A particle swarm optimization approach for reactive power dispatch

This paper presents a particle swarm optimization approach for solving the reactive power dispatch problem. The reactive power dispatch problem is formulated as a nonlinear constrained optimization problem with continuous and discrete variables. The objective of the formulation is to minimize the transmission real power losses by controlling the voltages magnitudes at PV buses, the transformers taps settings and the adjustable capacitor banks capacity while satisfying the operating constraints of the system. The proposed method has been tested on the IEEE 30 bus test system. The results obtained show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.