Abstract
Distribution networks have entered a new era with the broad adoption of the distributed generation (DG) allocation as a practical solution for addressing power losses, voltage variation, and voltage stability. The primary goal is to enhance techno-economic and environmental characteristics while meeting the limitations of the system. In order to allocate DGs in active distribution networks (ADNs) efficiently, this study demonstrates two optimization methods inspired by nature: ant lion optimization (ALO) and multiverse optimization (MVO). Various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are used to find the best possible solution among the different alternatives. On the IEEE 33- and 69-bus active distribution networks, the proposed ALO was shown to be effective and produces the highest loss reduction in the IEEE 33- and 69-bus systems at 94.43% and 97.16%, respectively, and the maximum voltage stability index (VSI) was 0.9805 p.u and 0.9937 p.u, respectively; moreover, the minimum voltage deviation (V-D) and annual energy loss cost for the given test systems was 0.00019 p.u and 3353.3 PKR, which shows that the suggested method can produce higher quality results as compared to other methods presented in the literature. Therefore, the proposed ALO is a very efficient, effective, and appealing solution to the optimal allocation of the distributed generation (OADG) problem.