Abstract
A new optimization technique, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), which is inspired from sociopolitical phenomenon of imperialistic competition, is proposed in this paper for optimal design of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) in a multimachine environment. PV curves are illustrated to deduce the best location of STATCOM. The STATCOM parameter tuning problem is converted to an optimization problem which is solved by ICA. The performance of the proposed ICA based STATCOM (ICASTATCOM) is compared with Genetic Algorithm (GA) based STATCOM (GASTATCOM) and open loop STATCOM under various operating conditions and disturbances. The superiority of the proposed technique in damping oscillations and enhancing voltage profiles over a wide range of operating conditions and system configurations is confirmed through eigenvalues and time domain simulation results. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.