Power loss reduction is an important problem that needs to be addressed with respect to generating electrical power. It is important to reduce power loss using locally generated power sources and/or compensations. This chapter brings a method of presents a method of maximizing energy utilization, feeder loss reduction, and voltage profile improvement for radial distribution network using the active and reactive power sources. Distributed Generation (DG) (wind and solar with backup by biomass generation) and shunt capacitor (QG) for reactive power demand are used. Integrating DG and QG at each bus might reduce the loss but it is economically unaffordable, especially for developing countries. Therefore, the utilization optimization method is required for finding an optimal size and location to feeders for placing QG and DG to minimize feeder loss.
TopIntroduction
Distribution system is the important component of the power system, which supplies power to end users. At this point, system voltage will be step down; as a result, system loss is higher. According to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (Short and Swayne, 2012, Badran et al. 2017, Ali et al. 2017) New York, the distribution power loss is about 70 percent of all the energy loss and this is even higher during peak load conditions. Different researchers (Lalitha et al. 2016, Abdelaziz et al. 2016, Reddy et al. 2017), also indicate that distribution system has more than 13% of the total power generation (Alhelou et al., 2019; Makdisie et al., 2018; Alhelou et al., 2018; Alhelou et al., 2016; Haes Alhelou et al., 2019; Njenda et al., 2018). If distribution network and load arrangement is not balanced, the system loss will be higher. This is happened when the drawn current is higher than the proportion of voltage increase (Xie et al. 2018). The over increase of demands causes heating, which further increases losses and insulation break down for networks (Christeen et al. 2017, Elsheikh et al. 2014, Thang and Minh, 2017).
Losses are increased due to improper cable size, increasing demand of reactive power or improper current flow to satisfy the demand of active and reactive power. It might be economical to configure the system with new proper sized lines; however, cable sizing only does not bring the required loss reduction and voltage profile improvement. To reduce power losses and improve the voltage profile, one should consider the active and reactive demands and load characteristics at each buses (Khan et al., 2019; Khan et al., 2018; Khan et al., 2017; Banteywalu et al., 2019; Anteneh et al., 2019; Molla et al., 2019, Molla et al., 2018, Jariso et al. 2018). To fix the loss issues and improve the voltage profile, both DG for active power and shunt capacitors for unbalanced system would be required. It might be difficult to optimize the varying load and find the exact location (Alhelou et al., 2019; Makdisie et al., 2018; Alhelou et al., 2018; Alhelou et al., 2016; Haes Alhelou et al., 2019; Njenda et al., 2018). Hence, it is required to consider the load under different loading conditions i.e. during off peak, during peak and in average state. Furthermore, it is important to consider the output probability density of DG (wind and solar) and load distribution probability of the distribution network.