IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 10, No.
1, February 1995
Optimal Capacitor Placeinelit, Replacenlent and Control in Large-scale
Unbalanced Distriliution Systcnis: System Solutio11 Algorithms and
Nuiiierical Studies
Hsiao-Dong Chiang, .Jin-(%ng Wang,
Jianzhong Tong
Scliool of Electrical Engineering
Cornel1 University
Itliaca, NY 34853
Abstract - This paper develops an effect.ive and, yet, prac-
tical solnt,ion met,hodology for optimal capacit,or placement,
replacement and cont.rol in large-scale nnhalhnred, general
radial or loop dist.ribntion syst.ems. The solution methodol-
ogy can optimally det,erniine (i) t.he locations 1.0 inst.all (or
replace, or remove) capacit.ors, (ii) t,he t.ypes a n d sizes of ca-
pacit,ors t,o he inst,alled (or replaced) a n d , during each load
level, (iii) the control schemes for ea.cli capacitor in the nodes
of a general three-phase unhalancrd dist.rihotion system snrh
that a desired ohject,ive hnct,ion is niininiized while the load
constraints, network const.raints and operational constraints
at different load levels are sabisfied. The solut.ion met.liod-
ology is based on a conihinat.ion of llie simnlatrd annral-
ing technique and t,he greedy search t.echnique in order 1.0
achieve compnt.at.ional speed and high-qnalit.g o l solnt.ions.
Bot.11 the numerical and iriiplenlent.at.iona1a$pect.s of t,lie so-
lotion methodology are det.ailed. Analysis of t.he compnt.a-
t,ional comp1exit.y of the solnt.ion algorit.lim indicates t,liat. t.lie
algorithm is also effect,ivefor large-scale dist.rihnt.ioo systems
in terms of compnt,at.ional efforts. Test. res~~lbs on a realistic;
nnbalanced distrihnt.ion net.rvork, a ?91-bns with 77 la.t.erals,
3n5 dist.ribnt,ion lines and f i t.ransfornters, wit.11 varying load-
ing condil.ions, are presented wit.li proinising resnlls. 'The
robustness of the solut,ion methodology under varying l o d -
ing conditions is also invest,ignt,etl.
Key Words : VAR/Volt. Control, C a p x i t o r Placement., Ca-
pacit.or Replacement, Loss Minimizat.ion, Sininlated An-
nealing, Greedy Search, Unbalanced Dist ribnt.ion Systems,
Large-scale Syst.ems.
Introduction
Capacitors are widely inst,alled in dist.rihnt.ion systtems for re-
act.ive power cotnpensat.ion 1.0 improve t.he eficiency of power
dist.rihut,ion via real power and energy red~~ct.ion. to improve
service qnalit,y via volt,age regulat.ion and 1.0 achieve deferral
of constrnct,ion, if possible, via syst.em capaci1.y release. The
ext.ent. of these benefits depends great.ly on how capacit.ors
are st,rategically placed in the syst,em.
This paper was presented at the 1994 IEEE PES Transmission and
Distribution Conference and Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois,
April 10-15, 1994.
0885-8950/95/$04.00 0 1994 IEEE
363
Gary Darling
Distribution System D e p r t m e n t
NYSEG Corpora.tion
Bingha.niton, N Y 13902
In t.lie past, considerable effort,s have been devoted to
the snhject of capacitor placement in distrihntion systems.
While most. works have been concentrated on capacitor
placenirnt. in halanced dist.rihnt,ion syst.ems with radial nct-
work strnctnres, very few research is related to capacitor
placement in nnhalanced distrihstion systems. Since most
dist.rihntion syst,ems are charact,erized by inherent. unhalance
and radial or loop network strnctnre, these physical realities
innst. he Laken int.0 acconnt. in t.lie design schemes for disl.ri-
hut.ion artt.otnat.ion.
In [ 5 ] , we presented a new problem formulal.ion for t.he
opt.iina1 capacit or placement,, replacement and cont.ro1 prob-
lem i n large-scale nnbalanced, radial or loop distrihutiou net-
works. The problem formulation, fairly comprehensive, takes
into acconnt the physical realities of distrihntion net.works
snch as the inherent nnbalance and detailed modeli~~gs of
each component, the load constraints, network consthints
and operational constraints at different load levels. ?'Le o b
jective fnnct.ion in (.he prohlem formnlation attempts 1.0 re-
flcct the realistic sit.eat.ion encountered in capacitor place-
itient; it consist,s of !,WO terms: cost for energy loss and cost
relat.et1 t.o capacit.or purchase, capacitor installation, capac-
it.or replacement. and capacitor removal. The problem for-
mnlat.ion can be snmmarized as follows: we consider a t.hree-
phase nnhalanced dist,ribnt,ion system wit.li a main feedrr and
I lat.erals. Snppose there are n.< possible locations to place
+
(or replace, or remove) capacit.ors and 1 nt different, load
levels. Let, C1 and Cz den0t.e the set of fixed and swit.chahle
capacit.ors. Let NT = [a, 1,2, ...,n . ~ be ) t.he set of load lev-
els, and Ne= { 1.2, ...,. < ) . Let, ( u A , u B , u C )he the cont.rol
set,tings vector with u A , u B and tlC denoting the capacitor
cont,rol set.t.ings vector at. phases A, B and C respectively.
T h e general capacit.or placement, replacement and conl.ro1
problem can he matliemat.ically expressed as:
",
#.
11c
ti) =
C(T, G'k up,ti:')+
(u t o * z' , ti"',
Ti Pioes( t i B i , uc
k=l i=O
Snhject t.o the following const,raints
(1) load flow and line flow capacit,y constraints:
F ( z i ,t a A ' , uB' , Uc i ) = 0, i E N r
G ( r ' , u A ' , i t R ' , u c '5
) 0, i E NT
364

zi : a I I P C ~ , of
~~ sfale irarinhtea

(2) Operational const.raint.s on bus voltages:

vi,;,,<_ ~ ; k 5 I&=, i E NT9

I = n, 1 , 2,...,n , , j = n. 1 . 2 , _ . . , I
(3) T h e const.raint on t.he discret,e natnre of capacit,or sizes
and cont.rol .set.tings

--
11:" = nr x U,,

rn nn integer, and 0 <_ m 5 m,. 1 = A , R , C

: slnndnrd cnpncttor 8 t - e of one hank
U; = discrete cnpnrtlor s i z e of O W F h a n k ,
I = A . R , C , I E NT

(4) Constraint on fixed capacit.ors (Cl)

uti = .io 5 vnCu8, f o r all k E N,, i E NT

u~ = u . 5~m.ct&b,f o r nil I; E i E N,. k,
ufi = 'w: 5 tn,cr,, f o r nil k E Nc, i E NT
(5) Consthint. on switchable capacit.ors (C2)

':U 5 ".; Ao 5 mcuc,for C E .Ucsi E NT

5 ,if"' 5 mCu,, f o r C E .G3 i E NT
U,"' 5 t l i 0 5 m,a,, f o r k E Nc, i E hlT
where the first t,erm iti t,lte cost. fnnct.ioii represei1t.s t.he cost.
related t,o capacitor inst.allation, capital, replacement and
removal. The second term is t.lie tot.al cost. of energy loss,
where the energy loss is oht,ained by t.he snmmat.ion of energy
losses at each load level i , Ti is t.he dnration for load level i
and the const,ant. I(, is t,he coeficient of t.lie energy CO
snit., in S / I i W I I . The vect.or (tt:o,t~.fO,q~Eo) is the
vector whore components a.re with discrete valne in nat.nre,
and uti, up, tt.fi are t.he cont.rol set.t.inR vrrt.ors at. load lrvel
i whose component.s are also t1isrret.e variahles.
The natnre of capacitor plaremnt. problem belongs t.o a
c1a.s of problems called NP-complei,e. There is no known
met.liods to solve NP-contp1et.e prohlems exact.ly in a rea-
sonable time. Furthermore, the cost. fnnction in t.he capac-
it.or placement prohleln is not, dillerent.iahle, making most.
nonlinear opt.iinizatioti t.ccliniqnes awkward 1.0 apply. These
problems have to be Lackled by lirnrist.ir approaches or ap-
proxiinat,e t.echniqnes. In [SI, we have developed a soliit.ion
mrt.hodology based on t.lw sin~nlat.eclannealin techniqne for
a general capacitor pla.cement problem. This opt.imizat.ion
technique has t,he following at.t.ract.ive prnpcrt.ics: ( 1 ) it. call
achieve global optimal solnt.ions , while a vast inaj0rit.y 01
nonlinear opt,iniizat,ion t.echniqnes are oft.etl limited t,o local
optimal solnt.ions. Thns, t,he proposed solnt,ion met.hodology
can offer the hest solnt.ion for the general capacitor place-
ment problem; ( 2 ) it, handles diflerent kinds of const.raint,s
sncli tu equality, ineqnalit.y, difTerent.iable. noti-dimereiit.iahle
cotist.raints; (3) it, st.art,s wirh any init.ia1 c o n d i h n and coli-
verges 1.0 a (near) global opt.iinal solnt.ion. The only disail-
vant,age of this optiniizal.ion Lechniqne is t.ltat. it might t.ake
consitlerahle amonnt of conipntat.ion emorts 1.0 converge 1.0a
(near) global optimal soliition.
This paper develops a.a elledive and, yet.. pract.ical solw
bion met,liodology 1.0 optimally clet.ermine
ourput nmi ~ W I U
Figure 1: A flow chart, of t,lie solution algorit.lun1
(i) the locations to install (or replace, or remove) capacitors,
(ii) the types and sizes of capacitors to be installed (or
replaced) and,
capaci l.or,
in the nodes of a general t,hree-phase nnhalanced dist,rihu-
i.ion sysi.em snch t.hat. a desired ohject,ive fnnction is niin-
iniized while t,he load const,raint.s, network const.raint,s and
operational constrain1.s (e.g. Llte voltage profile) at dimerent
load levels are satisfied. In order i.0 achieve fast. comptita-
t.ional speed as well as high-qna1it.y solnt,ions, we develop an
eKect.ive solnt,ion met.hodolog,y for solving the optimal ca-
pncit.or placement., replacement and control problem. This
soliition mel.hotlology is bnsed on a combinat.ion of t.he sim-
nlated annealing t.ecliniqiie and a greedy search techniqne.
Tltc pnrpoae of nsing sitnnlated annealing techniqne is to
obt.ain high-qna1it.y of solnt.ions while t,lie greedy search is to
achieve fast. compnt~ationalspeed. Bot.11 t,he nnmerical and
implenient.at.ional aspects of the solut.ion methodology are
also det,ailed.
The compnt.at.ional complexity of t.he solntion algorithm
is analyzed and it indicates t.hat the algoril.hm is also elfec-
tive for large-scale distrihotion systems in terms of compn-
tat.ional efl0rt.s. Test. resnlt,s on a realist,ic, nnhalanced distri-
biit,ion net,work, a ?gI-hns wit,h 77 lakrals, 305 dist.rihnt.ion
lines and 6 transformers, with varying loading conditions, are
present,ed with promising resn1t.s. The robnstness of the so-
1111 ioii inet.hodology nnder varying loading condit.ions is also
invest.igat.ed,

Solution Algorithms
A n algorithm for stuitchnble capacitors
Step 1: Input system and net,work d a b .
Inpnt the initial cont.rol parameters siicli a.$ the init,ial
temperature, initial number of IIIOVCL, iandom ~iuinber
seeds, cooling factors, t,otal nnmber of elements in the
temperature sequence, and number of accepted mo\res
a t each temperature. Set. N . +N,.
Step 2: Obtain a feasible configuration.
(i) Select the initial configuration with no newly in-
stalled capacit,ors.
(ii) Run a three phase imbalanced load flow t.o compnte
the cost fnnction.
Step 3: Design a proper cooling schednle.
Use a fast. cooling schedule such as T,,, = NT,-I,
where 0.85 5 (I 5 0.99. At each temperature T,.
Step 4: Generat.e a new configurat.ion by implemenl.ing a per-
tnrbat.ion mechanism (choose a capacit,or location from
the active list Na).
1. Do Steps 5-7, perform n ntrtnber of moves N,,, 5 n,,
Set N = 0 .
0. For each lood l e t d . i = 0. I . 27.3, .... nl with i = 0
peak load level and i # n ofl-penk lonrl l e t d . do the next
step, where the control setting nt eocli low1 ltwrl ir rlc-
termined.
Step 5: Find capacit.or coiit.rol set tings.
(i) Perturb t.he current. syst.eni using a pert.nrbat.ion
mechanism (increwe ca.pacit.ors at. a hns) with t.he ca-
pacit.or cont.rol sett,ing at. peak-load level a.- npper limit,.
(ii) Run a t.liree-phase unbalanced load flow t,o check the
feasihilily. Check LIie volt.age ~nagiiit.ndecons1.raint.sfor
each load level. If any const,raint. is viola.t,ed. restore 1.0
previous capacitor cont.rol sett.ing at. the load level, ret
power loss to a large valse, incrernent~i and go to (i).
If no constraint is violat.ed, then ret.ain I.he capacit,or
control set,t.ing and proceed. t,o (iii).
(iii) Calcnlate t,lie real power loss.
(iv) Update capacitor cont.rol set.ting. IJse real power
loss as the cost. fnnct.ion to det.errnine t.he capacit.or con-
trol setting. If the real power loss is lpss t,lian the one
a t the previous move, retain the new capacit.or cont.rol
setting (i.e. accept !.he move): otherwise, rest,ore t,o
the previous capacitor control set,t,ing(i.e. discard the
move).
St.ep 6 : Calcn1at.e t.he t,ot,al cost. funct,ion and npdat,e t.he sys-
tem confignrat,ion. Calcn1at.e t.he t,ot.a.lcost. fnnct.ion and
compnt,e t.he cost. dimerence: AC : = C(r,G.)- C(z, ti).
If r < e-* (r is n rciridoni n i i n i ~ e r trtiijovnily dis-
tributed bettiteen 0 and I ) , retnin the t a w system conjig-
trration (neto location+ coporitor rontrol settings)(i.e.
accept the moue); othertirise, renioce the locntion from
the active list .Uo,restore lo the preaiotts aystenc conjig-
Step 7: -
tiration ( i . e . discard tlie m o v e ) nnrl go to Step 4.
+
N N 1 and check t.he sl.op rrifcria /v 5 Nn,.
If the st.op criberia is not. sat.isfied(i.e. the nninber of
moves 5 N,,,), then go t,o St,ep 4. Obherwise, proceed
t o next st.ep.
Step 8: Check the onter-loop st,op crit.eria
If t.he number of t.empe.rat.nrc derrement. st.eps is larger
than a cert,ain prespecifcd nninber, say ne or t.here are
365
no moves at consecutive two temperature stages, pro-
cced to next sbep; Otherwise, return to Step 3.
Step 9: Print. ont the optimal configuration.
T h e ont,pnt. of this solntion algorithm is the capacitor con-
trol setting for each load,level. This picce of inforniation is
then nsed to determine thO nnmber, locations, sizes of either
fixed or switchable c a p a c i h s to be placed, or replaced, or
removed from a node in the dist.ribution system. For the
pnrpose of illustration, we consider a very simple senario in
a 3-node distribution network. Suppose that the original ca-
pacitor placement is U = ( l , l , O ) , meaning node 1 and 2 have
one bank of capacitor respectively, and node 3 has no capac-
itor'on it. This solution algorithm starts wit,h the initial U
= (0,0,0) and, suppose t,he output of the soliltion algorithm
is U= (3,0,1), then it indicates that two additional banks of
capacit.ors are needed t o place on node 1: and the one bank
on node 2 needs to be removed and placed on node 3.
A greedy perturbation mechanism
In order to enhance the compnt,at,ional efficiency o l the
proposed solution algorithm, we propose a heuristic, greedy
pertorbation mechanism to act as the perturbation mecha-
nism reqnired. in the simulated annealing technique. In con-
jnnction with t.he pert.urhat.ion mechanism, the initial k m -
perat.ure is also set. to an appropriat,e low value and t,lins less
iterations are required for the algorithm to terminate.
The proposed pert.nrbation mechanisn~is devised accord-
iiig to t.he following rules:
Only one node is selected a t a time to add capacitor
banks. If Llie acceptance criteria (i.e. r < e-*) is not
satisfied, this node is removed from the active list.
Nodes which have been selected previously are auto-
inat.icallg exclnded from the active list.
Only t.liose nodes in t.he active list are selected to add
capacit.ors in next iterations.
Nodes in the act.ive list are ordered according to Ilieir
ranking in sensitities of loss changes with respect, t.o
capacitor changes. T h e higher sensitivity a node is, the
higher pri0rit.y it shonld be given to add capacitors.
According to these rules, one may implement a perlurba-
t,ion niechanism by selecting a new capacitor bus k arbithar-
ily from an act.ive set. Nb(see Step 4). For each load level,
choose correspondingly a control setting for bus k and rim
a load Row t o calcnlat,e t.he real power loss (see Step 5). If
the real power loss is reduced, add more capacitor banks;
otherwise retnrn to the original control setting (Step 5 ) . In
Step 6, the t,otal cost. is calculat.ed and is compared with the
cost of t.lie previous system configoration without capacitors
a t node k. If the current configuration is not accepted, k
is deletedd from the active set N, = N . - k. Continue the
process. With t,his pertmbation mechanism, fewer moves are
reject.ed and more moves are accepted compared with other-
wise.
This solntion algorithm is based on a combination of the
siinulated annealing techniqne and a greedy search tech-
nique. T h e pnrpose of using simulated annealing technique
is to obtain high-quality of solnt.ions while the greedy search
is to achieve fast compntational speed.
366
Before Perlurbafion After Perfurbation
Talh 1: Load factors and their corresponding time du-
Internal
System rat,ions
load factor 1.0

N , = ( 1 . 2 ...., n,)

ARer Pcrlurbafion

Tahle 2: Exisring caparit,or installation

U U existing capacit.or installation at phase A,B,C

nus21

' N,= ( 2 . 3 , ..., n,)

1 Bus 1

Figure 2: A pert,urbation mrclianism

U;, U;

1 N , = ( l , 2 . .... n.1
\,us #
kVAR 1
hus #
kVAR
I
1004
3000
1063
300
1 1013 1 1026
I 400
1068
450
I 400
1079
300
bus # 1128 1221 1282
kVAR 1200 900 300

Computational complexity

When an evhawtive search techniqne ir. used. t hr niimher
of iterations required in the worse case is O((1 nt)"c-X"'), + taiuetl by uniformly mnltiplying normal load demands by a
where n2 is the total niimher of discrete capacitor taps. n,
is the total nnmber of capacitor hnses and n, is the total
numher of load levels
For t.he proposed algorit.hm, the niiinher of temperatiire
seqnence is approxiinat.ely the t.ot,al nuinher of nieiiihrrs ill
Jfc. The total nnmber of moves N,,, is set. to he t.lie nninhrr
of (1iscret.e capacitor taps, n z . The nnniher of rrpeated I I I I I P
in Step 5 is n.t. I t is thus easy t.o show t.hat t.lie proposed
algorithm rims in t,he worse case in O(n, XTI: x n , ) u n i t t.iine.
This indicates t.hab the algorit.hni is elTecbive for large-scale
distribution systems in t.erms of computational ellort.s.
Nunierica.1 Results
The porposed solnt.ioii algorithm has hrco implrmrnted i n
G langnage under t,he Unix operating environment.. It. has
been extensively tested in a real dist.rihut.ioii network, a por-
tion of NYSEG's dist,rihution system (sec Fig.2). To gain a
general knowledge of t.he overall system, Tahle 6 presents a
summary of t,he syst.em d a h and Fig. 3 provides a scheniat-
ical descript.ion of it.
load level and light. load level. Peak load demands are o b
fact.or 1.3, and light load demands by 0.7. For a planning
period indirat.ed i n Table 1, t,he time dnration for normal
load lcvel is longer t.lian t.lie ot.lier two load levels. This may
reflect the approxiinat.ioii to Llie flnctuation of load deinauds
over a planning horizon.
Tables 3 and 4 have shown a summary of simulation re-
snlts. I n Tahle 3, new capacit.or installation is presenkd. In
addit,ion, in Tahle 4, total revenne resnlting from the new
capacit.or inst,allat.ion over t.he indicated planning period is
described. In Figure 3, a comparison between t,he total costs
wit,li new capacitor installation and without new capacitor
installat.ion is shown. Not,e that the tothi saving has incliided
the cost of capacitor inst.allat.ion. pnrchase cost of new ca-
pacit.or hanks, replaceinent. and removal costs of capadors.
The cost. figures reflect, realist.ir cost evalnation of inst.alling
the new capackor banks. It should be also not.ed that the
total net. revenue increases wit.h the total planning period
since t.he cost. of capacitors is a one-time transaction while
energy savings last,.

T h e capacibr installatioil cost.s S I I ~ W I I i n 'I'aiile 1 of [ 5 ] in- Table 3: New capacitor installation

dicat,es that t,he cost increase in capacitor I x ~ n k sare noniini-
form and capacit,or cost. figures are not. proportional t.o their I new canacitor installation at Dhase A.B.C I
corresponding sizes. I n addibion, when new capacitors ale ia- I
stalled, capacit.or inst.allation and purcliacr cost are inclndcd
in t.he ohject.ivr fiinct.ion; when existing capacitors art. to
be replaced or removed, t.he rq~laceiiiciit or renioval cost. of
capacitors are also ronsidrrrd. This h a s t hr potent.in1 nil- bus# I 1004 I 1013 11026
vant,age of reaching a more realist.ic react.ivr power planning LVAH I I + I
24-200 24-200 6-150 12-200
scheme than ot,lierwise simplified. load factor = 1.3
Varying loads are taken account. i n t.he soliil.ioi1 algorit Iinis. bns # 1 1004 I 1013 I1026
In the present, simulation st.udy, t.liree load levels are consid- kVAR I 24-200I 30-200 I 12-200
ered. They are here referred t.o as prak load lrvcl. normal
 361

Talde 4: Cost. coinparison

coin parisoii bet.weeii exist.ing atidc!)erv installatioii

hefore inst.allation 1 after installation
t.ot.aI cost 1 rFi95214.75 $529057.10
loss cost I rFi9.5214.75 I $300483.40
cap cost $0.0 9228574.00
phase A 1 phase fl I phase (2 I pha-e A 1 phase U I phase C
load level load factor = 1.0

I load level I load fact.or = 0.7 I

R,,,
(KW) 42.592 45.60i 43.637 11.736 13.865 12.406
max(l%)( p . a . ) 1.0290 1.02i3 1.0311 1.0632 1.0G34 1.0633
m i n ( l 5 ) (p.11.) 1.0031 1.0041 1.0049 1.0037 1.0048 1.0055

# of biises # of
291
--laterals
I1
t.ot.al tiniiihcr of lines
305
# of line redions
254
# of t.ransformers
6
# of closed swit,clies # of open srvil.chcs total load at phase A t.ot.al load at. phase B t,ot,al load at phase C
30 15 +
(1.9?? jO.9186) x 10' ( 2 . 0 3 i + j 0 . 9 8 0 6 ) x 10' (1.985 +j0.9545) x IO'
368

. .
For visual inspect.ion, the real power losses at dillerelit.
<- Iota -1- $795216.65
loading condit.ions and different. phases are shown in Figure
4. In Figtires 5 and 6, the voltage profile i n the case of new ?:
capacitor installat,ion is compared wit.li the case of no capaci- 6-
tor installment. In both figiires, t h r maxiinnin and ininininin
c--total -1- $529057.40
volta.ge magnit,ndea at. thrre diflrrent, load lrvcls and t.lirre 5-
diflerent phases are presented.
4-
loa-& 0.7 1.0 1.3 whb-wllhoul lhed capkclorn
Although dehiled siinnlat,ion studies on fixed capacitor 3Jlms: 1830036600 18300 blackkwllh Ilxed cqaclws .
placement are not present.ed here, from simnlat.ion stndies of 0.M)$ per kWh energy k
bot,h fixed and'rwit.chahle capacit.or placeinent., it is observed 2-
that, switchaMe capacit.or inst~allat.innyirlds het,t,er volt.age
regnlat.ion and loss minimimtion when syst.ems are snhjert. 1.

to load changes. Several ohservat.ions also indicabe t.hat. t.he o ' . ' - ' " .
real power loss at peak load level is less than t.he one by
fixed capacitor inst,allat,ions. Tot,al net revcnne resu1t.s from
swikhable capacitor inst,allat,ion is bet.t.er than fixed capac-
itor inst,allation. T h e d d e d complexity of t.he solution al- Figure 4: A comparison ofoperational costs between two
gorit,hm for swit,cliable capacitor placrinen 1.s is tompensat.ed
caws, before capacit.or illstallation and after capacitor
by the improvement of overall net, revenue saving.
installa (.ion
kW real power losses a1 Ihrw load levels
Simulation rims are also perlorined when the objrcbive
fnnction is replaced hy a linear conihinntion of t.hr loth1 C I I -
ergy losses. It. is ohsrrvrd t.Iiat.. i l l gcnrral. i n n r ~raparit.nr whlle--wlhoW capacllms

banks are rrqnired iii tlir final soliit,iniis t.Ii;iii that. i l l tltc
original formnlation.

Some additional observat.ions

1. Compnt,at.ional performance.

Some compnt.at.ional inlormat.ion on the algorithin t.liat

has been derived from (.he nnmeroiis runs are rqrort.t:d. The
tot.al CPU t.ime drpenils IiiiParly on t . 1 1 ~iiiiinlwr of syst.cin
hnses, the nnmher of load levels t.hai. are simnli.a.neoiislycoil-
sidered, t,lir nnrnhrr of discrrk r a p a d o r taps a.nd t . 1 I~I I I I I I -
her of it,era.tionr t,hat. a.rr nrcdrd 1.0 arliirvr convrrgcnrr of switched capadlor placemenl
power flow solut.ions.

3. System imbalance. Figure 5: Real power losses a t different load levels: a

comparison between before capacitor installation and af-
T h e problem of system inil)alance has ronsiderable dTect.s ter capacitor installation
on react,ive power planning i n dirt~rihiit.inn black-wlh cacaclor obcsrnenl
PU
t,em imbalance has bearings on increase in svst.ern loss, de- 1 07
crease in system ca.pacit.y, t.hris thr rffrct. on the oprral.ional
planning shonld not, be overlooked. 106

3. T h e nnmher of local minima. 105

We conjecture t,hat, t,he ol)jrct.ive lnnct.ioii i n t.he problrm I .04

formnlat,ion inclndes t,lie cost. of ca.pacitors, (.lie nnniber of
local minima in t.he worse case incrrasrs rxponrnt.ially wit.li 103
the niiniber of conbrnl variables and t.he nuinher of capacit.or
banks. However, when Llie ohject.ise lnnrtioo only consists 102
of energy losses, t,he nnniher of local minima. generally in-
creases linearly wit,h tJie nnniher of cont,rol variahles. 101

I
C!onclusion swllchedcapadlor placBmenl

This paper hw developed an effect.ivr and. vet, pra.ct.ical so-

IiiLion methodology 1.0 opt.imally dcl.ermine ( i ) t.lre locations Figure 6: Iiiglirst. volt,age ma.gnitude at three different
1.0 inst.all (or replace, or rewove) capacitors. (ii) t.he t.ypes and phases A , l3 a.nd C a n d t.liree different, load levels.

switched capacilar placemenr
Figure 7: lowest voltage mngnitiitlr at three tlilTrrriit.
plinws A , D a i d C and I h r r r dilrrrrilt l o ; i ( l Irvrls.
sizrs of capacit,ors 1.0 h r iiist.allcd (or irplacrcl) i ~ i i d diiriiig
each laad Ievrl. ( i i i ) t . l i c s coiit rol s ~ l i c ~ i i i cl <~rsI mdi c;ip;icitor i u
t,he nodes of a grneral three-phase ~ i n h a l a t i r r ~(list.ribiil.ioii
sysl,em siich t.liat. a desirrcl ol>jccf.ivefiiiictioii is mitiiiniicd
whit+ Lhe load const.ra.ints. nrt,work coiistraiiit.s a n d oprrx-
tional const,raint.s at. difTerr,nt, load Irrrls arc satisfird. not11
(lie. numerical and iiii~~lrinrnt.nt.iosnl a s p r d s of \.lie soliit ion
met,hodology are det.ailed. The soliit.ian nirt.ho~lologyhas t.he
following fea.ttnrm:
it. is I)awl on a cniiiliiiat.inii of IIic siiitnla.t.rd animling
techniqne and t.he grredy search fechniqiie i n order 1.0
achieve coinpiit.at.ional speed anrl high-qiia1it.y of solw
tions.
analysis of t.hc conipiit.at.iona1eoniplesitg of t.he s o l ~ ~ t i o ~ l ing i n 1985. Present.ly, he is coniplet.ing tlie P1i.D. drgree
algoribhni shows t.liat. the proposecl algoritliii~rnns ill
t.he worse case i n O ( n , x i i i x 1 1 : ) unit. time, where
n., is t.be t.ot.al niimber of discrete cal>acit.or taps, 11, is
the total nnmber of capacit,or Iiiisrs a n d lit is t.hc tot.al
nnmher of loarl le\ds. This incliratrs t.liat. t.he algorit.liiii
is also eKect.ive for large-scale disl.riliiil.ioii syst.eins i n
lerms of compiit,at.ional efT0rt.s.
it has been ext.ensivclg t.est.rclon a rmlist.ic. nnhalanrcd
dist,rihntion network. a. 291-hns will1 T i lal.rrnls. 305 clis-
t.ribnl.ion lines a n d G t.ransforniers. wil.li varying loading
conditions with promising rcsnlt,s,
The rolmdness of t.lie soliil.ioii ~net.lio~lology iinder w r y -
ing loading condil.ions is revealed.
References
Graiiigrr, anrl t i . N . Clinard, I.. .I.
[ I ] A . A . El-ICib, .J. .I.
Gale, ’Plarc:ment. of Fisrtl and/or Noo-Finitill.an~~oiisly
switched Capacitors on 1liihalancrd ’JIirce-Pliase Fccd-
err Involving 1,a.f.rrals’. I R B E 7 i n t i . q . on Potwr .4pp~11n-
t o s ond Syrtc-.ma. Vol. 104, Nov. 19R.5. pp. 3298-33n5.
[2] S . Civanlar, J. J . Craingrr, ‘VnIl/Var c‘ontrol on 1%
t.rihut.ion Syst.eins wit 11 Lateral nranrlirs Using Slitint.
C a p a c h r s and \’olt.age RegnlaI.ors:Part. l,Part, 11, Part.
369
Ill’, I E E E firms. on Power Appnraiirs nrrd Sy.q/.ernn,
Vol. ln4. Nov. 198.5, pp. 3278-3297.
[3] D. Mitra, It. Romeo and A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli.
“Convergriice and Finit.e-Time Dehavior of Simiilated
Aiiiiraliiig“, I’nw. o j 2 { / h f:otijr.tr.trc.r mi I)rri.&rr
Control, Dec. 1985, Cp. iG1-767.
(41 P. J . hi. 1,aarhoren add E. 11. L. Aarts, Sirnrrlnted An-
necrling and Appiicntionn, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1 9 8 i
[5] IIsiao-Dong Cliiang, Jin-Chcng Wang, Jianzhong Tong,
G a r y Darling, ‘Opt.iina1 Capacit.or Placement, Rrplace-
went. and Cont.rol iii Large-scale Unbalanced T)ist,ri-
bution Syst.ems: Part. 1: System Modeling and Prob-
lem Fornislat.ion’, Submitted 1.0 94 IEEE Wint.er Power
Meeting. New Sork.
Dihliogrilpliics
Hsiao-Dong Cliiaiig received the P1i.D. degree in elrctri-
cal rngiiierriiig and conipiit.er sciciices from the Univrrsity
of (kdiforiiin at I h k c l e y i i t 1986. Ile is corrent.ly an assc-
c i a k professor of elrct.rical engineering at Cornell 1Jiiiver-
sit.?.. Ile was a recipieiit. of t.lie Engineering Research Iirit.ia-
.
t . i o i i Award( 19RR) niicl nr t.lir- l’rrsi<lrntial Yniiiig 1iivrst.igiit.or
Award( tD89) 1iot.h froiii 1 . 1 1 ~National Science Vonndation.
l
He was a n Asrocia1.e Etlil.or of t.lie IEEE Transact.ion on Cir-
ciiits ancl Syst.e~ns(1890-1991). In 1990 he was select.rd I I ~
a Cornell hlerrill Presidenl.ial Scholar RS t,he facnlty member
who h a d t.lie inost. positive inflncnce on that, st,ndent’s rdn-
cat.ion at Cornell. Ile is cnrrent1.y Editor for express lel.ters
of d i e IEEE Trans. on Circoibs and Syst~einsI: Fnndainen-
t.xl ‘l‘hrory and Applicalhis. Iris rcscarcli inberests inrliide
powcr syst CIIIP. iioiiliiicxr syst.riiis, opt.iinizat,inn t,lirory ancl
neural net.works.
Jill-Clirng Wring rrceived t.he D.S. degree from Zhrjiang
tJiii\vsit.y, Ilangzhon. 1’. 11. China in I%,ct.rical Engiiicw-
iii (.lie School of Elecl.rica1 Engineering at. Cornell Universit,y,
It.llnca, N.Y. His cnrrrnt, research inkrests inclnde
ideiit.ilication. distrihiit.ion system ant.omation, t,ransmir;sion
system var planning. power syst.em harmonics, applied proh-
ability, opt.iniizat.ioir 1.hrory and cont.ro1 of large-scale sys-
lellls.
Jinnzhong Tong received his B.S. in Electrical Engineer-
ing from 2he.iiang Uiiiversit.y, PRC, in 1982; his M.S.from
t.hr China Elrct.ricnl Power Research Insl.itnte i n 1981; and
his P1i.D. from Zliejiang University iii 1987. He is prescnl.ly
a post.-doct,or at. Cornell Uiiiversit.y. flis research interests
incliiclr power syst,ein t.ransient. stal>ilit.y, volt.age st.aldit.y,
disl.ribiit ion syst.em aut.oniat.ion, opt.imizat.ion theory aiid its
applicnt.ion t,o power systems.