Reactive power compensation of radial distribution feeders: a new approach

In this paper, we introduce a new heuristic search strategy for reactive power compensation in radial distribution feeders. The method is a generalized technique of idea emerged from heuristic techniques and leads to better results. The method formulae are derived and the technique is applied to three feeders. Results of the proposed approach are compared with previous methods to show the superiority of the proposed method. To show the closeness or remoteness from the optimal solution after implementing these methods, a new algorithm using the variational technique is presented to obtain the optimal capacitor allocation according to available standard sizes of capacitors.