Power System Sustainability Enhancement Through Capacitor Placement

Sustainability enhancement is one of the optimization problems in the power system to improve system voltage stability and reduce system loss. Numerous well-known advantages of using capacitors in power systems include raising the maximum flow through cables and transformers, improving the system voltage profile and power factor, and lowering losses as a result of compensating the reactive component of power flow. It is a nonlinear integer optimization problem, with sites and sizes of shunt capacitors being discrete values. The purpose of this problem is to determine the optimum location and size of capacitors to be installed in the power system, including numerous constraints such as topology, load requirements, and operational constraints. From long back, the capacitor placement was found to be widespread approach toward sustainable development of power network. Various optimization methods have been developed to solve this issue which include heuristics, metaheuristics, and mathematical algorithms. Each method has its own opportunities as well as obstacles, and opting an appropriate method depends on the intricacy of the problem and the level of accuracy required. This paper describes the state of art of assorted methods of capacitor placement used in power systems with diversified efforts of researchers found to be altering with every upcoming decade. Analysis of these methods shows that still a huge gap needs to be covered to avail all possible benefits of capacitor placement and advanced research planning is required to develop more efficient and effective procedures of capacitor placement in power network.