Power Loss Minimization in a Radial

Distribution System with Distributed Generation

Afroz Alam, Abhishek Gupta, Parth Bindal, Aiman Siddiqui, Mohammad Zaid
Department of Electrical Engineering
Z.H.C.E.T., Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh-202002, India
afroz.iit@gmail.com

Abstract- Optimal siting and sizing of distributed
generation (DG) in a distribution system is a key
for power loss minimization and voltage profile
improvement of the system. In this paper, a mixed-
integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) based
optimization technique has been used to find the
optimal locations and sizes of DGs to be placed in a
distribution system for the reduction of power loss
and improvement in voltage profile. The MINLP
technique considered in this paper, utilizes the
sequential quadratic programming (SQP) through
‘fmincon’ function available in the MATLAB
optimization toolbox. The MINLP technique has
been applied for the optimal placement of DGs in
IEEE 33-bus and 69-bus distribution systems. For
the purpose of load flow, a well-known technique,
which comprises bus-injection to branch-current
[BIBC] and branch-current to bus-voltage [BCBV]
matrices, has been used. After the analysis of the
results obtained for the two test systems, it can be
concluded that MINLP is an effective approach for
minimizing the distribution system losses and
improving the voltage profile by optimally placing
the DGs of suitable sizes at appropriate locations.
Keywords— Distribution system; Distributed
generation; Voltage profile; MINLP; SQP
I.INTRODUCTION
Power distribution system suffers with a huge amount
of power losses which needs to be minimized using
various techniques. Distributed generation (DG) is one
such solution, strategic placement of which can greatly
improve the voltage profile and result in adequate loss
reduction. Intense researches have been carried out in
recent years to explore various other aspects of power
system like reliability, stability and protection.
The term DG refers to small scale electric power
generation (typically 1 kW–50 MW). Placement of
DGs in distribution networks can reduce many
problems to a great extent like power loss reduction,
voltage profile improvement, on-peak operation cost
minimization, increased security and reliability,
reduced greenhouse gas emissions, grid
reinforcement, relieved transmission and distribution
congestion etc. DGs are mainly connected near the
customer load to decrease the distribution losses and
to improve voltage profile.
In [4], it was shown that the region-wise placement of
DGs produces better loss reduction in comparison to
the other cases when time varying loads are
considered. In [1], the authors have used symbiotic
organisms search (SOS) algorithm with the objective
to reduce active power loss only i.e. power losses
associated with active component of current by
optimal sizing and placement of DGs. A particle
swarm optimization (PSO) based technique has been
used in [2] to solve the same DG placement problem
of [1] with additional consideration of loss sensitivity
factor. The bus that has high sensitivity is used for DG
placement. Improvement in bus voltage profile and
branch currents using network reconfiguration is also
an alternative as proposed by authors in [3]. Installing
capacitor banks at load end delivers local reactive
power support which improves voltage profile. In [7],
authors have used feeder reconfiguration for the
purpose of optimizing power losses with primary
objective of determining appropriate sectionalizing
switches. A loss minimum reconfiguration method
based on Tabu search for open loop radial distribution
system is proposed in [5]. The algorithm can take into
reverse power flow caused by DG placement. This
technique doesn’t require excess computation but to
 improve the result and augmenting with a good
convergence speed, simulated annealing can be used
along with in form of a hybrid algorithm as used by
author in [6].
Several techniques have been applied for optimal
placement and sizing of DGs in distribution network
such as analytical, numerical methods and heuristic
methods. The DG placement problem is a complex
combinatorial problem having nonlinear objective(s)
as well as nonlinear constraints. In this paper, a mixed-
integer nonlinear optimization (MINLP) technique has
been used to find the optimal locations and sizes of
DGs to be placed in the distribution system for the
reduction of power loss and improvement in voltage
profile.
This paper uses a formulation, which takes advantages
of the topological characteristics of distribution
systems, and solves the distribution load flow directly.
For the purpose of load flow, a well-known technique,
which comprises of bus-injection to branch-current
[BIBC] and branch-current to bus-voltage [BCBV]
matrices, has been used. This technique has further
been utilized in the formulation of the objective
function which has been coded in MATLAB.
The paper is organized as follows: The problem
formulation is explained in Section II. Section III
presents the load flow technique used for the two test
distribution systems. The obtained results of the case
studies are presented in Section IV and the final
conclusions are drawn in Section V.
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
The objective of power loss minimization in a radial
distribution system with distributed generation can be
expressed as [9]
Minimize L = ∑𝑙𝐾=1(𝐼𝐾 )2 𝑅𝐾 (1)
Where,
L = total power loss
l = number of feeder sections/branches
𝐼𝑘 = current flow in branch k
𝑅𝑘 = Resistance of branch k.
The objective function (Eq. (1)) is subjected to the
following constraints.
1) Bus voltage limits :
𝑉𝑚𝑖𝑛,𝑖 ≤ 𝑉𝑖 ≤ 𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑖 , i ∈ {1,2, … 𝑁} (2)
Where,
𝑉𝑖 = voltage at bus i.
𝑉𝑚𝑖𝑛,𝑖 = lower voltage limit at bus i.
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑖 = upper voltage limit at bus i.
N = number of buses.
2) Feeder capacity limits :
|𝐼𝑘 | ≤ 𝐼𝑘 𝑚𝑎𝑥 , k ∈ {1,2,3, … … , 𝑙} (3)
Where,
𝐼𝑘 𝑚𝑎𝑥 = maximum current capacity of branch k.
3) DG injection limits :
0 ≤ 𝑃𝐷𝐺 ≤ 𝑃𝐷𝐺 𝑚𝑎𝑥 (4)
0 ≤ 𝑄𝐷𝐺 ≤ 𝑄𝐷𝐺 𝑚𝑎𝑥 (5)
Where,
𝑃𝐷𝐺 , 𝑄𝐷𝐺 , 𝑃𝐷𝐺 𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑄𝐷𝐺 𝑚𝑎𝑥 are the active DG
power injection, reactive DG power injection,
maximum allowable active DG power injection and
maximum allowable reactive DG power injection,
respectively.
III. LOAD FLOW TECHNIQUE
In this paper, the load flow methodology is adopted
from [teng] which is based on two derived matrices,
the bus-injection to branch-current matrix (BIBC) and
the branch-current to bus-voltage matrix (BCBV).
For a distribution network, complex load Si can be
expressed as,
Si = (Pi + j Qi) = 𝐼𝑖𝑟 (𝑉𝑖𝑘 ) + j𝐼𝑖𝑖 (𝑉𝑖𝑘 ) , i=1,2, …..N (4)
and the corresponding equivalent current injection at
kth iteration of solution is given by,
𝑃𝑖 +𝑗𝑄𝑖 ∗
𝐼𝑖𝑘 = ( ) (5)
𝑉𝑖
Where 𝑉𝑖𝑘 and 𝐼𝑖𝑘 are the bus voltage and equivalent
current injection of bus i at the kth iteration,
respectively. 𝐼𝑖𝑟 And 𝐼𝑖𝑖 are the real and imaginary parts
of the equivalent current injection of bus i at the kth
iteration, respectively.
The power injections can be converted to the equivalent
current injections by Eq. (5), and the branch currents can
then be written as functions of equivalent current
injections using Kirchhoff’s Current Law.
The relationship between the bus current injections and
branch currents can be expressed as
[B] = [BIBC][I] (6)
Where,
[B] is a column vector with element Bj is the current in
jth bus.
[I] is a column vector with element Ii is injection at ith
bus.
[BIBC] is the bus-injection to branch-current matrix.
The relationship between branch currents and bus
voltages can be expressed as
 Vj = Vi - BiZij buses and 32 branches. The line data and load data of
(7) this system are given in [10]. It has total active and
[∆𝑉] = [BCBV][B] (8) reactive loads of 3.72 MW and 2.3 MVAr,
where, respectively. Without installation of DG, the real and
∆V is a column vector , Vj= V1 – Vi : reactive power losses are 210.998 kW and ?? kVAr,
j= 1,……….,N respectively.
i=2,……..,N
BCBV is the branch-current to bus-voltage matrix.[B] For the purpose of optimal placement of DGs in the
is column vector where Bi is current in ith branch. 33-Bus distribution system for minimizing the power
Combining (7) and (9), the relationship between bus loss, MINLP optimization technique has been used.
current injections and bus voltages can be expressed as The MINLP technique considered in this paper,
[∆V] = [BCBV][BIBC][I] utilizes the sequential quadratic programming (SQP)
= [DLF][I] (9) through ‘fmincon’ function available in the MATLAB
705 optimization toolbox.

Table 1: Results for 33- Bus system The results obtained for the 33-Bus distribution system
Optimal Power loss Power loss are shown in Table 1. From this table, it can be
DG size (without DG) (with DG) observed that the optimal locations of three DGs are at
(MW) (kW) (kW) buses 13, 24 and 30, respectively. The corresponding
optimal sizes of DGs are 0.8018 MW, 1.0913 MW and
30 1.0536
1.0536 respectively. For this optimal sizes of DGs,
210.998 72.951
placed at the optimal locations in the system, the
24 1.0913 power loss of the system is reduced to 72.951 kW. The
13 0.8018 total reduction in power loss is found to be 65.42%.
The voltage profile of the system with and without the
DG placement is shown in Fig. 2.
And the solution for distribution load flow can be
obtained by solving (11) iteratively

𝑃𝑖 +𝑗𝑄𝑖
𝐼𝑖𝑘 = 𝐼𝑖𝑟 (𝑉𝑖𝑘 ) + j𝐼𝑖𝑖 (𝑉𝑖𝑘 ) = ( )∗ (10a)
𝑉𝑖
[∆Vk+1] = [DLF][Ik] (10b)
[Vk+1] = [V0]+[∆Vk+1] (10c) For IEEE 69-Bus system

For large network system, 69-Bus radial distribution

Results for 33-Bus system for Optimal DG placement.

system consisting of 68 branches, the single line

diagram of IEEE 69-Bus system is as shown in Fig. 3.

IV. CASE STUDIES

IEEE 33-Bus system

Fig. 2 Voltage profile with and without DG
The single line diagram of IEEE 33-Bus radial placement in 33-Bus distribution system
distribution system is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of 33
 The line data and load data are given in [10] with rated
voltage of 12.66 kV. The 69-bus radial distribution
system has total active and reactive loads of 3.80 MW
and 2.69 MVAr, respectively with same voltage and
base MVA rating. Without installation of DG, the total
real power losses are 224.7 kW.
V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, an attempt is made to determine the

After the DG placement, the losses were reduced to
69.53 kW. The location and size of DG placed are
tabulated along with comparison of power losses for
both the cases.
The total reduction in power loss is found to be
69.05%. The voltage profile before and after the DG
placement is shown in Fig. 4.
optimal location and size of DG units in the radial
distribution system with the help of fmincon
optimization technique. ‘fmincon’ applies to most
smooth objective functions with smooth constraints.
Power loss reduction and voltage profile improvement
are taken into main consideration while placing DG
units. Proposed method is applied on both IEEE 33-
bus and IEEE 69-bus systems. Results of the work
validate the effectiveness of this approach. Such
methodic approach can easily be applied to
distribution systems incorporating complexities like
tie line/switches, addition of more buses or alternation
in number of feeders. Such optimization technique
results in a faster, more accurate solution to a

Fig.3 The schematic diagram of 69-Bus Distribution System

constrained minimization problem. The optimization

technique would itself determine the optimal location
Optimal Optimal Power Losses Power losses and size of DG to be placed to minimize the power
DG DG size (before DG (After DG losses without the requirement of analysis of load flow
Location (MW) installation) installation) results being done. Thus it will reduce the complexity
(kW) (kW) and increase the efficiency of the work. Successive
12 0.4584 implementation of this technique leads to future work
25 0.2543 224.7 69.53 expansion and planning.
53 0.3302
61 1.6866

Results for 69-Bus system for Optimal DG placement.

Fig.4 Voltage profile with and without DG

placement in 69-Bus distribution system.
REFERENCE

[1] M. P. Lalitha and P. S. Babu and B. Adivesh, ” SOS

algorithm for DG placement for loss minimization
considering reverse power flow in the distribution
systems”, 2016 International Conference on Advanced
Communication Control and Computing Technologies
(ICACCCT), vol. , no., pp. 443-448, 2016.

[2] Sarfaraz and A. Bansal and S. Singh, ” Optimal

allocation and sizing of distributed generation for
power loss reduction”, International Conference
Workshop on Electronics Telecommunication
Engineering