DG sizing impact for loss minimization considering cost factor

Distributed Generation (DG) is an auspicious solution to many power system problems such as voltage regulation, power loss minimization, effective operating power factor, etc. This paper presents a modified Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm to suit the searching for the optimal DG sizing and placement in a distribution network. The problem formulation and the proposed technique are tested on a 28-bus Malaysian distribution system. In confirming the effectiveness of this method to determine the minimum power loss which respects to its optimal size and placement, the proposed population-based meta-heuristic approach is compared with the Evolutionary Programming (EP) method for validation and accuracy. The analysis is focused on the sizing impact when considering the cost factor without neglecting the importance to maintain the minimal loss. The results have shown comparatively the same with EP in terms of the computational efficiency. Significance of savings could be achieved while having a low investment of DG installation with a minimum power loss.