Optimal location of voltage regulators in unbalanced radial distribution system for loss minimization using particle swarm optimization

This paper describes an approach for modelling of automatic voltage regulator using the forward/backward sweep-based algorithms for unbalanced radial distribution systems. Power loss indices are first found at each branch except source bus and the bus that has the highest power loss index are picked as the best location for the voltage regulators placement. To obtain the tap position of the voltage regulators that maintain the voltages within the limits of the unbalanced radial distribution systems by minimizing an objective function, consisting of power loss. PSO is used to find the selection of tap position of the voltage regulators. An algorithm makes the initial selection, installation and tap position setting of the voltage regulators to provide a good voltage profile and to minimize power loss along the distribution network. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated on a test system of 25 bus unbalanced radial distribution systems.