Optimal reactive power dispatch has an influential impact on improving the power quality of different utilities connected to the power system. It is a non-linear, non-convex, mixed-integer type problem formulated to minimize the active power loss considering generator voltage, tap setting value, and reactive power compensation as a control variable. In this article, a novel modified whale optimization algorithm is applied to solve this problem. A non-linear adaptive weight and an improved golden sign operator are being used to modify the basic whale algorithm. It improves the randomness due to parameter variation and enlarges the search area for accurate global solutions. It prevents the algorithm from local convergence. It also improves the convergence speed as compared to the basic whale optimization algorithm. It is tested and verified on the standard IEEE-57 bus system and IEEE-118 bus system. The solutions given by this method are compared with that of recently developed techniques for proving its dominance over the other techniques. The power losses of the IEEE-57 bus system are reduced to 1.78% and for the IEEE-118 bus system are reduced to 2.66%. Additionally, the comparative statistical analysis is performed in terms of the probability density function and cumulative density function along with the Wilcoxon rank test on the above test systems for 30 independent runs. The statistical analysis results prove that this algorithm is highly efficient in solving this problem compared to other techniques.