Power system optimization of static VAR compensator using novel global harmony search method

The increasing number of electrical loads and their far away location from the power plant sites are becoming the main causes of the degradation of voltage quality and the increase of power system losses. The problems may be difficult to be handled if the reactive power supply is limited. One effort to overcome can be done through the use of reactive power compensation using bank capacitors and Static VAR Compensator (SVC). In this paper, the optimal location and rating of capacitor bank and SVC are determined by exploring the novel global harmony search (NGHS) method. The performance of the NGHS method is tested by using the real data of JAMALI-500 kV system. Two considered methods in controlling the SVC covered the Voltage Control (VC) and the reactive power control (QC). The optimization using the NGHS method resulted in the optimal location of the SVC on buses 15, 20 and 25 with a total rating of 1443.14 MVAR for the VC method and on the 15, 19, 20 buses with a total rating of 1773.84 MVAR for the QC method. The achieved power losses improvements using Bank Capacitors, SVC with VC, and SVC with QC were 9.27%, 13.19%, and 15.63% respectively, being compared to a given base-case. The simulation results showed that the SVC with reactive power control is better than the use of the other compensation approach considered.