International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]
Optimal Location and Parameters of GUPFC for
Transmission Loss Minimization Using PSO
Algorithm
Dany Varghese
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Christ University Faculty of Engineering
Bangalore, India
danyvarghese47@gmail.com
Abstract— Transmission losses are one of the major losses
faced by our power system. Reduction of transmission losses will
benefit us by saving a large amount of power. The transmission
losses can be reduced by placing FACTS devices in the power
system. Among all the FACTS devices Unified Power Flow
Controller (UPFC) and Generalized Unified Power Flow
Controller (GUPFC) are the best. Incorporating the GUPFC in to
the power system and placing it to the optimal location and
setting its output to optimal values can reduce the transmission
losses. This paper explains the way to locate the optimal location
of GUPFC and finding the optimal setting using PSO algorithm
to reduce the total transmission losses. Voltage variation is taken
as the criteria for finding the location and PSO is used for finding
the settings of GUPFC. This study is conducted on an IEEE 14-
bus system using MATLAB software.
Keywords— FACTS, UPFC, GUPFC, PSO, transmission
losses, LSF,CPF.(key words)
I. INTRODUCTION
Power system is growing day by day as the power
requirement is increased. As most of the generating stations
are far away from the loads, the power produced should be
transmitted through a large complex network which interlinks
many transformers, transmission lines, cables etc. due to this a
large amount of power is lost during the transmission. As the
transmission loss are more in current power system, this
increases the burden of the generating stations and
transmission line capacity. If the transmission loss is able to
reduce a great amount of power could be saved. By
incorporating some construction modification, the
transmission losses can be reduced. But as Indian power
system has already a vast network, the modification of each
and every transmission line is more complicated. Therefor the
other solution is that to look for another alternative solution
which reduce the transmission losses. Incorporation of
different FACTS devises into the power system helps in many
ways to improve the performance of the power system [1]. By
using the FACTS controllers which controls or varies more
than one parameters of the system will be a better solution.
978-1-5090-5682-8 /17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Varaprasad Janamala
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Christ University Faculty of Engineering
Bangalore, India
varaprasad.janamala@christuniversity.in
Among all the FACTS devices UPFC and GUPFC are the
ones which are capable of controlling many system parameters
simultaneously. By proper setting and placement of GUPFC,
the transmission losses and congestion can be mitigated as
described in [2]. The use of FACTS devices for congestion
management is explained in [3]. The way to minimize the
losses, by incorporating UPFC into the network is also
explained in [1]. UPFC can be also used for enhancing the
system security [4] so there are many used for UPFC and
GUPFC is just the modified form of UPFC. The use of UPFC
for minimizing the distribution losses and improving the node
voltage profile is explained in [5].
The optimal location of the FACTS controllers place an
important role in the operating status of the power system. In
specific the uses of Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm
(NSGA-II) for finding the optimal location of the UPFC is
given in [6]. It uses the voltage sensitivity factor and line
stability factor in the NSGA for reducing the active power loss
by placing the UPFC at optimal location. In its objective
function the cost of UPFC is also included. An algorithm
which helps in finding the optimal location of FACTS
controllers is depicted in [7] and [8] also. It uses the particle
swam optimization algorithm and takes the three different
criteria as objective function. In [9] and [10] the location of
FACTS controllers are found out with the help of sensitivity
factor. In [11] the N-1 contingency and the sensitivity factor
together is used for finding the optimal location of UPFC. In
[12] performance index is used for obtaining the location of
UPFC.
In this paper GUPFC is placed optimally in IEEE 14-bus
test system with the help of load scaling factor and the optimal
setting of GUPFC is found out with the help of Particle Swam
Optimization (PSO) algorithm. This paper is organized as
follows: Following the introduction the mathematical model of
GUPFC is briefed. In section III the algorithms and conditions
used for finding the location and parameter settings is
explained. In section IV the result and discussion and finally a
brief conclusion is deduced.
1
 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

II. MATHEMATICAL MODALING OF GUPFC 1. Distribute the total loads in the system among all the
In literature, the FACTS devices can be modeled in two generators according to the ratios of maximum
ways. (i) Current injection modeling, (ii) power injection capacity of each generators.
modeling. Among these models, the power injection model is 2. Conduct the load flow analysis for finding the base
simple and easy. When the power injection model is case losses and voltage profile of all the buses.
considered the modification of jacobian matrix is not required 3. Increment the loads and generations using load
this will reduce huge and complex computations during load scaling factor (LSF).
flow studies. The more detailed of GUPFC power injection 4. For each increment, conduct load flow analysis and
model can be found in [14, 15]. The complete power injection find voltage at all the buses.
model of GUPFC integrated in lines are given in Fig. 1 [14]. 5. Until the maximum generation limit of any
generators are violated increase the LSF and repeat
the process.
6. Find the bus which has greatest voltage variation due
to the variation of LSF.
Select the bus with the greater voltage variation as the
location for placing the shunt converter of GUPFC and connect
the series converters to the transmission line connected with
this bus.

B. PSO Algorithm for Parameters Optimization

The flow chart given in figure 2(a), 2(b), 2(c) is used for
finding the optimal setting of GUPFC.

Fig. 1: Complete power injection model of GUPFC

Where ‘r’ is the per unit value of injected voltage and ‘ γ ’ is

the phase angle of injected voltage. These are the variables
whose optimal values should be found out.
III. OPTIMAL LOCATION AND PARAMETERS OF GUPFC
PSO is a population based optimization method which was
invented by Dr. Kennedy and DR. Eberthart in 1995. The
behavior of birds searching for food is taken as the reference of
this algorithm. In [16] PSO algorithm is used for finding the
optimal setting of the UPFC control parameters for attaining
power system stability. The use of PSO algorithm for placing
the UPFC in optimal location of a power system is explained in
[17]. The use of improved PSO for finding the location of
FACTS devices is also explained in [18]. PSO is accurate and
simple optimization tool in which a separate control on local
and global search can be done. When comparing with the
genetic algorithm PSO do not have any cross overs and
mutations this makes the calculation simpler. Apart from above
mentioned advantages all particles in PSO are kept as members
of the population throughout the course of the problem, which
make it simpler in analysis. Hence PSO has been used for
optimizing the GUPFC parameters in this paper.

A. Proposed Approach for finding Location of GUPC

The following steps has been followed to identify GUPFC

location. Fig. 2(a): Proposed Algorithm

2
 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]
Fig. 2(b): Proposed Algorithm Continuation
GUPFC can be connected to more than two transmission
lines. According to the number of lines connected to the bus
selected for placing the shunt converter of GUPFC, the
number of series converters can be selected. As number of
series converters increases the number of controllable
parameters also increases. This makes the system more
controllable and flexible.
Fig. 2(c): Proposed Algorithm
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The above explained approaches can be implemented in
IEEE 14-bus test system. IEEE 14-bus test system has 5
generator buses and 9 load buses. It is a network carrying 20
transmission lines. The five generators are located in 1st, 2nd,
3rd, 6th, and 8th buses. The total base load of this system is 259
MW.
A. Optimal Location in IEEE 14-bus Test System
To increase transmission system loading ability, one way
is to decrease the burden on slack bus. In traditional loading
ability calculations, the increasing load on the system is
dispatched by slack bus. This causes more burden on the slack
bus and consequently more loading effect on the lines which
are incident to slack bus. Hence in this paper we are proposing
distributed generation where increased load to be compensated
by all the generators. The generation schedule for a specific
3
 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

load is computed using the equation (1). According to its 680.911MW and has a total loss 39.32 MW. The generations
maximum capacity of each generator the total load has been of each generators at this condition are following: G1=
distributed. It is similar to loss allocation among all the 332.375 MW, G2= 123.405 MW, G3= 88.150 MW, G6=
generators to decrease burden on the slack bus as proposed in 88.150 MW and G8= 88.150 MW.
[21]. The total load is been distributed to all the five
generators using following equation (1) From this it is clear that even though we have a maximum
generation capacity of 772.4MW only a total generation of
PGi , Max 720.231 MW can be utilized. This is due to losses in the
PGib = n
* PDb (1) system, generation limits and efficiency of the system. The
¦ PGi, Max total losses produced under this condition is 39.355MW.
i =1 The variation of load using the LSF will also effect the
voltage level of buses. The variation of each buses in the test
NLb
system with the variation of load scaling factor is shown in the
where, PDb = ¦ Pdi (2) figure 3(a) and figure 3(b) below. In the first figure only the
i =1
voltage variation of the generator buses are shown and in the
second figure the voltage variation of load buses are shown. In
PDn = (1 + LSF ) PDb (3)
both the cases LSF is varied from 0 to 2.629. Bus one is
considered as slack bus. Except for the slack bus, in all other
NLb
busses, that is, for both generator buses and load buses has a
PDn = ¦ Pdi (1 + LSF ) (4)
i =1
drooping characteristics. This indicates that as the loads are
increasing the voltages are reducing. As in this case study bus
1 is taken as slack bus it supplies all the losses and make its
Where, PGib is the base case generation and PGi ,max is its
self to have a constant voltage profile but in practical case
maximum capacity limit of unit i, PDb is total load under base there is no such busses so slack bus act as normal generator
case on the system, NLb is number of load buses, Pdi is the bus. So it will also have a drooping characteristics.
load at each buses, PDn is the new load. This new total load is 1.1

again distributed among all the generators using the equation 1.08
(1). Each time the value of LSF is slightly increased. This
VOLTAGES AT EACH GENERATION BUSES

process is repeated until MW limit of generators are violated. 1.06

Considering base case, using equation (1) we get the 1.04

generation of each generator as following: G1= 111.46 MW,
G2= 46.94 MW, G3= 33.53 MW, G6= 33.53 MW and G8= 1.02

33.53 MW 1

V1
This values are substituted as each of the generation. Now by 0.98
V2

using the load flow analysis the power flow and losses of each 0.96
V3
V4
transmission lines is been calculated. Newton Raphson load V5

flow analysis is used here for finding the voltages of each bus 0.94
0.5 1 1.5
LOAD SCALING FACTOR
2 2.5 3

and then the transmission losses in each line. Under the base Fig. 3(a) : Variation of voltages of generator bus with LSF
case result the total active power losses is 4.639 MW. Power
loss in the transmission lines are interlinked to the voltages in 1.1

the buses and thus the locating of the GUPFC can be found
out by finding out the bus which has the greatest voltage 1.05
fluctuation.
VOLTAGE AT EACH LOAD BUSES

The loads in the test system are increased simultaneously

using the load scaling factor (LSF). The value of LSF has a 1

limit. We can increase the load up to a value where the

generations of each generators are not out of limit, also the 0.95
V4
V5
iteration of NR method should converge within 10 iteration V7

and the total maximum capacity of generation has reached. V9

V10
When the load factor are increase to a value of LSF=2.98, 0.9 V11

there convergence is occurring but the generation on the bus 1 V12

V13
is out of the limit. Thus this much increase of the loads are not V14
0.85
possible. So LSF is decreased to a value such that the 0.5 1 1.5
LOAD SCALING FACTOR
2 2.5 3

maximum limit of all the generators are satisfied. This occurs Fig. 3(a) : Variation of voltages of load bus with LSF
at a value of LSF=2.629. At this condition the total load is

4
 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

From the graph it is understood that bus 14 has the

greatest voltage fluctuation (black line). So the place where 3.78

more control of voltage fluctuation requirement is 14th bus.

3.77
Thus we can place the GUPFC in 14th bus. As there are two
transmission lines from the 14th bus the two series converters 3.76
of the GUPFC can be connected to those two lines. Thus the

Active power Losses

location of the GUPFC is fount based on the voltage variation 3.75
with the LSF. The location of GUPFC can also be found out
using the value CPF as in [13]. The location of GUPFC in 3.74
IEEE 14 bus test system as per CPF is 9th bus and 14th bus, as
voltage variation is considered the 14th bus is selected as the 3.73

optimal location. This same method can be used for finding

3.72
the location of GUPFC for any system.
B. Optimal Parameter settings of GUPFC 3.71
0 20 40 60 80 100
Iteration

The optimal allocation of the settings of GUPFC is also

important when the operation of power system is considered.
From the mathematical model it can be identified that, the
factors which can be varied is the per. unit value of injected
voltage (r) and the phase angles of injected voltage ( γ ). These
values can be varied and controlled to reduce the transmission
losses. This is done through the PSO algorithm. As here we
have two transmission lines going out from the 14th bus. We
can use a GUPFC having one shunt converter and two series
converters. The two series converters are connected to the
Fig. 4: Variation of Active power losses
Apart from the saving of the power there is a benefit or
improvement in the voltage profile. The comparison of the
voltage profile in the system with and without the placement
of GUPFC under base case is shown in the figure 5.
1.1
Without GUPFC
With GUPFC
1.08
V o lta g e a t e a c h b u s e s

transmission line connecting 13th -14th bus and 14th – 9th bus.
Thus we have two variables representing per. unit value of
injected voltage and two variables representing the phase
angle of the injected voltage. Taking the objective function as
minimizing the transmission losses, the values of the four
variables are found out using the proposer algorithm explained
in section III.B
Each time the Newton Raphson load flow is run for finding
the voltages in each buses and transmission losses. In [19] and
[20] a detailed explanation of Newton Raphson Load flow
analysis and the transmission losses is provided. Through the
proposed methods the total loss occurred in base case (4.639
MW) could be reduced to a value of 3.718MW. The result got
from the proposed algorithm are as shown below:
(r1 )r14 −13 = 0.9693 pu
(r2 )r14 − 9 = 0.9965 pu
(γ 1 )γ 14 −13 = 6.2006rad
(γ 2 )γ 14 − 9 = 5.6069rad
With the settings shown above, the total loss occurred in the
14 bus IEEE test system is 3.718 MW. There is saving of
0.928 MW of power just by placing the GUPFC. The variation
of total losses in each iteration is shown in the figure 4.
This is for a small system, as the system size increases the
power which could be saved by the placement of GUPFC will
also increase.
1.06
1.04
1.02
1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Buses
Fig. 5: Comparison of voltage profile with and without GUPFC placement
V. C ONCLUTION
This paper explains one of the way to reduce the active
power losses by optimal placement of GUPFC in the IEEE 14
bus test system. By finding the optimal location and the
optimal settings of the GUPFC, the total active power losses is
reduced. Variation of the voltage level with the load scaling
factor is used for finding the optimal location and PSO
algorithm is used for finding the optimal setting of the
GUPFC. From these experimental study it has been found that
by proper allocation and settings of GUPFC in a system, the
transmission losses can be reduced to a certain extend and can
lead to efficient operation of power system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was completed at the Power System
Simulation Laboratory in Electrical Engineering Department of
Christ University, Bangalore. We thank the authorities in
Christ University for the support offered.

5
 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]
REFERENCES
[1] Kumar, SV Ravi, and S. Siva Nagaraju. "Loss Minimization by
incorporation of UPFC in load flow studies," International Journal of
Electrical and power engineering, Vol.1, No.3,pp: 321-327, 2007.
[2] Ryuta Saino, T. Takeshita, Norihisa Izuhara and F. Ueda, "Power flow
estimation and line-loss-minimization control using UPFC in loop
distribution system,"In proceding of IPEMC '09. IEEE 6th International
Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, 2009., Wuhan, , pp.
2426-2431, 2009.
[3] Reddy, Keshi Reddy Saidi, Narayana Prasad Padhy, and R. N. Patel.
"Congestion management in deregulated power system using FACTS
devices." In proceding of IEEE Power India Conference, pp. 7803-
9525, 2006.
[4] J. S. Amirtham and V. Uma, "Optimal location of unified power flow
controller enhancing system security," In proceeding of Second
International Conference on Science Technology Engineering and
Management (ICONSTEM), Chennai, pp. 326-331, 2016.
[5] S. P. Jaiswal and V. Shrivastava, "Allocation of UPFC in distribution
system to minimize the losses," In proceeding of Innovative
Applications of Computational Intelligence on Power, Energy and
Controls with their impact on Humanity (CIPECH), Ghaziabad, pp. 202-
205, 2014.
[6] I. M. Wartana and N. P. Agustini, "Optimal placement of UPFC for
maximizing system loadability and minimizing active power losses in
system stability margins by NSGA-II," in proceeding of International
Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI),
Bandung, pp. 1-6, 2011.
[7] A. Kumar, “Advantages of Using FACTS Controller in AC - HVDC
Transmission Lines,” In proceeding of International Journal for
Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET), vol.
2, pp. 2321-9653, December 2014.
[8] Nireekshana, T., G. Kesava Rao, and S. Raju. "Incorporation of unified
power flow controller model for optimal placement using particle swam
optimization technique." In proceeding of 3rd International Conference
on Electronics Computer Technology (ICECT), Vol. 1, 2011.
[9] Rajalakshmi, L., M. V. Suganyadevi, and S. Parameswari. "Congestion
management in deregulated power system by locating series FACTS
devices," In proceeding of International journal of Computer
applications, Vol.13, pp: 0975-8887, 2011.
[10] Suresh, Ch V., et al. "Power flow analysis in the presence of Power
Injection Model of IPFC." In proceeding of First International
Conference on. IEEE Automation, Control, Energy and Systems (ACES),
2014.
[11] Lubis, R. S., Hadi, S. P., & Tumiran,” Using the UPFC and GUPFC
controllers to maximize available transfer capability
(ATC)”. International Journal on Electrical Engineering and
Informatics, Vol.6, No.2, pp: 374-393, 2014.
[12] C. V. Suresh, object Object, and S. S. Raju, "Mathematical modeling
and analysis of a generalized unified power flow controller with device
rating methodology," International Journal on Electrical Engineering and
Informatics, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 59–78, Mar. 2015.
[13] V. Janamala, C.S. Koritala,” Optimal location of UPFC for congestion
relief in deregulated power system,” Journal of Electrical Engineering,
Vol. 4, 2014.
[14] R. S. Lubis, S. P. Hadi, and T., “Modeling of the generalized unified
power flow controller for optimal power flow,” In proc. of the 2011
International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics, 17-
19 July, Bandung, Indonesia, pp:4577-0752, 2011.
[15] Vyakaranam, B., and F. E. Villaseca. "Dynamic modeling and analysis
of generalized unified power flow controller," Electric Power Systems
Research, vol.106, pp. 1-11, 2014.
[16] A. T. Al-Awami, Y. Abdel-Magid, and M. Abido, “A particle-swarm-
based approach of power system stability enhancement with unified
power flow controller,” International Journal of Electrical Power &
Energy Systems, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 251–259, 19 July 2007.
[17] Nireekshana, T., G. Kesava Rao, and S. Raju. "Incorporation of unified
power flow controller model for optimal placement using particle swam
optimization technique." In proceeding of 3rd International Conference
on Electronics Computer Technology (ICECT), Vol. 1, 2011.
[18] Ravi, K., and M. Rajaram. "Optimal location of FACTS devices using
improved particle swarm optimization." International Journal of
Electrical Power & Energy Systems. Vol. 49, pp: 333-338, 2013.
[19] Allen J. Wood and Bruce F. Wollenberg: Power Generation , Operation
and Control, J.Wiley & Sons, Feb 1996.
[20] Hadi Saadat: Power System Analysis, PSA Publishing, 2010.
[21] Tong, Shiqiong, and Karen Nan Miu. "A network-based distributed
slack bus model for DGs in unbalanced power flow studies." IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems 20.2 (2005): 835-842.