Assessment of power distribution system losses and mitigation through optimally placed D-STATCOM: (A case study: Gesuba town 15 kV distribution system)

Abstract

In general, power distribution losses are a crucial issues in the power industry. Although this is a global concern however this study is conducted in a Gesuba town 15 kV power distribution system consisting of 19 distribution transformers with total demand of 2.522 MW. High loss factor and less voltage stability issues are one of the most challenging issues in the town. A backward/forward sweep load flow analysis was utilized to analyze the system with application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to find the kVAR size and the location of distribution static compensator (D-STATCOM) for objective of reducing power loss and improving the voltage profile. From the assessment, the critical bus is found as bus #6 with the optimal size of about 986 kVAR. From the data analysis, the average load factor (LF) and loss factor (LSF) are found as 47.013% and 11.71%, respectively. The town’s voltage-dependent load model is developed. A load flow analysis revealed that the average bus voltage magnitude before and after D-STATCOM integration is about 0.9148 pu and 0.9767 pu, respectively, with active power loss of 461.6203 kW and 179.2530 kW. It can be deduced from this analysis that the developed model appropriately represents the actual system, thus indicating that it would be advantageous for the utility to consider investing in implementing the proposed approach to achieve better performance.