Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Capacitor placement for net saving maximization and system stability

enhancement in distribution networks using articial bee colony-based
approach
Attia A. El-Fergany a,, Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz b
a
b

Department of Electrical Power & Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, P.O. Box 44519, Zagazig, Egypt
Department of Electrical Power & Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 12 March 2013
Received in revised form 1 July 2013
Accepted 13 July 2013

Keywords:
Articial bee colony
Capacitor allocations
Loss reductions
Net saving maximizations
Voltage stability index

a b s t r a c t
This manuscript introduces an approach to allocate static capacitors along radial distribution networks
using the articial bee colony algorithm. In general practice the high potential buses for capacitor placement are initially identied using loss sensitivity factors. However, that method has proven less than satisfactory as loss sensitivity factors may not always indicate the appropriate placement. In the proposed
approach, the algorithm identies optimal sizing and placement and takes the nal decision for optimum
location within the number of buses nominated. The result is enhancement of the overall system stability
index and potential achievement of maximum net savings. The overall accuracy and reliability of the
approach have been validated and tested on radial distribution systems with differing topologies and
of varying sizes and complexities. In the manuscript the results are compared with those obtained using
recent heuristic methods and show that the proposed approach is capable of producing high-quality solutions with good performance of convergence, and demonstrated viability.
Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Reactive power addition can be benecial only when correctly
applied. Correct application means choosing the correct position
and size of the reactive power support. It is not possible to achieve
zero losses in a power system, but it is possible to keep them to a
minimum [13] to reduce the system overall costs. The reactive
power support is one of the well-recognized methods for the
reduction of power losses together with other benets; such as increased utilization of equipment, unloading of overloaded system
components, and stopping the premature aging of the equipment.
However, other alternatives can be used as the network reconguration, which can provide the same mentioned benets. Bear in
mind, too many capacitors at the wrong points will increase losses
on the lines. However, the minimization of losses does not guarantee the maximization of benets unless the problem is wellformulated.
Numerous methods for solving this problem with a view to
minimizing losses have been suggested in the literature based
on both traditional mathematical methods and more recent
heuristic approaches. A comprehensive survey of the literature
from the last decade focusing on the various heuristic optimiza Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 100 5705526.
E-mail addresses: el_fergany@ieee.org (A.A. El-Fergany), almoatazabdelaziz@
hotmail.com (A.Y. Abdelaziz).

tion techniques applied to determine the OCP and size is presented in [4]. Several heuristic methods have been developed
in the last decade such as tabu search [5], PSO [6,7], the harmony search algorithm [8], ant colony optimization-based algorithm [9,10] and a simulated annealing technique [11], GA [12]
and a GA-fuzzy logic algorithm [13] to solve capacitor placement optimization problems.
The bacterial foraging with a PSO algorithm used to determine the optimal placement of capacitors has been introduced
in [14], and PGSA has been used for capacitor placement in
[15]. More recently, an immune based optimization technique
[16], the integration of DE and PS [17], and Big Bang-Big Crunch
optimization [18] to obtain the optimum values of shunt capacitors in radial distribution networks have been utilized and
employed.
Algorithms for enhancing voltage stability of electrical systems
by OCP have been developed [19,20] and a relationship between
voltage stability and loss minimization and the concept of maximizing voltage stability through loss minimization were dened
and outlined [21,22].
In this article, an ABC-based algorithm is utilized to ascertain
the optimal size and select optimum locations of shunt capacitors.
High potential buses for capacitor placement are initially identied
by the observations of LSF with weak voltage buses. The proposed
method improves the voltage prole and reduces system losses in
addition to enhancing voltage stability. The method has been

0142-0615/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2013.07.015

236

A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

Nomenclature
n
N
PLoss
QLoss
VSI(j)
Iij
Rij
Xij
|Vi|
|Vj|
Pj
Qj
Ce
T
PLa
PLb
CCi
CO
CC
NB

a
lF
nl
PSlack
QSlack
PD(i)
QD(i)
PL(i)
QL(i)
QC(i)
Vi,min
Vi,max
Q min
Ci
Q max
Ci

total number of lines

total number of network buses
total network peak active loss
total network peak reactive loss
voltage stability index of bus j
current of line ij
resistance of line ij
reactance of line ij
voltage magnitude of bus i
voltage magnitude of bus j
total effective real power load fed through bus j
total effective reactive power fed through bus j
energy cost
time period
total active power loss after compensation
total active peak power loss before compensation
cost of installation
capacitor operating cost
cost of the capacitor purchase
number of candidate effective buses (that have compensations with values >0)
depreciation factor
magnifying factor
number of load buses
active power supplied from the slack bus
reactive power supplied from the slack bus
active power demand of load at bus i
reactive power demand of load at bus i
active power loss at branch j
reactive power loss at branch j
amount of reactive power of installed capacitors at bus i
lower permissible voltage limit at bus i
upper permissible voltage limit at bus i
lower reactive power limit of compensated bus i
upper reactive power limit of compensated bus i

tested and validated on a variety of radial distribution systems and

the detailed results are presented.
Different simplied methods of normal load distribution ow
and other special techniques have been proposed [23,24]; these
deal mainly with high ratio of R/X in distribution systems. As neither NewtonRaphson nor GaussSeidel methods have proven efcient, have experienced difculties and may not be convergent
[2529]. A method which can nd the LF solution of a radial distribution system directly by using topological characteristic of distribution network may overcome the limitations of NewtonRaphson
and GaussSeidel methods. The advantage of this technique is that
there is no problem of convergence with respect to radial networks
with high ratio of R/X. The distribution power ow suggested in
[24] is used in this study.

Sli
Srated
li
PFmin
PFmax
SN
D
fi
ti
xjmax
xjmin

uij

NCN
kVC
kPFC
kLFC
kCC

actual line ow of line i

rated line transfer capacity
lower limit of overall system power factor at substation
(slack bus)
upper limit of overall system power factor at substation
(slack bus)
number of food sources/colony size
number of optimization parameters
cost value of ith solution
modied tness of ith solution
upper bounds for the dimension j
lower bounds for the dimension j
random number in the range [1, 1]
maximum cycle number
penalty function for voltage limit constraint
penalty function for power factor constraint
penalty function for line ow constraint
penalty function for maximum total compensation constraint

List of Abbreviations
ABC
articial bees colony
DE
differential evolution
GA
genetic algorithm
LSF
loss sensitivity factor
OCP
optimal capacitor placement
PGSA
plant growth simulation algorithm
PSO
particle swarm optimization
PS
pattern search
VSI
voltage stability index
HS
heuristic search
EA
evolutionary algorithm
P.U.
per unit
LF
load ow

For stable the operation of the radial distribution networks, VSI

(j) P 0. The node, at which the value of the VSI has lower value, is
more sensitive to collapse. The node with the smallest VSI is the
weakest node and the voltage collapse phenomenon will start from
that node. Therefore, to avoid the possibilities of voltage collapse,
the VSI of nodes should be maximized.
3. Problem and objective function formulation
The objective of capacitor placement in the distribution system
is to maximize the peak active power loss reduction, reduce capacitor costs and enhance the system static stability subject to specic
operating constraints. The objective function is mathematically
formulated as,

2. Voltage stability index

Many different indices have been introduced to evaluate the
power systems security level from the point of voltage static stability [3033]. A new steady state VSI is proposed [33] for identifying
the node, which is most sensitive to voltage collapse and expressed
in Eq. (1) is utilized in the work. Fig. 1 shows the simple electrical
equivalent of the radial distribution system.

VSIj jV i j4  4fPj  X ij  Q j  Rij g2  4fPj  Rij Q j  X ij g:jV i j2

1
Fig. 1. Line ij power system model.

237

A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

"

Maximize C e  PLb  P La  T  a: C Ci  N B C C 

NB
X

#
Q C i  C O  N B lF 

i1

N
X

)
VSIj

j2

2
Subject to the satisfaction of the Active and reactive power ow
balance equations and a set of inequality constraints.
3.1. Power balance constraints
Power balance (Active and Reactive) constraints, which are
equality constraints and include two nonlinear recursive power
ow equations, can be formulated as follows,

PSlack

9
>
>
>
>
>
=

nl
n
X
X

PD i
PL j
i1

j1

nl
NB
n
>
X
X
X
>
>
Q Slack
Q C i
Q D i
Q L j >
>
;
i1

i1

9
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
i1
i1
>
>
>
kPFC WPF  max0; hPF ov erall  PF max i max0; hPF min  PF ov erall i >
>
>
=
"
#
n
X
rated
kLFC WL 
max0; hSli  Sli i
>
>
>
>
i1
>
>
"
*
+
!
#
>
>
nl
NB
>
X
X
>
>
>
kCC WC  max 0;
Q C i 
Q D j
>
;
i1

10

4. Identication of potential buses using LSF

j1

i 1:::N

3.3. Reactive compensation limit

Reactive power constraint in which injected reactive power at
each candidate bus must be within their permissible ranges.

i 1:::NB

The estimation of these candidate nodes basically helps in signicant reductions of the search space for the optimization procedure. In this proposed work, LSF is utilized for this purpose [22]. It
is intuitive that a section in a distribution system with high losses
and lower voltage or VSI has higher priority for placement of
capacitors. Whereas, a low loss sections with good voltage are
not optimal for capacitor placements.
The LSF may be able to predict which bus will have the greatest
loss reduction when reactive compensation is put in place. Consider a distribution line connected between i and j buses as
shown in Fig. 1.
Active power loss in the ijth line between ij buses is given by
3I2ij Rij and can be expressed as shown in the following equation,

Pijloss 3 
3.4. Line capacity limit
The apparent power ow through the line Sl is restricted by its
maximum rating limit as,

Sli 6 Srated
;
li

i 1:::n

3.5. Maximum total compensation

From practical limitation, maximum compensation by using
capacitor bank is limited to the total load reactive power demand.
nl
NB
X
X
Q C i 6
Q D j
i1

j1

The voltage magnitude at each bus must be maintained within

its limits and is expressed as,

max
Q min
Ci 6 Q Ci 6 Q Ci ;

"
#
N
N
X
X
kVC WV 
max0; hjV i j  V i;max i
max0; hV i;min  jV i ji

WV, WPF, WL, and WC are the penalty function weights having large
positive value.

3.2. Voltage limit constraint

V i;min 6 jV i j 6 V i;max ;

where

j1

3.6. Overall system power factor

The overall power factor (PFoverall) is the value of power factor at
the main feeder of the primary substation; supplying the radial
distribution network. System power factor should be maintained
within desirable lower and upper limits.

PF min 6 PF ov erall 6 PF max

A penalty factor associated with each violated constraint is

added to the objective function in order to force the solution to
stay away from the infeasible solution space; to respect the
inequality constraints. Therefore, the optimal solution is established when no constraints is violated or even with acceptable tolerance and the objective function is maximized.
The penalty function can be formulated as follows,

Penalities kVC kPFC kLFC kCC

P2j Q 2j
jV j j2

:Rij

11

Thus, the sensitivity analysis factor is a derivative of the power

loss with reactive power; Qj, as indicated in the following equation,

Qj
@Pijloss
6
 Rij
@Q j
jV j j2

12

The values are arranged in descending order for all the lines of
the given system. The descending order of the elements vector
will decide the sequence in which the buses (receiving-end of
lines) are to be considered for compensation. Receiving-end buses
of the lines of higher LSF and lower VSI have a greater chance of
being identied as candidate locations for capacitor installations
for the purposes of bi-objective (net saving and VSI) solution
and loss minimizations objective. However, in case of the objective is to maximize system VSI only, the buses with lower VSI
are identied.
5. Articial bees colony algorithm
The ABC algorithm was proposed by Karaboga for optimizing
numerical problems in 2005 [34]. It simulates the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees warms. It is a very simple, robust and
population based stochastic optimization algorithm. The performance of the ABC algorithm has been compared with those of
other well-known modern heuristic algorithms such as GA, DE
and PSO on constrained and unconstrained problems [35,36]. Nowadays, the ABC algorithm is one of the most popular approaches
used in optimization problems and requires less control parameter
to be tuned. The ABC algorithm has three phases: employed bee,
onlooker bee and scout bee. In the employed bee and the onlooker
bee phases, bees exploit the sources by local searches in the neighborhood of the solutions selected based on deterministic selection

238

A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

in the employed bee phase and the probabilistic selection in the

onlooker bee phase. In the scout bee phase which is an analogy
of abandoning exhausted food sources in the foraging process,
solutions that are no longer benecial for search progress are abandoned, and new solutions are inserted instead of them to explore
new regions in the search space. The algorithm has a well-balanced
exploration and exploitation ability.
The main steps of the ABC algorithm in the form of Pseudo-code
are given below [35]
Step 1: Initialize the population of solutions xi,j, i = 1, . . ., SN,
j = 1, . . ., D
Step 2: Evaluate the population
Step 3: Cycle = 1
Step 4: Repeat
Step 5: Produce new solutions (food source positions) vi,j in the
neighborhood of xi,j for the employed bees using the
formula v i;j xi;j /ij xi;j  xk;j (k is a solution in
the neighborhood of i) and evaluate them
Step 6: Apply the greedy selection process
Step 7: Calculate the probability values Pi for the solutions xi,j by
means of their tness values using Eq. (13)

fit
pi PSN i
m1 fit m

13

In order to calculate the tness values of solutions, the

following Eq. (14) is employed;

(
fit i

1
1fi

if f i P 0

1 jfi j if f i < 0

14

Normalize Pi values into [0, 1]. fi is obtained separately

for each individual ith solution through Eq. (2).
Step 8: Produce the new solutions (new positions) vi,j for the
onlookers from the solutions xi,j selected depending on
Pi and evaluate them
Step 9: Apply the greedy selection process
Step 10: Determine the abandoned solution (source), if it exists,
and replace it with a new randomly produced solution
xi,j for the scout using Eq. (15)

xji xjmin rand0; 1  xjmax  xjmin

15

Step 11: Memorize the best food source position (solution)

achieved so far
Step 12: Cycle = Cycle + 1
Step 13: Until Cycle = MCN.
There are three control parameters used in the ABC-based
algorithm; the number of the food sources which is equal to
the number of employed or onlooker bees, the value of limit
and the MCN. In ABC, providing that a position cannot be improved further through predetermined number of cycles, then
that food source is assumed to be abandoned. The value of predetermined number of cycles is an important control parameter
of the ABC algorithm; this is termed the limit for
abandonment.
The ABC algorithm employs four different selection processes:
(1) A global selection process used by the articial onlooker
bees for discovering promising regions.
(2) A local selection process carried out in a region by the articial employed bees and the onlookers depending on local
information for determining a neighbor food source around
the source in the memory.

(3) A local selection process called greedy selection process carried out by all bees.
(4) A random selection process carried out by scouts.
The procedure of the ABC algorithm to solve OCP can be summarized in the ow chart diagram of Fig. 2.
6. Test cases, numerical results and simulations
In order to test the effectiveness and performance of the proposed ABC-based algorithm, it has been applied to several distribution radial test systems (10-bus, 22-bus, 28-bus, 30-bus, 33-bus,
34-bus, 69-bus radial distribution feeders and an actual Portuguese
radial distribution system with 94 nodes).
Due limitations of space supposed by submission guidelines,
only two radial distribution systems: the 34-bus and the actual
Portuguese radial distribution system with 94-node are selected
for reporting and demonstration in this article, to examine the
applicability of the proposed approach. In all calculations; for all
the test cases, the following constants are assumed and applied
as shown in Table 1.
The net savings are calculated using:

Net

sav ings
fcos t of energy reductions  a
year
 cos t of installation cos t of purchase
 yearly operating cos tg

16

The pre-identication and the estimation of high potential

buses signicantly help in the reduction of the search space for
the optimization procedure. Setting the lower limit of capacitor
range to 0, will permit the proposed approach to select the optimum locations within the range of bus nominations initially identied by the LSF method which has to be set manually by the user;
just to set the number of buses due for search. After intensive trials
with nominating 1025% of total network number of buses after
ranking is guaranteeing the optimal or near to optimal solutions
(these percentage gures are obtained after many trials). For small
size networks, user may nominate/set the initial number of higher
potential buses to 2025% of network buses (i.e. for 34-bus test
case, set to 9 as initial number of buses for capacitor allocations)
and for medium size, nominate 1520% of network buses. However, for large scale radial networks, set the number of potential
buses for capacitor placement to 1015% of network buses (i.e.
for 94-bus radial network is 15 buses might be nominated initially
for capacitor placements).
It is well-known that LSF observations, may not lead to the optimum locations. Due to the fact the LSF calculations depend on the
network topology, congurations, loading, etc. and to tackle these
limitations, the algorithm will search the optimum number of
buses and select them for capacitor placements.
The magnifying factor (lF) is chosen to equal 500 for the two
case studies of 34-bus and 94-bus radial distribution systems.
The proposed method has been programmed and implemented
using MATLAB [37,38].
6.1. 34-Bus test system numerical results and simulations
This 34-bus test case has 4-lateral radial distribution system
which is shown in Fig. 3. The data of the system are obtained from
[2]. The total load of the system is (4636.5 + j2873.5) kVA.
Using base LF to candidate the potential buses for capacitor
placement and based on LSF values; {19, 22, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25,
26 & 27}. Parameters adopted for the ABC algorithm for the test
case of a 34-bus, and the required inequality constraints that
should be respected are given in Table 2.

A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

239

Cycle=1

Read system input data

(busdata, line data,)

Generate new population for employed

bees, run LF and evaluate the objective
function.

Run base case LF and get the initial

values for voltages, losses and VSI

Apply the greedy selection process

Calculate the probability values for the
solutions

Estimate the LSF values for the buses

Produce the new populations for the

onlookers and evaluate them

Rank buses and propose higher potential

buses for capacitor placement.

Apply the greedy selection process for

the onlookers
Set lower and upper bounds for the
constraints, set algorithm control
parameters and MCN

Determine the abandoned solution

Memorize the best solution achieved

Initialize the population within their
lower and upper bounds, run LF and
evaluate the objective function

Cycle=Cycle+1

No

If Cycle< MCN
Initialize the population, for amount of
vars to be injected within their lower and
upper bounds
Get Optimal Solution
and report

Fig. 2. Flow chart of ABC Algorithm and capacitor allocations.

Table 1
Constants for the rates using a long with test cases.

Table 2
Control parameters adopted for the ABC algorithm and target setting for the
constraints.

SN

Item

Proposed rate

1
2
3
4
5
6

Average energy cost

Depreciation factor
Purchase cost
Installation cost
Operating cost
Hours per year

$0.06/kW h
20%
$25/kVAr
$1600/location
$300/year/location
8760

14

Proposed Setting

Colony size (SN)

Limit
MCN
Bus voltage constraint
Power factor constraint
Allowable capacitor range

60
30
100
0:95 6 V i 6 1:05
0:95 6 PF ov erall 6 0:99
0 kVAr to 1500 kVAr with step of 50 kVAr

16

13

Slack
1

15

Item

28

29

30

31

32

33

10

11

12

24

25

26

34

17
18
19

20

21

22

27

23

Fig. 3. Single line diagram of a 34-bus radial distribution network.

Set the number of initial higher potential buses estimated by

LSF to 9. After running the proposed optimization algorithm to
select the optimal locations and determine the capacitor optimal
sizes, the outcome leads to only 2 locations for capacitor placement
which are buses 19 and 24 with optimum capacitor ratings of

950 kVAr and 900 kVAr, respectively. The CPU computational time
needed is 10.08 s to accomplish this optimization process by the
proposed ABC-based method. The results of the proposed method
compared with the results of GA method [12], PSO method [6],
HS-based method [2], PGSA method [15] and EA method [39] for
the reactive compensation required and relevant bus allocations
are shown in Table 3.
For comparison purposes, the reported gures in [12,6,2,15,39]
of reactive power at specic buses are recycled to calculate the system losses and the net savings (see Table 4) with the same rates
proposed in this article as shown in Table 1 and Eq. (16).
The system overall power factor is signicantly corrected from
0.8557 lagging (base case) to 0.9798 lagging with capacitor allocations, respectively. The VSI of a 34-bus radial distribution system
without and with compensations is depicted Fig. 4.
From the results illustrated and shown in table 4, the proposed
algorithm yields to reduce peak losses to 167.99 kW with 1,850

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A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243

Table 3
Optimal location of capacitor placement and value of capacitor size in KVAr.
Method

Proposed

GA [12]

PSO [6]

HS [2]

PGSA [15]

EA [39]

(Location, Size in kVAr)

(19, 950)
(24, 900)

(19, 781)
(22, 803)
(20, 479)

(26, 1400)
(11, 750)
(17, 300)
(4, 250)

(19, 1200)
(22, 639)
(20, 200)

(8, 1050)
(18, 750)
(25, 750)

Total KVAr placed

1850

(5, 300)
(9, 300)
(12, 300)
(22, 600)
(26, 300)
1800

2063

2700

2039

2550

Table 4
Results and comparisons of a 34-Bus radial feeder test case without and with OCP showing different heuristic approaches.
Point of comparison

Vmin (P.U.)a
Vmax (P.U.)a
VSImin
VSImax
P34
j2 SVIj
Ploss (kW)
Reductions in Ploss%
Qloss (kVAr)
Reductions in Qloss%
PFoverall
P
Qc (kVAr)
Net Savings/year
a

Without OCP

With OCP

0.9416
0.9941
0.786
0.9765
28.6211
221.7373

65.2230

0.8557

Proposed approach

GA [12]

PSO [6]

HS [2]

PGSA [15]

EA [39]

0.9496
0.9949
0.81294
0.9797
30.1221

0.9478
0.9949
0.8071
0.9796
29.0894

0.9486
0.9950
0.8097
0.9800
29.1353

0.9522
0.9953
0.8219
0.9811
29.3214

0.9479
0.9950
0.8074
0.9800
29.1149

0.9501
0.9952
0.8149
0.9808
29.2675

167.99
24.24%
49.015
24.85%
0.9798
1850
$17756.00

164.9586
25.61%
49.9643
23.39%
0.9825
1800
$15093.00

169.3592
23.62%
47.1771
27.67%
0.9970
2063
$15570.00

168.4811
24.02%
48.4489
25.72%
0.9989
2700
$12017.00

171.9643
22.45%
48.6740
25.37%
0.9738
2039
$15590.00

161.2673
27.27%
49.0518
24.79
0.9837
2550
$17173.00

The reported values of Vmin and Vmax are shown excluding the slack bus # 1.

kVAr installed at 2 locations only (buses 19 & 24), which are

optimally selected using the current methodology out of 9 initial
higher potential buses estimated by LSF calculations. The net savings gained are $15093.00, $15570.00, $12017.00, $15590.00,
$17173.00 and $17756.00 using GA [12], PSO [6], HS [2], PGSA
[15], EA [39] and the proposed algorithm, respectively. One may
note the superiority of the proposed approach compared to the
others. Tables 3 and 4 conclude that the proposed ABC-based approach possesses higher system stability index and higher annual
net saving compared to other heuristic methods with lesser number of locations which realizes, an added value to the proposed
approach.
In case of the objective is to minimize the active power loss only
or to maximize VSI only, the maximization of the cost savings is
not guaranteed. Set the number of initial higher potential buses
to 9 (for Ploss objective using ranked buses with higher LSF and
for VSI, utilize the buses with lower values of VSI). Table 5 depicts

Table 5
Summaries for the VSI and Ploss objectives.
Item

Power loss minimization

VSI maximization

SVImin
SVImax
P34
j2 SVIj

0.8163
0.981
29.2815

0.82376
0.9807
30.3061

Ploss (kW)
Qloss (kVAr)
PF
Poverall
Qc (kVAr)
Net Savings/year

161.087
47.1452
0.9978
2600 (3 locations)
$17,018.00

169.92
49.2659
0.9952
2450 (8 locations)
$8,785.00

the extracted summaries for the cases of VSI maximization and Ploss
minimization as well. In the case of VSI maximization, the nominated buses for capacitor allocations are identied based on lowest
buses VSI values. For Ploss objective, the algorithm selected 3 locations out of 9 nominated buses with higher LSF. However, for the

0.98
VSI with OCP
VSI without OCP

Bus Stability Voltage Index

0.96
0.94
0.92
0.9
0.88
0.86
0.84
0.82
0.8
0.78
5

10

15

20

25

30

Bus Number
Fig. 4. VSI values against bus number for a 34-bus radial distribution feeder with and without OCP (2 locations).

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A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243
Table 6
Control parameters adopted for the ABC algorithm and targets for the constraints
(case of a 94-node).
Item

Proposed setting

Colony size (SN)

Limit
MCN
Bus voltage constraint
Power factor constraint
Allowable capacitor range

100
50
100
0:90 6 V i 6 1:10
0:95 6 PF ov erall 6 0:99
0 kVAr to 1500 kVAr with step of 50 kVAr

Table 8
Summaries and results for the case of a 94-node actual Portuguese radial distribution.
Point of
comparison

Table 7
Optimal locations and sizes for the 94-nodes test case.
Bus/location

18

21

54

Total

KVAr

600

450

1050

2100

VSI objective, the approach has selected 8 locations out of 9 buses

nominated with lower VSI (refer to Table 5). Higher potential buses
ranked based on VSI values are {27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 34,
33, 12, 32, 11, 31, 10, 9, 18, . . .} that are used only in case of the
objective is to maximize the system VSI, ignoring the maximum
revenue of capacitor allocation.
The proposed ABC-based approach can reduce peak real losses to
161.087 kW (i.e. percentage of reduction is 27.35%) with total reactive compensation of 2600 kVAr allocated at buses of 8, 18 and 25
with ratings of 900 kVAr, 900 kVAr and 800 kVAr, respectively. The
net yearly saving is $17018.00 which is lesser than that obtained
in the case of bi-objective (both saving and VSI maximizations) as
indicated in Tables 4 and 5. However, the net savings is dramatically
reduced in case of a pure VSI maximization objective. On the other
hand, the total VSI has been signicantly improved. The constraints
have been checked and found within acceptable limits.

This proposed approach has been applied to an actual Portuguese radial distribution system with 94 nodes, as shown in
Fig. 5. The network layout, including line data and load data, and
its physical characteristics are summarized and obtained from
[40]. This network consists of 22-lateral radial branches with total
loads of (4797 + j 2323.9) kVA.

0.84848
0.99508
0.5183
0.9803
62.2577

0.90721
0.99699
0.6774
0.9879
75.0565

0.9038

0.93726
0.99726
0.771687
0.988937
79.6829

Ploss (kW)
Reductions in Ploss (%)
Qloss (kVAr)
Reductions in Qloss (%)
PFoverall
P
QC (kVAr)

362.8580

504.0420

0.8769

Net Savings/year

271.3590
25.23%
374.5060
25.70%
0.9931
2100
(3
locations)
$35732.00

271.9854
25.04%
376.0200
25.34%
0.9878
1900
(8
locations)
$33302.00

317.293
12.56%
419.713
16.73%
0.998867
2400
(8
locations)
$5248.60

The reported values of Vmin and Vmax are shown excluding the slack bus # 1.

45

49

44

48

50

51
71

73

69

70

72

74

12

13

14

15

16

60

61

62

63

38

35

39

52

36

40

53

59

37

41

54

58

64

57

65

43

46

47

10

42

55

76

87

18

19

20

21

22

75

77

83

84

85

80

81

82

23
86

DE-PS
based [41]

Vmin (P.U.)a
Vmax (P.U.)a
VSImin
VSImax
P94
j2 SVIj

34

Proposed
approach

88

89

24

25
90

11

56

93

94

26

27

28

91

92

29

30

31

32

78
79

With
compensation
(pure VSI
objective)
using proposed
approach

The bus voltages constraints are (1 P.U. 10%) have been proposed in this test case with 15 kV voltage level.
The most likely buses for capacitor placements as identied by
LSF indicators are {11, 10, 90, 18, 8, 21, 54, 52, 15, 9, 83, 20, 16, 24,
23, 25, 12, 13, 19, 17, . . .}. Table 6 shows the parameters adopted
for the ABC algorithm for the test case of a 94-node actual Portuguese radial distribution and the required constraints.
Set the number of initial higher buses range resulted by the LSF
observations to 15, to let the proposed algorithm to select the optimal locations and amount of compensations required accordingly.
The approach has selected 3 buses for optimal capacitor allocations
with the relevant amount of reactive compensation required per
each location which is depicted in Table 7. The computational time
exhausted to complete this optimization process is 70.25 s on average. Once again, this proves the ability of the proposed approach to
allocate capacitors at a minimum number of locations. The summaries and numerical results are tabulated and shown in Table 8.
The reductions in the peak active and reactive losses are 25.23%
and 25.70%, respectively. However, the overall power factor has

6.2. 94-Bus test system results and simulations

Slack

Without
With compensation
compensation (bi-objective)

Fig. 5. Single line diagram of an actual Portuguese 94-nodes radial distribution system.

17

66

33

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A.A. El-Fergany, A.Y. Abdelaziz / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 235243
1
VSI with OCP
VSI without OCP

Bus Stability Voltage Index

0.95
0.9
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Bus Number
Fig. 6. VSI values against bus number for a 94-bus radial distribution feeder with and without OCP (3 locations).

1
VSI with OCP
VSI without OCP

Bus Stability Voltage Index

0.95
0.9
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Bus Number
Fig. 7. VSI values against bus number with and without OCP (8 locations) for a 94-bus radial distribution feeder with a pure objective of VSI.

been enhanced from 0.8769 lagging to 0.9931 lagging. In addition,

a signicant improvement has been observed regarding the system
stability aspects. Fig. 6 shows the improvement in the bus stability
indices before and after capacitor installations.
Compared to DE-PS method [41], the obtained net year savings
is higher and in less number of locations.
In case of the objective is to maximize the system SVI, the
ranked buses based on VSI values are {92, 91, 90, 33, 32, 31, 30,
94, 29, 28, 93, 27, 26, 89, 25, . . .}. Fig. 7 depicts the trend of VSI
against buses with and without compensations and outcome values are tabulated in Table 8 (column 4). The total system VSI and
VSImin are considerably improved to 79.6829 and 0.7717, respectively. On the other hand, the yearly net savings has been dramatically reduced. One may note that both net saving maximizations
and system VSI are conicting objectives.
7. Conclusions
The application of the ABC-based optimization approach for
solving the problem of capacitor allocations (sizing and location)
to maximize the net benets and to improve system static voltage
stability has been depicted and investigated. The OCP problem has
been solved by two step method, 1) the candidate locations for
compensation are pre-identied using LSF values based on the initial case of LF run, and 2) the nal optimal locations and size of
capacitors being obtained using the ABC-based approach. The

numerical results of the simulation indicate a considerable

improvement in active and reactive power losses reductions, voltage stability enhancements, and power factor corrections while
maximizing the net savings. The proposed ABC-based approach
outperforms other methods showcased in the recent state-of-the
art literature in the area of OCP in terms of the quality of the solution and the computational efcacy. The main advantage of the
ABC-based algorithm is that it does not require expending more effort in tuning the control parameters, as in the case of GA, DE, PSO
and other EAs. This feature marks the proposed ABC-based algorithm as being advantageous for implementation.

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