Reactive Power Control in Distribution System Using Genetic Algorithms

Reactive power control becomes extremely important after deregulation because costumers request high quality power supply with reasonable price. On the other hand, Distributed Generations (DGs) have attracted increasing attention due to considerations of environmental sustainability. Wind farm is one of the DGs and can provide considerable power generation. This paper presents a method using wind generator voltage, static compensator and transformer tap as controllers to regulate the voltage profile in the distribution system. Through Genetic Algorithms (GAs), the MW loss in the system is minimized and the operational constraints are fulfilled. Two encodings are adopted/compared in the proposed method, namely binary-tabulated code and Gray code. Applicability of the proposed method is verified through simulation using a 17-bus system and an autonomous 24-bus (Penghu) system.