A methodology for selective localization of capacitor banks for power systems

The issue of voltage instability has been a predominant one to deal with in what has developed into power systems loaded near its maximum capabilities in recent times. To address this concern, with the added responsibility of accomplishing it with the resources economically, is a challenge in itself. As stated, the problem thus naturally draws attention to the localization of the components able to contribute to the stepping up of overall voltage in the system. This paper discusses a methodology for the suitable selection of buses for the placement of capacitors wherein the injection of a fixed amount of reactive power into each bus is made to depict a picture of the overall improved voltage in the system for the respective injection at that bus. The reduced Jacobian is used to determine the impact of the reactive power injection in the form of system voltage improvement. The significance however lies in this analysis being done for different operating points of the power system using continuation power flow to choose the optimum location for capacitor to affect maximum voltage improvement in total over a range of operating points. The relevant results are enlisted for the IEEE 14 bus system.