Optimal allocation and sizing of renewable energy distributed generation using a modified particle swarm optimization method for power loss reduction

Abstract

In this paper, a modified PSO (MPSO) technique was used to determine the optimal size and location of Distributed Generation (DG) in Onitsha distribution system in the Nigeria power network. This technique mitigates the drawback of the conventional PSO method by speeding up the convergence, ensuring that the search algorithm does not get trapped in local optima thereby reducing the computational time. The algorithm was implemented using the MATPOWER 5.1 toolbox. The results showed that an optimal DG unit size of 5.5103MW when placed in Market-bus in the Onitsha distribution system reduced the power losses significantly from 3.9176MW to 2.444MW, the voltage profile improved from 0.8825p.u to 1.0155p.u with a faster convergence at the 15 th iteration. Thus, installing DG unit using the proposed MPSO method assures better system characteristics when compared to other methods.