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CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1

SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter presents the conclusion and recommendations for

future research based on the work reported in the previous chapters.

Security of electricity supply is absolutely crucial for the modern society.
Therefore a substantial effort has been made into development of a concept
addressing power systems security from early stages of power systems
evolution. However, recent trends have focused on the improvement of the
economy of electricity supply, introducing significant changes (Such as
systems interconnections, deregulation, trading over large distances,
distributed generation, long distances between load and generation centers
etc.) in power systems operation. These changes have resulted into larger
stresses of transmission systems and thus an inadequacy of security concepts
designed for different conditions. In order to overcome this discrepancy, this
thesis suggests several modifications of the existing security concept. In this
research an efficient and diversified approach using Multi-objective Genetic
Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization is implemented to solve the
voltage security enhancement under preventive and corrective action
strategies.
5.2

SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION

Different

optimization

techniques

were

employed

using

combination of all control tools such as tap setting, static VAr compensations

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and voltage control buses to solve the voltage security problems. The Genetic
Algorithm technique was first considered and then the Particle Swarm
Optimization technique is used. Also, in this thesis, the problems of VSCOPF
have been formulated as a Multi-Objective Optimization work. To solve this,
MOGA algorithm is used. In the proposed approach, the optimization
variables are represented as a mixture of floating point numbers and integers.
Blend crossover and non uniform mutation operators have been applied for
effective genetic operation. The solution obtained by the proposed method not
only minimizes the generation cost but also enhance the voltage security
enhancement. It has been demonstrated that application of these optimization
techniques gave acceptable results as far as the voltage magnitudes at the
system buses are concerned. However, we have noticed that the proposed
optimization technique has achieved better results. Suitable selection of these
parameters has led to global minima. Therefore, the implementation of these
Evolutionary Algorithms is a contribution to the modern heuristics research in
the power system engineering area. All the optimization techniques tackled in
this thesis were programmed using MATLAB code and applied to the
standard IEEE 30-bus test system. In general, the results obtained show the
effectiveness, flexibility and applicability of the proposed voltage security
problems.
MOGA approach is applied to determine optimal location and
setting of SVC. Voltage stability index is taken as an additional objective for
solving this multi-objective problem. The problem is formulated as a real
mixed continuous integer multi-objective optimization problem. It is
concluded that the method described in this research can expand the stability
limit under a variety of conditions. Most importantly, it is concluded that the
algorithm provides potential for much further increase in the stability limit by
the use of additional controls such as synchronous condensers or shunt
capacitors. Estimation of voltage stability level using the proposed Lmax

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approach is accurate and fast. The proposed Evolutionary Algorithm based

techniques are more effective in finding the optimal solutions under normal
case and contingency conditions.
5.3

CONCLUSIONS
This research work has focused on voltage security enhancement

using multi-objective genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization

techniques. The proposed algorithm for security enhancement problem has
been tested and validated on IEEE test systems. Based on the simulation
result and observation made, the developed algorithm is found to be much
efficient for voltage security enhancement problem. The proposed
evolutionary algorithm overcomes the difficulties and limitations encountered
by the conventional approaches for solving VSCOPF problem.
5.4

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE WORK

The possible extensions of the present work are listed below:

Multi-objective Optimization techniques like non-dominated
sorting

genetic algorithm (NSGA-II),

Strength

Pareto

evolutionary algorithms(SPEA) can be applied for solving

voltage security problems.
Voltage stability evaluation can be done by other methods like
modal analysis, loadability margin, continuation power flows
e.t.c instead of L-index value.
Other FACTS devices like TCSC, STATCOM and UPFC can
also be considered for enhancing voltage security.
Differential evolution algorithm can be applied for solving
corrective action of voltage security enhancement.

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5.5

APPLICATION VALUE
To solve the voltage security enhancement problem, electricity

board and load dispatch centre may make use of the concept of this research
work. The proposed evolutionary algorithm techniques can also be used to
solve the other power system optimization problems faced by the electric
utilities.