Load Profile Effect on Shunt Capacitor Placement in Radial Distribution Feeders

Capacitor placement in electric power systems is an effective way to minimize energy losses, especially in distribution systems, where power losses are more than transmission ones. On the other hand, time-varying load levels affect energy losses amount in such networks. Therefore, load profile has an important role in determining the amount of power losses and the optimal place of shunt capacitors in radial feeders. However, embedding load variability in the capacitor placement problem enhances the computational burden and processing time, while its ignorance leads to inaccurate calculation of energy losses and subsequent optimal locations of capacitor banks. Hence, most of specialized studies have ignored load changes in their capacitor placement models because of computational burden and processing time increase. Accordingly, the present paper intent to evaluate the effect of consumption patterns on capacitor placement proposals in order to understand the importance of load variability consideration in reducing power losses through reactive power compensation. The analysis has been carried out using a mathematical programming language in several distribution systems.