthermore, for evaluating the repeatability of the solution obtained by each solution methods used, each algorithm was executed 100 times in Matlab software. The results obtained demonstrated that the proposed DCPSO/HSA methodology achieved the best trade-off between solution quality and processing time, with low standard deviation values for EDSs of any size.