Abstract
High energy demands put ample load on power distribution systems which negatively impacts their performance. Excessive loading in distribution systems lead to more voltage drops, higher losses, and transformer/feeder overloads. As a low-cost solution, a capacitor bank can be installed to address these issues. However, their optimal size and location need to be determined in order to maximize its benefits. This paper proposes a voltage-to-load sensitivity-based strategy to find an optimal placement for the capacitor bank in a distribution network to reduce system active losses. Moreover, a feasible set of capacitor values is determined based on the system losses and voltage profiles. The proposed approach is tested on a test primary distribution system. The results prove the desired performance of the proposed approach.