Optimal reactive power dispatch by an improved real coded genetic algorithm with PCA mutation

An optimal reactive power dispatch is a real power transmission losses minimization problem, while maintaining real and reactive power balances at all system buses and satisfying different system inequality constraints. It is a highly nonlinear complex optimization problem which requires a robust and effective solution technique for achieving global optimal solution efficiently. This paper proposes a principle component analysis based mutation operator for improving the performance of real coded genetic Algorithm to deal such type of problems. The proposed algorithm is tested for IEEE-57 bus system for optimal reactive power dispatch problem. The simulation results obtained are compared with various optimization methods available in literature.