Electric Power Systems Research 68 (2004) 167
/173

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Effects of unbalances and harmonics on optimal capacitor placement

in distribution system
T. Ghose a, S.K. Goswami b,*
a
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Section, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, India
b
Power System Section, Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

Received 29 January 2002; received in revised form 28 March 2003; accepted 28 May 2003

Abstract

A method comprising of heuristic search technique and simulated annealing (SA) has been proposed for solving the problem of
optimal capacitor placement in radial distribution system and the effects of network and load unbalances, supply harmonics and
load non-linearities have been studied. The effect of network unbalances is most severe and can be incorporated very easily. But a
new formulation of the problem is needed to include the effects of load unbalances, supply harmonics and load non-linearities as
these are uncertain in nature.
# 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Distribution network; Capacitor placement; Harmonics; Unbalances; Simulated annealing; Heuristic search

1. Introduction distribution system. Inclusion of system unbalances

increases the dimension of the problem as all the three
In real life distribution networks are unbalanced both phases are to be considered separately instead of single
in respect of mutual coupling between phase conductors phase balanced representation. Consideration of har-
and loading on different phases. Moreover, a consider- monics, on the other hand, introduces more constraints
able amount of harmonic distortion exists in distribu- in the problem, thus making the capacitor placement
tion system. Most of the methods developed in the past problem more complex compared with the balanced
for optimally locating and sizing of capacitors in sinusoidal case. In the present paper, simulated anneal-
distribution system, considered the system to be ba- ing (SA) along with heuristic search technique has been
lanced and the supply as sinusoidal [1
/9]. In more used to solve the problem.
recent publications, the need for considering system
unbalances [10,11] and presence of harmonics and non-
linearity of loads [12
/14] have been felt.
But to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no attempt 2. The capacitor placement problem
has been made to solve the complete problem of
capacitor placement giving due considerations to the The objective function of the capacitor placement
presence of both harmonics and unbalances in the problem may be written as:Minimize,
distribution system. X
N X
M X X
L
The aim of the present paper is to investigate the C Cc (Qi )Cc ( [Ipk(rms) ]2 Rpk )Tj
effect of system unbalances, supply harmonics and load i1 j1 Pa;b;c k1
non-linearity on the problem of capacitor placement in qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
p hm
where, Ik(rms)  ðah1 ½Ipk;h ½2 Þ/such that:

* Corresponding author.
(i) Vi;min 5Vi 5Vi;max
E-mail addresses: tirtha_ghose@yahoo.com (T. Ghose), qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
hm
skgoswami_ju@yahoo.co.in (S.K. Goswami). where, Vi  ah1 ½Vi;h ½2
0378-7796/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0378-7796(03)00149-4
168 T. Ghose, S.K. Goswami / Electric Power Systems Research 68 (2004) 167
/173
(ii) THDi 5THDmax
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
uh
uX m
t ½V ½2i;h
h"1
THDi  performing load flow and harmonic analysis. If the
Vi1
where, Ipk(rms), rms current at phase ‘p’ of line ‘k’; hm,
upper limit of the harmonic orders being considered; N,
total number of capacitor locations; L, total number of
lines in the network; M, total number of load levels;
Cc(Qi), cost of capacitor installed at location i; Ce, cost
of energy per unit; Rpk, resistance of phase ‘p’ of line ‘k’;
Tj, duration of jth load level; THDi, total harmonic
distortion at bus i; THDmax, maximum allowable
harmonic distortion; Vi, rms voltage at bus i; Vi1,
fundamental frequency voltage at bus i; Vi,h, hth
harmonic voltage at bus i.
The problem stated above has to be solved consider-
ing the discrete size of available capacitors and the
variation of load during a day. For simplicity, however,
the load
/duration curve may be divided into a number
of time intervals, and during each interval the load may
be assumed to be constant.
The objective function thus represents a combinator-
ial optimization problem for which two well known
methods for solution are (i) Simulated Annealing
Technique, and (ii) Genetic Algorithm.
In this paper, SA technique is used and it is supported
by a newly developed heuristic search technique, which
enhances the speed of the solution.
3. Proposed solution technique
SA is a powerful optimization technique that exploits
the resemblance between a minimization process and the
crystallization in physical system. SA depends upon
three important parameters, initial temperature T, cool-
ing rate b and final temperature Tmin. Solution of the
capacitor placement problem using SA consists of the
following steps:
1) Select an initial temperature ‘T’, a minimum tem-
perature, Tmin, a cooling rate b, and an initial
feasible capacitor kvars, Qi, i/1, 2, . . . n, n being
the total number of probable capacitor locations.
2) Generate new feasible solution in the neighborhood
of the old solution by a suitable perturbation
mechanism.
3) Evaluate the change in cost of the solution as DC /
cost(new solution) /cost(old solution).
4) Check the acceptability of the new solution: accept
the solution if (i) either DC B/0, or (ii) eDC/T /r,
where r is a random number between 0 and 1;
otherwise, discard the new solution.
5) T /bT.
6) If T /Tmin, go to step 2, otherwise, output the
optimum solution.
Feasibility of a solution can be ascertained by
solution is not feasible, a new feasible solution can be
found out using the search technique ‘heuristic search
for a feasible solution’.
Cost of a solution can be evaluated considering the
annualized cost of capacitor, and the annualized cost of
energy loss.
4. Heuristic search for a feasible solution
The SA technique starts with a feasible solution point.
The solution is then perturbed to obtain new feasible
solutions, which are either accepted or discarded,
depending upon some probabilistic acceptance criterion.
A feasible solution refers to capacitor settings at the
probable capacitor locations for which the node vol-
tages, line flows and harmonic distortions are within the
acceptable limits. A heuristic search technique has been
developed for quick detection of the feasible solutions.
The capacitor setting at a node is varied keeping the
capacitor settings at all other location fixed. This
process is repeated for the nodes until a feasible solution
is obtained. In case a feasible solution can not be found
out, the best infeasible solution is accepted. The best
infeasible solution refers to the solution where the
constraint violation is minimum.
The heuristic search technique begins at three arbi-
trary search points within the search space bounded by
the minimum and maximum capacitor kvar available.
During each iteration, the search space is made nar-
rower by moving the boundaries of the search space
around the best of the three search points. The best
search point of an iteration is carried to the next
iteration and two additional search points are selected
within the new search boundary. The flowchart of the
heuristic search is shown in Fig. 1, and the details of the
mechanism is discussed in Appendix A.
5. Perturbation technique
New solutions are searched in the neighborhood of
the old solution following the simple perturbation
techniques as given below:
a) Increase (or decrease) the capacitor kvar at location
i, keeping capacitor kvars at all other locations
unchanged.
b) Increase (or decrease) the capacitor kvar at location
i and decrease (or increase) the capacitor kvar at
location j.
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Fig. 1. Flowchart of the heuristic search technique.
These perturbation mechanisms are to be used along
with the heuristic search technique for finding the
feasible or best infeasible solutions. The complete
algorithm for using the perturbation technique is given
in Fig. 2.
6. Power flow and harmonic analysis
The distribution system has been modeled taking into
the effect of network unbalances. Mutual coupling effect
between phases has been considered and grounding
effect has been included. Presence of 18, 28 and 38 lines
has been modeled. Models for constant power, constant
impedance and constant current type load representa-
tions have been incorporated. Distributed loads have
been modeled using the method proposed in [15]. Effects
of different transformer connections have been incorpo-
rated as proposed in [16]. Shunt capacitor is represented
by constant impedance. The load flow algorithm used is
a simple branch based method.
Fig. 2. Flowchart of the perturbation mechanism.
169
For the harmonic flow study, linear load is repre-
sented by a parallel combination of resistance and
inductance to account for the respective active and
reactive power at fundamental frequency [12].
Non-linear loads are represented by simple ideal
current source. The mixed loads are modeled as an
admittance (representing the linear portion) in shunt
with a current source (representing the non-linear
portion).
For the solution of the harmonic flow problem the
basic loop based algorithm proposed in [17] has been
used as branch based radial load flow type algorithm
which showed convergence difficulties. In this method,
loop equations are written at each harmonic frequency
of interest. Each loop is formed including the source
node. Thus loops for all ‘A’ phases of the load nodes
start at the ‘A’ phase of the source and end at the load
node. While solving the harmonic flow problem the
effect of mutual coupling between phases has been
considered. Formulation of the loop equations are
explained in Appendix B.
7. Test results
Results obtained by solving the capacitor placement
problem of a 23 kV 10 bus system are reported in this
section. The system has a total active and reactive power
loads of 37 105 kW and 12 558 kvar, respectively. The
loads at different buses for balanced loading condition
are shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the network
configuration. Line impedances are calculated consider-
ing the effect of ground as (3 /3) matrix and the
impedance values are shown in Table 4. Table 3 shows
the load
/duration data while the operational con-
straints supply harmonics and the various cost data
are given in Table 5. It has been assumed that capacitors
are available in multiple of 50 kvar.
In order to examine the effect of system unbalances,
supply harmonics and load non-linearity on the opti-
mum compensation level, the capacitor placement of the
Table 1
Bus data
Bus Load per phase (kW, kvar)
1 0.0, 0.0
2 1840.0, 460.0
3 980.0, 340.0
4 1790.0, 446.0
5 1598.0, 1840.0
6 1610.0, 600.0
7 780.0, 110.0
8 1150.0, 60.0
9 980.0, 130.0
10 1640.0, 200.0
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Table 2 Table 5
Branch data Operational constraints and variable cost data

Bus A Bus B Length (mile) Minimum voltage limit 0.95

Maximum voltage 1. 05
1 2 0.63 Permissible THD 5%
2 3 0.88 Cost of energy $0.05 per kW h
3 4 1.70 Cost of capacitor $4 per kvar
4 5 0.81
Supply harmonics (V )
5 6 2.30
Linear load
6 7 1.05
5th harmonic 3%
7 8 1.50
7th harmonic 2%
8 9 3.50
9 10 3.90

load of phase A and load at phase C is lower by same

Table 3
Load
/duration data
Load level 1 2
Per unit load 0.3 0.6
Duration (h) 1000 6760
test network has been solved for the following different
cases.
1) Sinusoidal supply voltage, balanced system and
linear load.
2) Considering the mutual coupling of network, pre-
sence of harmonics and varying the degree of
unbalance in loading.
3) Considering the mutual coupling of network, ignor-
ing supply harmonics and varying the degree of
unbalance in loading.
4) Ignoring the mutual coupling of network, consider-
ing the presence of supply harmonics and varying
the degree of unbalance in loading.
5) Ignoring the mutual coupling of network, ignoring
supply harmonics and varying the degree of un-
balance in loading.
6) Assuming sinusoidal supply voltage, considering
mutual coupling of network, presence of non-linear
load and varying the degree of unbalance in loading.
Capacitive kvar required for the above cases are
summarized in the bar graphs of Figs. 3 and 4.
In the reported results, a x% unbalance indicates that
load at each load node of phase B is x% higher than the
amount, thus keeping the total three phase loads as in
the balanced loading situation.
The following points may be noted:
3
1.1 . Though the total system load remains the same, the
1000 total capacitor kvar for compensation increases with
increase in degree of unbalance in loading (both with
and without harmonics).
. Total kvar required for compensation is less when
harmonics are considered. This is expected as har-
monics increases the rms values.
. The total capacitive kvar required is less when mutual
coupling of the network is considered. This is true for
all level of loading unbalances, whether harmonics
are considered or not.
. The effect of supply harmonics, load non-linearity or
loading unbalance is much less prominent than the
effect of network unbalances.
From the above observations it may be concluded
that while determining the optimum capacitor locations
and sizes of capacitors to be placed on distribution
system, both the system unbalance and the presence of
harmonics in the system should be considered. A
solution without considering these aspects will result in
a non-optimal solution.
8. Effect of ignoring unbalances, harmonics and load non-
linearity
In order to see the effect of ignoring the presence of
unbalances, harmonics and load non-linearity the capa-

Table 4
Impedance matrix including mutual coupling

Z (V/mile)

Zaa Zab Zac Zbb Zbc Zcc

0.7433/j1.2092 0.1566/j0.479 0.1536/j0.3865 0.7526/j1.1758 0.1587/j0.437 0.7472/j1.1959

 T. Ghose, S.K. Goswami / Electric Power Systems Research 68 (2004) 167
/173 171

Table 6
Results showing the effects of supply harmonics, mutual coupling, loading unbalances and load non-linearity

Test case System cost Vmax Vmin THD

A
495 780 1.03261 0.9002
1 (a) 540 934 1.0399 0.925 6.24
1 (b) 546 689 1.042 0.9118 6.81
2 (a) 498 952 1.032 0.9009 4.75
2 (b) 504 585 1.034 0.8684 4.845
3 (a) 532 572 1.039 0.9240
3 (b) 538 287 1.0417 0.910
4 (a) 533 957 1.039 0.9241 1.05
4 (b) 539 681 1.0418 0.9105 1.813
5 (a) 536 697 1.039 0.924 3.892
5 (b) 542 426 1.042 0.9108 3.763
Case Supply harmonics Mutual coupling Loading unbalance Load non-linearity

(B ) Test case specifications

1 (a) Y Y 0 0
1 (b) Y Y 10 0
2 (a) Y N 0 0
2 (b) Y N 10 0
3 (a) N Y 0 0
3 (b) N Y 10 0
4 (a) N Y 0 5
4 (b) N Y 10 5
5 (a) N Y 0 10
5 (b) N Y 10 10

citor placement problem was solved for balanced
sinusoidal system assuming load to be perfectly linear.
The effects of network and load unbalances, supply
harmonics and load non-linearity has then been inves-
tigated on this compensated system and the results thus
obtained are reported in Table 6. The required capacitor
value changes with the changing of the non-linearity and
degree of unbalance in loading as shown in bar graph of
Fig. 5. The following observations can be made:
. The system cost increases in all the cases due to
increased energy losses. Cost increase is minimum in
case where the network unbalance is ignored and
maximum in case where the network unbalance is
considered.
. The difference in the THD values of cases shows that
the network unbalances has great effect on the THD
values also.
. With unbalanced load, variation of voltage from
peak to light load condition is more than the
variation of voltage with balanced load (Fig. 5).

Fig. 3. Capacitor kvar needed for different loading unbalances Fig. 4. Capacitor kvar needed for different loading unbalances
considering mutual coupling effects of the network. ignoring mutual coupling effects of the network.
172 T. Ghose, S.K. Goswami / Electric Power Systems Research 68 (2004) 167
/173

tion. The proposed solution algorithm may well be

applied to solve the problem. The authors are hopeful to
report such a solution very shortly.

Appendix A

Let, Qmin and Qmax are the minimum and maximum

available capacitor sizes. Qlow and Qhigh are the search
boundaries corresponding to the lower and upper
capacitor kvars. Qold is the best capacitor kvar obtained
from the previous step and, Qup is the capacitor kvar at
Fig. 5. Capacitor kvar needed for different loading unbalances as load
the midway between Qold and Qhigh, obtained as,
non-linearity varies.
Qhigh  Qold
9. Conclusion Qup  Qold  (1)
2

This paper investigated on the necessity of considering
both unbalance and the presence of harmonics in
distribution system while solving the capacitor place-
ment problem and has proposed a method for solving
the problem using heuristic search along with SA
technique. Test results indicate that the capacitor kvar
obtained by ignoring network unbalance and supply
harmonics gives overcompensation and thus is not
optimal. A novel heuristic search technique has also
been developed to quickly identify the feasible capacitor
setting. This search technique has been suitably used to
enhance the solution speed of the SA technique.
Though the presence of network unbalances may be
incorporated very easily, it is very difficult to incorpo-
rate the presence of supply harmonics, load non-
linearity and loading unbalances as these data are
generally not known to the utilities and the great
uncertainty involved in these data. It is, however, not
impossible to estimate a possible range of variation of
these data in a utility system from sample test measure-
ments. The authors feel that a new formulation of the
capacitor placement problem is possible where the
supply harmonics, load non-linearity and loading un-
balances may be incorporated as fuzzy data and the
capacitor placement problem may be solved to have the
most acceptable solution instead of the optimum solu-
Qdown is the capacitor kvar in the midway between
Qlow and Qold, obtained as,
Qold  Qlow
Qdown Qold  (2)
2
At the beginning of the search, Qlow is set equal to
Qmin and Qhigh is set equal to Qmax.
Let Sold, Sup and Sdown are the solutions correspond-
ing to Qold, Qup and Qdown.
The search algorithm continues as follows:
1) If either Sold, Sup or Sdown is feasible, stop, other-
wise.
2) (i) If Sold is superior of the three solutions: move
Qlow and Qhigh toward Qold as Qlow /Qdown,
Qhigh /Qup, Qold /Qold and calculate Qup and
Qdown using Eqs. (1) and (2). (ii) If, Qdown is superior
of the three solutions, move Qlow and Qhigh towards
Qdown as Qlow /Qlow, Qhigh /Qold, Qold /Qdown.
(iii) If, Qup is superior of the three solutions, move
Qdown and Qhigh towards Qup as Qlow /Qold,
Qhigh /Qhigh, Qold /Qup.
The search is continued until a feasible solution is
obtained, or the best infeasible solution is found.
Appendix B

Consider the system as shown in (Fig. 6) .

Let, Ia,b,c
i,h , hth harmonic loop currents for a, b, and c
phases involving the source and the loads at node i
[Iai;h Ibi;h Ici;h ]T : Va,b,c
0,h , hth harmonic voltage at the three
phases of the source node /½Va0;h Vb0;h Vc0;h ½T :/
Za,b,c
oi,h , hth harmonic impedance of the three phase line
2 aa 3
Zoi;h Zab oi;h Zac
oi;h
6 7 aa bb cc
section o-i /4Zab oi;h Zbb
oi;h Zbc
oi;h 5/Zoi,h, Zoi,h, Zoi,h, hth
Fig. 6. A network with two load nodes for illustrating the formation Zac
oi;h Zbc
oi;h Zcc
oi;h
of the loop equations for harmonic study.
 T. Ghose, S.K. Goswami / Electric Power Systems Research 68 (2004) 167
/173 173

harmonic self impedances of the line section o-i.Zab oi,h, References

Zac
oi,h , Zbc
oi,h , hth harmonic mutual impedances of the line
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