Minimisation of power loss by network reconfiguration and capacitor installation using modified cultural algorithm

Abstract

The transmission and distribution loss is an unwanted phenomenon which can be reduced by installing capacitor locally at the buses or by reconfiguring the network. A new heuristic soft computing method called the modified cultural algorithm is applied to both the network reconfiguration and as well as to the capacitor allocation in order to reduce the real power loss. Standard IEEE 16 bus distribution network and a practical transmission network are taken for verifying the applicability of this method by introducing the concept of cost minimisation of the system. An associated cost has been observed to be reduced from US$ 1648970.4 to US$ 674654.00 in the transmission network after considering the above modification. The cost for distribution system has also been reduced from US$ 85848.00 to US$ 76546.26 with the installation of the capacitor and reconfiguring the network. The modified cultural algorithm has outperformed particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and real coded genetic algorithm (rcGA) for real power loss and cost minimisation in 16 bus radial distribution system.