Optimal load shedding approach in distribution systems for improved voltage stability

In this paper an optimal load shedding approach for electrical distribution network with and without Distributed Generation (DG) to improve the voltage stability is presented. Finding effective location of load shedding for identifying weak buses is very important so that, voltage stability index is used for identifying the sensitive buses to the voltage collapse. The objective is to minimize the sum of curtailed load, voltage deviation index (VDI) and maximization of voltage magnitudes of weak buses with in frame-work of system operational and security constraints. The final optimization problem is then solved by genetic algorithm (GA). A detailed performance analysis is carried out on 33 bus system to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.