Comparison of Genetic, Artificial Bee Colony and

Shuffled Frog Algorithms in Determining Optimal

DG Locations and Sizing in Distribution System
Ravi Viswa Teja, M. Sydulu, Member, IEEE
Electrical Engineering Department, N.I.T Warangal
Warangal, India
viswa.eee.242@gmail.com
AbstractThe

ongoing
demand
for
power
consumption is leading to serious stability problems in
electric power systems. If there are no impending
construction projects of new power plants or
transmission lines, such an increase can result in large
power losses of the system. DG integration in
distribution system is one of the viable options to
mitigate losses by providing peak shaving, over load
relieving
and
improved
reliability. The advantages of using a DG mainly depend
on its location and size. Therefore, selection of optimal
location and size of the DG is mandatory to maintain the
stability and reliability of existing system. However,
there is still no systematic and cardinal rule for this
issue. In this paper, firstly the optimal locations are
calculated using Single DG Placement Method and a
comparison is performed between three meta-heuristic
techniques like Genetic Algorithm(GA), Artificial Bee
Colony
Algorithm(ABC)
and
Shuffled
Frog
Algorithm(SFA) which are used for finding optimal
sizing of the DG, considering system loss
minimization and voltage profile improvement as
objective functions. This work is tested on IEEE 33 bus
distribution system and the results of each technique
are compared with each other to find out the best one
among the three techniques.
Keywords- ABC; DG Placement; Distribution Systems; GA;
Loss Reduction; Meta heuristic methods; SFA;

I.

INTRODUCTION

Distributed generation is an electric power source

connected directly to the distribution network or on the
customer site of the meter.It is small scale power generation
embedded in the present day distribution system[1].DGs
have a vast number of applications as illustrated in
[3,4].They have been utilized in electric power networks for
power
loss
reduction
and
voltage
profile
improvement.Environmental friendliness and reliability are
the key factors which have been driving the use of DGs in
the present day scenario. approach to evaluate the impact of
DG units on power loss,reliability and voltage profile of
distribution network is presented in [5].It has been implied
that DGs can achieve better reliability during power
interruption situations.In [6],the optimal size and location of

DG units with an objective of predetermined loss reduction

is proposed. This was achieved using sequential quadratic
programming.Minimizing power loss by finding optimal
location and size of DG is suggested in [7].In the
literature,first genetic algorithm has been applied to DG
placement[8].Here the optimal location of DGs is given as
input.This paper also presents a new methodology using
ABC [10-12].The ABC algorithm is a new population based
meta heuristic approachinspired by intelligent foraging
behavior of honey bee swarm.It does not require external
parameters such as cross over,mutation etc.
In this paper, a new heuristic optimization method called
Shuffled Frog Algorithm (SFA) is used. It is a global
optimization technique which searches for local and global
optimal
values
simultaneously
with
minimum
computational burden.
In this paper, all three methodologies are implemented in
case of IEEE 33 bus system.The results obtained using three
techniques are compared in order to understand the pros and
cons of each methodology. In all these methodologies, DG
is considered to be a constant real power source. Out of
techniques available,SFA is proved to be the optimal for
inserting DGs in present day distribution system.
II.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Consider a distribution system having N number of

branches.The total power loss can be calculated by using
N

PLTotal = I i2 Ri

(1)

i =1

where Ii = Magnitude of branch current

Ri = Resistance of ith branch
The total power can be divided into two components
namely active power loss and reactive power loss as given
below
N

PLa = I ai2 Ri

(2)

i =1
N

PLr = I ri2 Ri
i =1

where

PLa = active power loss

PLr = reactive power loss

(3)

The corresponding DG size is

I ai = active component of branch current

PDG = Vm I DG

I ri = reactive component of branch current

Vm is the voltage magnitude of the bus m.

In this paper, the main objective is to reduce the active

power loss and thereby reduce the total loss in the
distribution system.
SINGLE DG PLACEMENT METHOD

III.

This method is employed to determine the optimal

locations of DG in the distribution sysem in order to
minimize losses. However, we can also obtain the optimal
sizes. But as we place the DGs one after other, the solution
of the problem may land up at local optimal values. Hence
only the locations are considered as optimum locations and
the sizes are determined using ICA at the second stage of
the problem.
A. Problem Formulation
Consider a radial distribution system with N branches.
As per the assumption made, a single DG is inserted in the
system. Let the initial assumed bus location be m for the
DG placement. For the radial system, consider a single source
at a time. As the DG introduces active current I DG , the active
component of the currents of all the branches connected to
bus m would change. Thus the new active current
component of ith branch is given by

new
ai

= I ai + Di I DG

(4)

The loss saving S is the difference between equation 3

and 5 and is given by
(6a)

Com

= (2 Di I ai I DG + D I ) Ri
2
DG c

(6b)

i =1

The DG current IDG that provides the maximum loss

saving can be obtained from
n
S
= 2 ( Di I ai + Di I DG ) Ri = 0
I DG
i =1

is

(7)

Thus the DG current for the maximum loss saving

N

D I

i ai

I DG =

Ri

i =1
N

i =1

I R
=
R
ai

D R

Step 1: Read the system data.

Step 2: Conduct distribution load flow analysis for the
given system
Step 3: Starting from second bus i=2, find the DG size
and the current injected by DG using (8) and (9).
Repeat for all buses
Step 4: Calculate the maximum saving and
corresponding DG size
Step 5: The corresponding bus gives the optimal location
of DG. The active load at this bus is modified
and distribution load flow is again conducted.

corresponding DG sizes.

(5)

i =1

S = PLa PLa

B. Algorithm for finding optimum location

Step7: Print all the candidate locations and the

= ( I ai + Di I DG ) 2 Ri

Com

The optimum size of DG for each bus is determined

using (9). Then possible loss saving for each
DG is determined by using (6).The DG with
highest loss saving is identified as candidate
location
for
single
DG
placement. When the
candidate bus is identified and DG is placed, the
above technique can also be used to identify the
next and subsequent bus to be compensated for loss
reduction.

Step 6: If the saving is more than 1KW, goto step 2.Else

goto step 7.

where Di=1; if branch i

=0; otherwise
Thus, the active power loss

PLa

(9)

(8)

The DG sizes obtained using above algorithm are

local optima but not global optima as DGs are placed one
after another. Global optimum is obtained by the meta
heuristic techniques by placing DGs simultaneously at
potential locations.
OPTIMAL DG SIZES USING META HEURISTIC
TECHNIQUES
A. Genetic Algorithm
A powerful class of optimization methods is the family
of Genetic Algorithm (GA). The GA become particularly
suitable for the problem posed here. Here a GA based power
loss minimization and energy loss optimization technique is
proposed for finding optimal size and potential site for DG
to place in Distribution Systems. If network structure is
fixed, all branches between nodes are known and evaluation
of the objective functions depends only on the size and
location of DG units.
IV.

Genetic algorithm that yields good results in many

practical problems is composed of three operators:

i. Selection: The individuals are selected randomly at

initial stage & organized pair-wise using Roulatte wheel
technique, for the implementation of crossover.
ii. Crossover: The individuals, randomly organized pairwise, have their space locations combined, in such a way
that each former pair of individuals gives rise to a new
pair.
iii. Mutation: Some individuals are randomly modified, in
order to reach other points of the search space.

Step 8: Calculate the objective function.

Step 9: Calculate the fitness value of the chromosome.
Step 10: Repeat for all chromosomes from step6.
Step 11: Sort the chromosomes in the descending order
of fitness.
Step 12: Calculate the error {Fit [1] Fit [last]}.
Step 13: Check if the error is less than 0.0001

The advantages in using GA are that:

Check voltage and current constraints.

a. They require no knowledge or gradient information

about the response surface.
b. They are resistant to becoming trapped in local optima.
c. They can be employed for a wide variety of optimization
problems

If yes, go to 17.
Step 14: Perform genetic operations.
Step 15: Replace old population by the new population.
Step 16: Increment iteration count.
Step 17: Print the results. Go to 20.
Step 18: If iteration count is less than the max count, go
to Step 6.Else go to Step19.
Step 19: Print Problem is not converged.
Step 20: End of the algorithm.
B. Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm (ABC)
It was introduced in 2005 by Karaboga [15].Initially it
was developed for unconstrained optimization problem and
later it was extended for constrained optimization problem
[16].
Theory:

Step 1:Read the system data.

The
bee
colony
consists
of
three
groups:employed,onlookers and scout bees.The employed
bees randomly search for food source positions and share
the information by dancing with the onlooker bees waiting
in the dancing area at the hive.The dance duration is
proportional to the nectars content(fitness value).Hence the
onlooker bee chooses the food source position proportional
to the quality of that food source(fitness more).Thus if a
food source position is visited fully,it is abandoned by the
employed bee and it becomes onlooker bee where as the
employee bee abandons it with a changed status of
onlooker.If any food source is not visited then it is
abandoned and onlooker bee becomes a scout bee.Thus the
onlooker and employed bee perform the exploitation process
simultaneously where as scouts control this process.

Step 2:Calculate effective load at all buses.

Control parameters of ABC:

Step 3:Initialize the population.

a.
b.
c.

Figure 1. Flow Chart of the Genetic Algorithm

The solution steps of GA are:

Step 4:Set the iteration count to 1.

Step 5:Set chromosome count equal to 1.
Step 6:Decode the chromosomes of the population.
Step 7:Run the distribution load flow.

Colony size (N)

Limit value in scout bee phase (limit)
Maximum Cycle Number (MCN)

The solution steps of ABC are

Step 1: Read the input data.
Step 2: Construct initial Bee population Xij as each bee
is formed by sizes of DG units
Step 3: Evaluate fitness value for each employed bee by
the formula
fitness =

1
1 + Powerloss

(10)

neighbourhood of Xij for employed bees using

equation

vij = xij + u ( xij xkj )

(11)

Step 6: Apply selection process between Xi and Vi.

fiti

fit

Step 2: Run the Base Case load Flow.

Step 3: Select the memplexes (m) and frogs in each

Step 4: Calculate the fitness value for each frog and

arrange them in ascending order. Find the best in
each memplex and fbest.
Step5: By local exploration, improve the performance
for the worst frog can be updated by the

Step 7: Calculate the probability values Pi for the

modification rule given by

(12)

SN

Step 1: Read the system data.

F=mn.

Step 5: Generate new population (solution) Vij in the

Pi =

The solution steps of SFA are

memplex (n). Generate the required population

Step 4: Initialize iteration=1.

solutions Xi

then arranged in ascending order. Then we calculate the Pbest

( Population best) and Gbest (Global Best among all
iterations). In essence, it combines the benefits of the local
search tool of the PSO [18] and mixing information from
parallel local Searches to move towards a global solution

Di = rand * (i mbest f worst )

If Di is within limits, it is retained else it is set

n =1

to its max or minimum value.

Step 8: Produce the new populations Vi for the

onlookers from the populations Xi, selected

Then the new position is updated as

depending on Pi by applying roulette wheel

f worst (new) = f worst (old ) + Di

selection process, and evaluate them.

(15)

Step 6: If the fit of fworst (new) is more than the fit of

Step 9: Apply selection process for the onlookers

fworst (old) then accept the fworst(new) else

between Xi and vi.

Step 10: Determine the abandoned solution, if exists,

generate new Di value with respect to global fbest.

and replace it with a new randomly produced

Di = rand * ( f best f worst )

solution Xi for the scout bees using

Then it is updated.

xij = minj + rand(0,1) * (maxj minj )

(14)

(13)

Step 11: Memorize the best solution achieved so far. If

the difference between two successive values is
less than specified value stop.
Step 12: Increase the iteration number by one.
Step 13: If iterations are less than specified go to Step 5,
otherwise stop.
C. Shuffled Frog Algorithm (SFA):
The SFA is a real coded population based meta-heuristic
optimization method that mimics a group of frogs searching
for maximum amount of available food. It is based on
evolution of memes and a global exchange of information
among the individuals [17]. In this, each frog represents the
size of DG. The fitness value of all frogs are calculated and

(16)

Step 7: Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for all memplexes.

Then arrange all the frogs according to fitness
values.
Step 8: Repeat algorithm until the solution criterion is
met or maximum number of iterations are
completed. The solution criterion is [|fit(1)||fit(f)|]< , where is the convergence
tolerance.
V.

CASE STUDIES AND RESULTS

The following Meta heuristic techniques are

implemented in case of IEEE 33 bus distribution systems
and the results are tabulated in Table 1. Forward Backward
Distribution Load flow is used for Distribution Load Flow.

TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF RESULTS OBTAINED USING VARIOUS METHODOLOGIES

SINGLE DG CASE
GA
Locations

DG Sizes

Active
Power
Losses (M.W)

2.5491

0.042677

Population size

60

ABC
6

2.4874

0.04221
40

TWO DG CASE

SFA

GA

2.5912

0.042184
128

THREE DG CASE

ABC

SFA

GA

ABC

SFA

15

15

15

15

15

15

32

32

32

1.9673

1.9213

0.6789

1.7335

1.9229

0.71385

0.9824

0.9681

1.1574

0.4644

0.5454

0.71385

0.6378

0.4779

0.71385

0.02473

0.02280

0.01849

40

128

0.03911

0.03581

60

40

0.0345
128

60

0.16
0.14

Ploss in 1000KW

0.12
0.1
0.08
GA

ABC

SFLA

0.06
0.04
0.02
0
NO DER

SINGLE DER
TWO DER
No of DER

THREE DER

FIGURE 2. ACTIVE POWER LOSSES COMPARISON BETWEEN GA, ABC AND SFLA

The base case active power loss is 0.135630

p.u. Referring to the Table I, SFA algorithm result
shows that the active power loss reduction (with
three DGs integration) is improved from 81.77%
(in GA) to 83.19%(in ABC) to 86.37%(in
SFA).Also we can find from Fig.2, that out of the
three algorithms better active power loss reduction
can be provided using SFLA. But when it comes to
population size, time and average number of

iterations, we can see that ABC Algorithm

convergence faster compared to other two methods.
And also there is no need of operators as in case of
GA, for both ABC and SFA which results both of
them to converge faster than GA.

VI.

CONCLUSIONS

Different meta-heuristic approaches like

GA,ABC and SFA are discussed and implemented
in case of IEEE 33 Bus system. From the results we
can infer that the Shuffled Frog Algorithm (SFA)
shows better convergence characteristics compared
to the other two. Also this techniques how better
voltage profile and minimized real power losses.
Thus it is shown to be the most trustworthy
concept.

[10]

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