FACTS Devices Allocation for Power Transfer Capability Enhancement and Power System Losses Reduction

In this paper, a hybrid evolutionary algorithm (HEA) is proposed to determine the optimal placement of multi-type flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices to simultaneously maximize the total transfer capability (TTC) and minimize the system real power loss of power transfers in deregulated power systems. Multi-objective optimal power flow (OPF) with FACTS devices including TTC, power losses, and penalty functions is used to evaluate the feasible maximum TTC value and minimum power loss within real and reactive power generation limits, thermal limits, voltage limits, stability limits, and FACTS devices operation limits. Test results on the modified IEEE 30-bus system indicate that optimally placed OPF with FACTS by the HEA approach could enhance TTC far more than those from evolutionary programming (EP), tabu search (TS), hybrid tabu search and simulated annealing (TS/SA), and improved evolutionary programming (IEP) algorithms, leading to much efficient utilization of the existing transmission systems.