Impact of Optimal Location, Size and Number of

Distributed Generation Units on the Performance

of Radial Distribution Systems
Mohamed Shekeew Mostafa Elshahed Magdy Elmarsafawy
Department of Electrical Power and Machines
Faculty of Engineering - Cairo University
Giza, Egypt
*E-mail: shekeew@yahoo.com

Abstract— this paper presents the optimal location, size and
number of different types of distributed generation (DG) units in
distribution systems. The main objective is to minimize the total
power losses by optimal location and size of two types of DG units
considering the voltage limits and the lines’ transfer capacities.
Also, the effect of increasing number of DG units is presented
according to the power factor of the substation and the voltage
profile of the system. Moreover, solutions to improve the
performance of the system in case of using DG units which
supply active power only are suggested. This optimization
problem can be classified as a mixed-integer nonlinear problem
which is difficult to solve by classical optimization techniques.
The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used as an optimization technique
and backward / forward sweep (BFS) method is applied as a load
flow technique. The IEEE 69-bus radial distribution system is
used to test the effectiveness of the proposed models.
Keywords— Distributed generation, Genetic algorithm, back-
ward / forward sweep, mixed-integer nonlinear optimization
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, it's clear that electrical demand load
increases rapidly, so the power rating of the electric utility
must be able to feed this change in the demand. The traditional
solution is to build new distribution systems but this solution
needs high cost for new equipment [1], [2].On the other hand,
a new technique has been applied to satisfy demand locally
and incrementally by investing in distributed generation.
Because of the advancement in technology of power elect-
ronics and energy storage devices, the contribution of dist-
ribution generators is increasing [3].
According to authors of [4], DG units are classified as
Traditional combustion generators and Non-traditional gen-
erators. The traditional combustion generators such as Micro-
turbine (MT). The Non-traditional generators consist of Fuel
Cells, Photovoltaic (PV) and Wind-turbines (WT) which are
renewable energy sources. The main advantages of using
renewable energy sources are clean energy, permanent res-
ources and low running cost. However, the main
disadvantages are relatively low efficiency, and high initial
costs.
Many studies investigated how DG is used in distribution
systems using different optimization techniques. Particle
Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Clonal Selection Algorithm
are the two methods which have been applied to minimize
power losses and improvement of voltage profile on a radial
system [5]. The same objective has been verified by an
algorithm which has been written in C-language for
Implementation of DG to radial distribution feeder heavily
overloaded with non-uniformly distributed load. The
algorithm was based on analytical approach and had been
implemented on the 11 kV radial distribution feeders of
Panian in Pakistan with non-uniformly distributed loads (168
nodes) [6]. The author of reference [7] applied a numerical
method to get the size of the distributed generation to
minimize the power losses and generation costs. On the other
hand, A multi-objective cost function considering active
power loss, reliability index and DG cost has been used to find
the optimal size and location of DG units solved by Genetic
Algorithm [8]. For the same purpose of the power losses
reduction, A Meta heuristic Harmony Search Algorithm has
been applied to identify the optimal locations for installation
of DG units in a distribution network [9] however, A Meta
heuristic optimization algorithm has been presented for
optimal placement and sizing of DGs in a large scale radial
distribution system to minimize network power losses and to
improve the voltage stability [10].
The authors in [11] have proposed an effective improved
analytical (IA) method for allocating different types DG units
for loss reduction in primary distribution networks. This
method has been applied to calculate the optimal size of
different DG types. However, the optimal number has not
been addressed. Complementing the work of [11], but by
using different optimization technique. The main objective is
to minimize the total power losses by optimal location and
size of two types of DG sources. Also the effect of increasing
number of DG units is presented according to the power factor
of the substation and the voltage profile of the system.
Moreover, solutions to improve the performance of the system
in case of using DG units which supply active power only are
suggested. The GA is used as an optimization technique and
backward / forward sweep (BFS) method is applied as a load

978-1-5090-2320-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

flow technique to solve this problem. The approach is applied
on IEEE 69-bus radial distribution system.
II. METHODOLOGY
This section focuses on a detailed description of using BFS
method and GA to optimize the total power losses in the IEEE
69-bus system.
A. The Total Power losses
The total active losses in the power networks are presented
by the following formula.
j The main objective of this approach is to optimize the size and
PL = ™ Ibr 2
(j) * Rbr(j) (1)
j=1
j the total number of lines.
PL the total active power losses.
Ibr (j) the distribution line current of line (j).
Rbr (j) is the distribution line resistance of line (j).
B. Backward / Forward Sweep Load Flow Algorithm
The radial distribution systems are characterized by their
radial nature and high R/X ratio [12]. Some of the power flow
techniques have been applied on radial systems such as
Newton-Raphson, Gauss-Seidel. These methods may become
inefficient for the distribution network because of its special
features like radial form, high R/X ratio and unbalanced load
etc. [13].
On the otherwise, some algorithms are suitable for power
flow of the radial distribution systems such as the branch
injection to branch current matrix (BIBC) and the BFS
method. The BIBC technique has been applied by Jen-Hao
Teng [14].This matrix is formed by applying Kirchhoff’s
current law for the distribution network. In this paper, BFS
Load Flow Algorithm is applied to solve power flow for the
radial test system. A brief description of the BFS method is
presented in [15]. The following flow chart in Fig.1 describes
the operation steps of BFS method.
C. The optimization technique (Genetic Algorithm)
A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a programming algorithm
that mimics biological evolution based on Darwinian’s
principle of evolution and survival of fittest to optimize a
population of candidate solutions towards fitness.
The GA starts to generate a random population of chrom-
osomes where these chromosomes form the location and the
size of the distributed generators as shown in Fig.2 .They are
formed based on the defined constraints of the fitness
function. These chromosomes are used to evaluate the fitness
function which presents the total power losses of the system.
The new population is produced based on two operators,
crossover and mutation. The main objective of crossover is to
search the parameter space. The loss of the information is
prevented by the mutation operator [16]. After generating new
population and evaluating the change in the result of the
fitness function, it will stop if no changing in the value of
the fitness function or the number of defined iterations
reached. This process is illustrated in Fig.3. The Mutation
probability and crossover probability are set as 0.2 and 0.8,
respectively. The number of the initial population and the
maximum number of iterations are selected 20 and 200,
respectively. Finally, the final chromosome in this process is
the solution of this problem.
DG1 DG2
Location Location
PDG1 QDG1 PDG2 QDG2
Fig. 2. The chromosome of location and size of DG units .
III. PROBLEM FORMULATION
the location of the DG units to produce the minimum active
losses on the distribution system. The installation of non-
optimized DG units may have an undesirable effect on the
system, so GA is applied to study the effect of the optimized
location and size of DG units. The effect of increasing number
of DG units is also presented. The objective function of this
problem is a single objective function . It is formulated as the
total power losses in the system as in the following
equation:
The objective function = Min PL (2)
The optimization problem should have operational
constraints based on the variables of the Objective function.
These constraints consist of equality constraints and Inequality
Constraints. The equality constraint could be presented by the
following equation (3).
SS.S+ SDGs = Sloads + Slosses (3)
SS.S the total apparent power generated by substation
in case DG units are injected to the system.
SDGs the total apparent power generated by DG units.
Sloads the total apparent power of loads at busses.
Slosses the total apparent power losses of the system.
The Inequality Constraints are given as follow:
• DG location constraint
2nd bus ” DGs location ” nth bus ,n is the total busses.
We assumed that the DG location should be near the loads,
so the DG location constraint will start on the 2nd bus.
• DG Size constraint
DG size is supposed to be less than of total load power.
0 ” SDGs ” Sloads
• Voltage bus limit
Vmin ” V (i) ” Vmax
Vmin and Vmax are maximum and minimum allowable
voltages at buses respectively. V(i) is the voltage at the
bus(i). Vmin and Vmax are set 0.95and 1.05p.u respectively.
• Distribution Line Capacity Limits:
Power flow of lines after adding DGs should be less
than maximum permitted power of lines
S with DG (j) ” S (j) max
S(j)max is MVA capacity of the line( j).
Fig. 1. The flow chart of the BFS method. Fig. 3. The flow chart of the GA.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The Proposed Methodology is tested on IEEE 69-bus
radial distribution system with two different types of DG
power output and different number of DG units. The Proposed
Methodology simulated using MATLAB v.2015a. The data of
IEEE 69-bus radial distribution test system in [17], with the
total load of the system is 4.57 MVA, the base Voltage is
12.66 KV and the base apparent power is 10MVA. By
applying the BFS Technique Using Matlab M.File to calculate
the voltage at each bus and total power losses without adding
DG units. The bus voltages from bus 56 to bus 65 have the
lowest values (from 0.93 to 0.91p.u). Also the results
presented that the total Active power losses equal 224.9310 Fig. 4. Line loading without adding DG units.
kW and the total reactive power losses equal 102.1333kVAR.
It is noted that some transmission lines are over loaded from A. Case study-I
line 5 to 8 and 52 to 60 according to Fig.4.
In this case DG units are installed to the test system which
So we will install DG units to study their effect on the supply active power only (Type-1) such as photo voltaic
voltage profile, the loading of distribution lines, the total arrays and wind turbines. These units could be used in far
power losses and the total power supplied from the substation. areas which have suitable nature for their operation. This
According to reference[4] there are different power types of nature may be a suitable wind speed or the longtime of Sun
DG units. In the following studies, two cases are applied. One rise.
for DG unit which supplies active power only and the second
Four scenarios are applied in this case to show the effect of
which injects active and reactive power.
increasing number of DG units on the system. Scenario-I: one
DG unit is installed , scenario-II: two DG units are installed,
scenario-III: three DG units are installed and scenario-IV: four
DG units are installed.
 By Appling GA as explained in section 2.3 and editing the
constraints according to each scenario. The optimal locations
and sizes of DG units and the total power losses of the system
are presented in table I. The effect of adding DG units on the
loading of the branches are illustrated by analyzing results
obtained and shown in Fig. 5 and 6 respectively for scenario-I
and scenario-II. On the other hand, Fig.7 illustrates the effect
of installing DG units on the voltage profile of the system.
According to Scenario-I the optimal location of one DG
unit at bus 61 with rating 1.873 MW about 41% of the total
power of loads. The voltage profile of the system improved
Fig. 5. Line loading after adding DG unit at bus 61(Scenario-I).
especially from bus 6 to 27 and 51 to 69. The lowest bus
voltage at bus 28 equals to 0.968 p.u as shown in Fig. 7 and
the loading of transmission line reduced as shown in Fig. 5
According to table I the total power losses reduced, also the
power taken from supply reduced to 3.33MVA about 1.5
MVA reductions. the power factor of the substation equal 0.57
lagging (Poor P.F) because the total active power less than the
total reactive power supplied by the substation.
After adding one more DG unit as in Scenario-II, the
voltage profile will be better than the previous scenario as
shown in Fig.7 and no more overloading in transmission lines
except the fifth line that is slightly overloaded as shown in
Fig.6.The total losses and total power taken from substation
reduced this clear in Table I. There is a bad effect due to using
Fig. 6. Line loading after adding DG units at bus 61,66 (Scenario-II).
two DG units with unity power factor is that the P.F of the
substation will be 0.404 lagging (Very poor P.F). In Scenario-
III, the loading of lines are similar as of scenario-II, the total TABLE I. RESULTS OF CASE STUDY -I
power losses reduces and the voltage profile is better than the
voltage profile in Scenario-II but in case of adding four DG DG
DG
units to the system as in Scenario-IV the voltage is not good as Case
units
units Plosses Qlosses SS.S
P.FS.S
in scenario-III and the total losses increased, also lines 5,6and study -1
location
sizes (KW) (Kvar) (MVA)
(MW)
7 are overloaded.
Base 0.81
- - 224.93 102.13 4.817
This means that the optimal number of DG units is three units case lag
with location and sizes of Scenario-III. Scenario 0.57
61 1.873 83.19 40.52 3.331
-I lag
So that the voltage profile can be improved by adding DG Scenario 61 1.734
74.47 36.64 2.98
0.404
units and the total power losses reduced in case study-I, but in -II 66 0.827 lag
18 0.466
the other side, the power factor of the substation will be very Scenario 0.364
53 0.547 70.15 35.23 2.928
poor and some of lines are fully loaded and some slightly -III
61 1.685
lag
overloaded. So it is required to provide a reactive power 2 1.564
source to the network to improve the overall power factor of Scenario 2 0.029 0.026
75.387 39.781 2.733
the system. The reactive power source may be provided by -IV 16 2.518 lag
adding Static Var Compensation (SVC) with DG units of 61 0.414
type-1 to the network or by changing the type of the DG unit
itself by DG units can supply active and reactive power to the
According to Scenario-I the optimal location of DG at bus 61
network. The next case study will discuss the effect of adding
with rating 2.2436 MVA about 49% of the total power of
DG units which supply active and reactive power such as Gas
loads. As shown in Fig.9, the voltage profile of the system
turbines and Diesel generators[4].
improved especially from bus 6 to 28 and 51 to 69. The lowest
B. Case study-II bus voltage at bus 27 equal to 0.973 p.u and all transmission
lines under Maximum thermal capacity limit as shown in Fig.8
In this case, DG units injected to the test system which and better than the base case, also the total power losses
supplies Active and Reactive power (Type-2) such as Gas reduced, the power taken from supply reduced to 2.35 MVA
turbines and Diesel generators. By the way, four scenarios are about 2.46 MVA reductions and The power factor of the
applied As in case study-1, Scenario-I presents the effect of substation equal 0.8023 lagging (Good P.F) because The DG
adding one DG unit, Scenario-II for adding two DG units, unit contributes reactive power to the system.
Scenario-III three DG units added and Scenario-IV four DG
units added.
Fig. 7. Voltage profile of case study-I.

In Scenario-II, the voltage profile is better than the previous

scenario as shown in Fig.9.The total active power losses and
total power taken from substation reduced as indicated in
table II.
In Scenario-III the total power losses reduced to 6.35 kW and
the voltage profile is improved from bus 48 to bus 63 and it is
better than the voltage profile of Scenario-II at the same
busses.
In Scenario-IV, the voltage profile is almost same as in
scenario-III as shown in Fig.9. By the way, the total losses
decreased but by very low value as indicated in table II, also it
is clear that the power factor of the substation in the case of
scenario-III is better than of scenario-IV. So that the number
Fig. 8. Line loading after adding one DG of type-2 at bus 61
of DG units in case of scenario-III is the optimal number.
As shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9, by using DG units of type-2
which supply active and reactive power, the voltage profile TABLE II. RESULTS OF CASE STUDY -II
on all busses will be improved and better than of case
study-I specially busses (6 to 27 and 49 to 69) and the total
power losses decreased to 6.35 kW less than the lowest value Case DG PDG QDG Plosses Qlosses SS.S
P.FSS
-II location MW Mvar KW Kvar MVA
of case study –I which equals 70.1586 kW. Moreover, no
lines overloaded in case-II rather than in case study -I. So that Base
- - - 224.93 102.13 4.817
0.81
the performance of the system in case of using DG units which case lag
supply active and reactive power to the system is better than in 0.8
Scn-I 61 1.828 1.301 23.146 14.37 2.35
lag
the case of using DG units which supply active power only. Scn- 17 0.522 0.353 0.8
7.201 8.043 1.821
We deduced that the best way of using DG units to the II 61 1.735 1.238 lag
12 0.792 0.509
system is using DG units of type-2 or Using DG units which Scn- 0.87
50 0. 718 0.307 6.35 2.95 1.39
supply active power only (Type-1) besides reactive power III
61 1.691 1.197
lag
sources such as SVC. 12 0. 783 0. 505
Scn- 50 0. 719 0. 305 0.6
6.2105 2.895 0.833
IV 59 0.153 0. 067 lag
61 1.565 1.137
Fig. 9. Voltage profile of case study-II.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the optimal location, size and number
of different types of DG in distribution systems. The main
objective is to minimize the power losses by optimal location
and size of different types of DG sources considering the
voltage limits and the lines’ capacities to present the effect of
increasing number of two types of DG units in the test system.
The Genetic algorithm is applied as an optimization technique
and Backward / Forward Sweep Load Flow technique is
applied to calculate the voltage at each bus and calculate the
total power losses corresponding to DG units added to the test
system. This approach is applied on IEEE 69-bus radial
distribution system. results proved that the best ways of using
DG units to the distribution system are using DG units of
Type-2 which supply active and reactive power to the network
or using DG units which supply active power only (Type-1)
side by side separate reactive power sources.
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