IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 28, NO.

3, AUGUST 2013 2077

Energy Loss Reduction by Conductor Replacement
and Capacitor Placement in Distribution Systems
Vahid Farahani, Student Member, IEEE, Seyed Hossein Hesamedin Sadeghi, Senior Member, IEEE,
Hossein Askarian Abyaneh, Senior Member, IEEE, Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Agah, Member, IEEE, and
Kazem Mazlumi, Member, IEEE
AbstractTraditionally, capacitor placement and conductor re-
placement have been considered as independent solutions for loss
reduction in distribution networks. However, these two methods
have an inherent coupling relationship, especially at harmonic
frequencies. This paper presents a joint optimization algorithm
for both conductor replacement of overhead lines and capacitor
placement to minimize energy losses in the presence of harmonics
throughout the distribution system, such that both individual
and total harmonic distortion of bus voltages are kept within the
acceptable levels. All actual conditions including time varying
nature of loads, network extension over the planning horizon,
annual load growth and different load patterns are taken into
account based on the realistic data. By applying the proposed
method, the economic cost and energy losses are remarkably
reduced compared to that could be achieved by applying these two
methods separately in the presence of harmonics. The proposed
method is applied on a realistic distribution network of Sirjan
city-center in Iran.
Index TermsCapacitor placement, conductor replacement,
daily load curve, distribution network optimization, energy loss
reduction.
I. INTRODUCTION
D
EREGULATED electricity market urges distribution net-
work operators (DNOs) toward the reduction of service
costs without worsening the quality of power. In this area of
conict, it represents an essential requirement for DNOs to re-
duce energy losses in distribution systems to minimize the in-
vestment and operating costs on a sound basis. A wide variety
of methods have been presented in literature for energy loss re-
duction in distribution system. Among them, optimal conductor
selection and/or replacement and capacitor placement have re-
ceived a great deal of attention by researchers [1][10].
Many papers have been published to solve capacitor
placement with different simplied assumptions [1][4]. For
example, the time varying nature of the loads was ignored in
[1] and [2], and future network extension and harmonic limits
were not considered in [3] and [4]. Also, optimum conductor
selection is one of the most essential steps in planning and
Manuscript received May 21, 2011; revised June 12, 2011, September 29,
2011, December 04, 2011, and February 17, 2012; accepted February 16, 2013.
Date of publication April 03, 2013; date of current version July 18, 2013. Paper
no. TPWRS-00450-2011.
V. Farahani, S. H. H. Sadeghi, H. Askarian Abyaneh, and S. M. Mousavi
Agah are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir Uni-
versity of Technology, Tehran, Iran (e-mail: v.farahani65@gmail.com;
sadeghi@aut.ac.ir; askarian@aut.ac.ir; s.m.mousavi@aut.ac.ir).
K. Mazlumi is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Zanjan Uni-
versity, Zanjan, Iran (e-mail: kmazlumi@znu.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2013.2251012
optimization of distribution networks. Numerous papers have
been published dealing with optimal conductor selection for
distribution networks [5][10]. Likewise, conductor replace-
ment has been employed as one of the loss reduction methods
in distribution networks with overhead lines [10].
It is clear that the resistance of the lines is decreased after
conductor replacement. Thus, it can cause an increase in the
magnitude of the equivalent impedances which are seen from
network terminals at resonance frequency. Further, inductance
of lines is subjected to a slight change after conductor replace-
ment. This change tends to be small for overhead lines since
it mainly depends on the spacing between phase conductors,
which remained unchanged during conductor replacement
process. However, even this small change in the line induc-
tance can change the resonance frequency of the equivalent
impedances seen from the terminals. These changes in the
frequency characteristic of the equivalent impedance can cause
an increase in some orders of harmonic voltages throughout the
network. This problem would be especially considerable when
there are some capacitors installed within the network. Thus, it
motivated the authors of this paper to perform a detailed study
on the inherent coupling relationship between the capacitor
placement and conductor replacement, especially at harmonic
frequencies.
Furthermore, none of the previous researches have applied
capacitor placement and conductor replacement simultane-
ously for energy loss reduction. However, as it is shown in
this paper, combining these two methods can result in superior
results in the area of loss reduction and the resulting economic
benets compared to applying them separately. Therefore, in
this paper, a combination of both capacitor placement and
conductor replacement methods is developed for the purpose of
economic minimization of energy losses in a real distribution
network by using a joint optimization algorithm. Moreover, a
comprehensive objective function is proposed to reduce energy
losses within minimum total costs due to capacitor placement,
conductor replacement and energy losses within the planning
horizon by including realistic conditions as follows:
1) Time varying nature of loads on different days and seasons
of the planning horizon based on different load patterns.
2) Extension of network conguration during the planning
horizon, which is considered to be six years, including:
a) Increase in rated capacity of station transformers.
b) Establishment of new stations and lines which are
shown in Fig. 1.
3) Annual load growth.
4) Nonlinear loads.
Size and type of capacitors and conductors are considered as
discrete variables. Thus, discrete genetic algorithm is used to
0885-8950/$31.00 2013 IEEE
2078 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 28, NO. 3, AUGUST 2013
Fig. 1. Realistic distribution system under study.
Fig. 2. Single line diagram of a simple two-bus system.
optimize these variables. A fast method is adopted from [11]
for fast estimation of energy losses in each iteration of the opti-
mization. The proposed algorithm is tested on a 20-kV realistic
overhead distribution network in Sirjan city-center in Iran. The
network under study supplies commercial customer groups in-
cluding (i.e., supermarket) and (i.e., clothier), residential
group as well as ofce building customers.
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
In this section, mutual effect of capacitor placement and con-
ductor replacement is explained using a simple example. There-
fore, the necessity of simultaneous implementation of conductor
replacement and capacitor placement is redounded.
Fig. 2 shows a simple two-bus system. It is assumed that after
conductor replacement without considering the harmonic limits,
conductor of is replaced by LYNX type. To demon-
strate how conductor replacement can increase the harmonic
voltages, frequency characteristic of the equivalent impedance
seen from terminal 2 is shown in Fig. 3, before and after con-
ductor replacement.
A. Effect of Conductor Replacement on Harmonic Distortion
As mentioned previously in Section I, when there are ca-
pacitors installed in the network, conductor replacement can
change the frequency characteristic of the equivalent impedance
and therefore increases some orders of harmonic voltages at a
number of terminals. Both resistance and inductance of lines are
decreased due to the increase in the cross section area of con-
ductors. As a result, both the equivalent impedance at resonance
Fig. 3. Magnitude of equivalent impedance seen from terminal 2 of Fig. 2.
frequency and resonance frequency of equivalent impedance
are increased in terminals of capacitors. Further, the equivalent
impedance is increased at harmonic orders which are greater
than the resonance frequency, as demonstrated in Fig. 3. Conse-
quently, individual harmonic voltages are increased at harmonic
orders greater than the resonance frequency. This is because of
the fact that harmonic sources are considered as constant cur-
rent sources. In Fig. 3, resonance frequency of the equivalent
impedance seen from terminal 2 lies between 11th and 13th har-
monic order before conductor replacement. After conductor re-
placement, line conductor is changed around terminal 2 for the
purpose of loss reduction. As a result, impedance magnitude and
voltage at 13th harmonic get increased. In this case, harmonic
constraints fail to meet the acceptable range at terminal 2, be-
cause harmonic limits are not considered for conductor replace-
ment.
B. Mutual Effect of Capacitor Placement and Conductor
Replacement
As mentioned in the previous section, line conductor around
terminal 2 in Fig. 2 is decided to be replaced in order to achieve
the economic benet of loss reduction. However, this replace-
ment is not acceptable, because individual harmonic voltage of
this terminal exceeds the standard level at 13th harmonic. This
conductor replacement can be implemented, if the resonance
frequency is increased more than the 650 Hz at terminal 2. This
is because the fact that after conductor replacement, harmonic
voltage would be decreased at 13th harmonic, which is less
than the resonance frequency. This goal can be achieved by in-
creasing the size of installed capacitor at terminal 2. However, it
has the disadvantageous of higher network losses, since the size
of capacitor installed at terminal 2 is optimized for minimum
losses and therefore, any change in the optimum size of the ca-
pacitor is not protable from loss reduction perspective. On the
other hand, if conductor replacement and capacitor placement
are implemented simultaneously, an optimum solution can be
found regarding the size of capacitor installed at terminal 2 and
the type of conductor around the terminal 2.
FARAHANI et al.: ENERGY LOSS REDUCTION BY CONDUCTOR REPLACEMENT AND CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2079
Fig. 4. Produced chromosomes of genetic algorithm.
TABLE I
AVAILABLE 400-V CAPACITORS IN INDUSTRY
TABLE II
CANDIDATE CONDUCTORS FOR REPLACEMENT
As can be inferred from the above discussion, line conduc-
tors and capacitors installed at the network terminals represent
a mutual effect, especially when there are some harmonic limits,
as is the case for realistic distribution networks. It motivated the
authors of this paper to perform a detailed study to achieve op-
timum results by applying simultaneous conductor replacement
and capacitor placement.
III. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A. Genetic Algorithm
The most important terminologies in connection with GA are
introduced in [12]. The near optimal or global optimal solution
can be easily found without losing its solution speed in com-
paring with other conventional optimization techniques [13].
Conductor types and capacitor sizes treat as discrete variables.
Fig. 4 shows the produced chromosome of GA. In this gure,
and indicate the number of total candidate buses for capac-
itor placement and the number of total candidate overhead line
sections for conductor replacement, respectively. -rst and
-next genes represent the mode of capacitor placement and
conductor replacement, respectively. These modes are shown
in Tables I and II, together with the economic data for the avail-
able 400-V capacitors in industry and candidate conductors for
replacement, respectively. For example, no capacitor would be
placed at bus 3 and no conductor replacement would take place
at line 5, if the third and th genes of the generated chro-
mosome are equal to mode 1.
B. Network Analysis
In this paper, DIGSILENT software is employed for mod-
eling and load ow calculation of the network under study at
fundamental and harmonic frequencies. Each load in the net-
work is modeled at harmonic frequencies as a linear load in
parallel with a nonlinear load. The linear load is presented by
a generalized model composed of a resistance in parallel with
an inductance to account for active and reactive power demand
at fundamental frequency. The nonlinear load is modeled as a
simple ideal current source [14], [15]. Further, Non characteris-
tics harmonics like triples are not considered which means that
a perfect balance of system is considered.
IV. SOLUTION ALGORITHM
A. Load Estimation
To calculate energy losses, it is necessary to know about the
load behavior over the planning horizon. This goal is achieved
by adopting the load estimation method from [16] to obtain the
daily load curves (DLCs). In this paper, DLCs of the rst year
in the planning horizon are obtained for each load point by ap-
plying this load estimation method. Further, DLCs of the re-
maining years of the planning horizon (next ve years for the
network under study) are forecasted based on the DLCs of the
rst year, annual load growth and information of network ex-
tension, which are expressed in Appendixes A and B. There-
fore, forty eight DLCs are obtained for each load point (DLCs
for weekdays and weekends of four seasons during six years).
B. Energy Loss Calculation
Since GA examines a great number of solutions during its
search, the use of the fast procedure of energy loss calculation
is especially benecial when computational effort is considered.
A fast method for energy loss calculation has been presented
in [11]. This method is modied in this paper for energy loss
calculation until the next six years. The method assumes that the
power owing through each line is independent of the network
losses and only depends on the active and reactive power of the
loads and the capacitors which are installed downstream of the
corresponding line. Therefore, power ow in branch at th
hour , is expressed as:
(1)
where and are load and capacitor
power connected at load point , downstream of branch at th
hour. Real power loss of th branch, , is proportional
to the power owing through the branch and can be mathemat-
ically expressed as follows [18]:
(2)
where is the resistance of branch .
Before the optimization procedure, power ow through all
lines is calculated during all 24 hours of a day and is saved in
matrices and . In the each iteration of the optimization
process, subsequent to the capacitor placement, the power ow
in all lines is obtained and is saved in matrix due to reac-
tive power of capacitors. Therefore, power owing through each
line is obtained in the each optimization iteration, by knowing
the and , together with . Finally, line energy losses
are calculated based on (1) and (2).
2080 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 28, NO. 3, AUGUST 2013
C. Objective Function
In each optimization problem, the objective function should
be dened. In this paper, the objective function, which is illus-
trated in (3), aims at minimizing the total cost due to capacitor
placement, conductor replacement and energy losses, during the
planning horizon (six years). In this procedure, the constraints
are not improved or minimized, but the proposed method aims
at maintaining them within the accepted level. To do so, if the
constraints are not satised, they are added to the objective func-
tion by a large numerical factor . However, if they are met,
no additional term is added to the objective function. In this re-
gards, it should be noted that the numerical value of is much
greater than the order of the objective function. In this manner,
the optimization algorithm is pushed toward those individuals
that comply with the constraints.
Constraints consist of limits on terminal voltages, maximum
permissible total and individual harmonic distortion of terminal
voltages, as well as current carrying capacity of conductors. By
doing so, it can be ensured that resonance frequencies are also
restrained.
(3)
(4)
where
planning horizon which depends on the
available data of the network extension in the
future (6 years is considered in this paper);
energy losses in the th year (MWh);
cost of energy ($/MWh);
present worth factor [19];
number of total candidate buses for capacitor
placement;
purchase cost for the capacitor installed at bus
;
, life time of capacitors and conductors,
respectively (year);
installation cost for the capacitor installed at
bus ;
number of total candidate overhead line
sections for conductor replacement;
purchase cost for conductor type ($/km);
installation cost for conductor type ($/km);
length of candidate line for conductor
replacement (km);
penalty factor considered for constraint
violations, which equals to a large numerical
value ;
years that congurative extension is occurred
in the network, when load ow calculation is
needed for optimization (2nd, 5th and 6th years
in this paper);
number of terminals at th year;
, minimum and maximum permissible terminal
voltages, equal to 0.95 and 1.05 p.u.,
respectively;
, maximum permissible individual and total
harmonic distortion of terminal voltages, equal
to 3% and 5%, respectively;
number of lines at th year;
current carrying capacity of the replaced
conductor in line ;
interested rate;
ination rate.
Regarding the network under study, except the annual load
growth, two levels of congurative extension have been planned
until the end of the sixth year, which are applied at the third
and sixth years. Therefore, is considered six years in (3) and
there are three periods during which network conguration
is constant (periods 1, 2 and 3 are equivalent to the 1st and 2nd
years, 3rd year until 6th year and 6th year, respectively). De-
tails of these network extensions are given in Appendix A. Be-
cause of the network conguration variations at the third and
sixth years, three load ow calculations are needed in the each
iteration of the optimization process. These calculations are ex-
ecuted at the last year of each period. This is because of the
fact that constraints of optimization are more critical at these
times. Energy losses in each next six years are cal-
culated using the method presented in previous subsection.
equals 77.3 $/MWh and equals 1 ( and are as-
sumed to be equal). and are 77 and 121, respectively (all
buses and lines at the present state of the network under study
are candidates for capacitor placement and conductor replace-
ment). , , and are given in Tables I and II,
respectively. , and are equal to 77, 84 and 86, respec-
tively. Further, , and are equal to 121, 123 and 123,
respectively. for different types of conductor is given in
Table VIII. and are considered to be 24 and 36 years,
respectively. Thus, the total cost of installed capacitors and re-
placed conductors until the end of the planning horizon are cal-
culated by summation of 6/24 or 6/36 of the purchase cost (by
assuming that and are equal) and the whole installa-
tion cost of the capacitors or conductors.
D. Proposed Joint Optimization Algorithm for Energy Loss
Reduction
DIGSILENT programming language (DPL) is employed to
calculate the objective function, and GA is implemented in
FARAHANI et al.: ENERGY LOSS REDUCTION BY CONDUCTOR REPLACEMENT AND CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2081
Fig. 5. Flowchart of the proposed joint optimization algorithm.
MATLAB software on a 2.5-GHz personal computer. Fig. 5
shows the owchart of the proposed method for capacitor
placement and conductor replacement aiming at energy loss
reduction. Chromosomes of GA, which represent the capac-
itors and lines conductor mode (see Fig. 4) are produced by
MATLAB and are fed into DIGSILENT. Then, load ow cal-
culation is executed at the time of peak load of last year of each
period. Therefore, the network data is updated to perform the
calculation procedure for second period of the planning horizon
(3rd, 4th and 5th years) by applying the network extension
plan at the outset of the third year, together with the inclusion
of the load growth for each year (see Appendix A). Similarly,
the network data is obtained for the third period (6th year) by
considering both the second network extension and the load
growth. Then, the value of objective function is calculated by
(3) and is returned to MATLAB. This procedure is repeated in
each generation of GA, until the result is converged.
It is noted that by considering all buses and lines of the
system as the potential locations for the capacitor placement
and conductor replacement, respectively, would result in the
most optimum result if the optimization algorithm is perfectly
converged. However, the optimization algorithm may not
perfectly converge or may take several hours to converge in
distribution networks with a large number of buses and lines.
To apply the proposed method to large distribution networks,
a sensitivity analysis-based placement procedure can be rst
performed (for example as that proposed in [20]), to quickly
nd out the potential locations for capacitor placement and con-
ductor replacement. Then, chromosomes of GA can be selected
only among those candidate locations, and the proposed method
can be applied with no change. The sensitivity analysis is briey
elaborated as follows.
Sensitivity of the objective function [(3)] can be computed
with respect to the capacitance values at candidate buses by
using (5):
(5)
where and are the values of objective function cor-
responding to the capacitors of size and con-
nected at bus .
Similarly, the sensitivity of objective function with respect to
the diameter of line conductors can be computed by
(6):
(6)
The right-hand side of (5) and (6) can be easily computed
using the outputs of load ow calculation.
Based on the sensitivity analysis, the most prior buses and
lines for capacitor placement and conductor replacement, i.e.,
those with the greatest sensitivities, can be identied.
It is worthy to mention that the adopted method for energy
loss calculation in this paper, like several other methods de-
veloped for the application in distribution networks, takes the
advantage of the partially radial structure of these networks.
They do not require any matrix inversion, and therefore are
much faster than N-R algorithms. However, these algorithms
only allow for the representation of PQ nodes [17].
Therefore, in the presence of distributed generation (DG)
units operating at PQ mode, the simple power ow calculation
method proposed in this paper can still be successfully used,
even with the consideration of their hourly power generation
proles. However, when DG units with the capability of voltage
regulation (PV mode) are used, a detailed modeling of their
operation and accurate load ow calculation might be needed
for energy loss calculation. In addition, other provisions are
to be made in the proposed optimization algorithm. Firstly,
the contributions of DG generated reactive power should be
taken into account as they can affect the need for new cables
and capacitors by modifying the lines currents at the respective
busses. Secondly, the objective function should be modied
appropriately to include DG reactive power contributions as
they should be compensated in deregulated markets. In general,
the optimization procedure in the presence of DG units may
take a longer CPU time. However, it cannot be regarded as
a limitation, as the optimization procedure is performed only
once for a selected planning horizon interval.
V. COMPARATIVE STUDY AND RESULTS
To demonstrate the performance of the proposed joint opti-
mization algorithm for simultaneous capacitor placement and
conductor replacement compared to implementation of these
2082 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 28, NO. 3, AUGUST 2013
two methods separately, eight cases are considered. Further-
more, the realistic conditions, which are expressed in Section I,
are considered here, except those mentioned for each case study.
The proposed case studies are as follows:
1) Base case, in which no capacitor placement and conductor
replacement are performed.
2) Only capacitor placement is performed.
3) First, capacitor placement is performed. Then, conductor
replacement is carried out, without considering the har-
monic limits.
4) First, capacitor placement is performed. Then, conductor
replacement is carried out.
5) First, conductor replacement is performed, and then, ca-
pacitor placement is carried out.
6) Capacitor placement and conductor replacement are per-
formed simultaneously.
7) Capacitor placement and conductor replacement are car-
ried out simultaneously. Network extension planning is
considered during the planning horizon. However, the time
varying nature of loads is ignored.
8) Capacitor placement and conductor replacement are per-
formed simultaneously without including network exten-
sion planning and the time varying nature of loads.
Several trials with different values of GA parameters are per-
formed to test the effectiveness of GA parameters for the pur-
pose of loss reduction. After these trials, satisfactory global op-
timal results are returned with mentioned population sizes in
Table III; the number of maximum generations and the muta-
tion probability are 1000 and 0.1, respectively. In Case 3, it is
shown that considering harmonic limits even for conductor re-
placement is necessary when it is implemented after capacitor
placement. A comparison between separate and simultaneous
capacitor placement and conductor replacement is performed
by using the results of Cases 4, 5 and 6. Cases7 and 8 show
the advantage of considering time varying nature of loads and
network extensions. In Case 7, the optimization process is per-
formed only for power loss reduction during the rst, the third
and the sixth years (loads are assumed to be constant in all hours
during each period and to be equal to value of peak loads in rst,
third and sixth years, respectively). Therefore, a comparison be-
tween the results of optimization for energy and power losses is
performed by using the results of Cases 6 and 7. In Case 8, the
annual cost is minimized (loads are assumed to be constant in
all hours during the next six years and to be equal to value of
peak load in rst year). It is shown that considering network ex-
tension can bring about more economic prot for the next six
years.
Results of optimization and harmonic constraints for dif-
ferent cases are given in Tables III and IV, respectively. Indexes
E, p and m in these tables indicate the energy, peak and
mean value, respectively. For example, , and
represent the energy losses for the next six years,
power losses at the time of peak load for the 1st year and
mean value of voltage distortion for 13th harmonic. All THD
and IHD values are expressed for the 6th year and the cost of
capacitors and conductors are calculated during the planning
horizon. Furthermore, the results of capacitor placement for
case 6 are presented in Table V. Table VI shows the results
of conductor replacement for case 6, including the conductor
type, before and subsequent to optimization process (Type 1
and Type 2, respectively).
TABLE III
OPTIMIZATION RESULTS OF DIFFERENT CASES
TABLE IV
HARMONIC CONSTRAINTS RESULTS OF DIFFERENT CASES
TABLE V
CAPACITOR PLACEMENT RESULTS OF CASE 6
As can be seen in Table IV, harmonic constraints are not im-
proved in different cases compared to Case 1, because they are
just maintained within the acceptable levels. Also, optimiza-
tion procedure is only performed once for the six-year planning
horizon. Therefore, level of harmonic constraints and CPU time
(or number of generations needed to reach the solution) cannot
be a criterion of advantage between different cases. Instead, eco-
nomic benet of the next six years is an appropriate criterion for
comparison between different cases.
Harmonic currents are expressed for typical loads in
Table VII. It can be seen from this table that 5th and 7th orders
of harmonic currents are larger than other orders. Therefore,
after capacitor placement, because of considering the harmonic
limits, such capacitor sizes obtained as resonance frequencies
are far from 250 and 350 Hz (mainly greater than 350 Hz).
Thus, increasing the cross section area of the lines conductor
FARAHANI et al.: ENERGY LOSS REDUCTION BY CONDUCTOR REPLACEMENT AND CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2083
TABLE VI
CONDUCTOR REPLACEMENT RESULTS OF CASE 6
TABLE VII
HARMONIC CURRENTS OF DIFFERENT LOAD TYPES (%)
can generally intensify the higher orders of harmonic voltage
(mainly 13th order) and decrease the lower orders (mainly
5th order) when it is implemented after capacitor placement.
This can be seen from Cases 2 and 3. For example, in Case 2,
the resonance frequency is between 11th and 13th harmonic
orders at terminal 35. Therefore, impedance magnitude and
at 13th order is increased in Case 3. The reverse holds
true for 11th harmonic order, where impedance magnitude and
are decreased subsequent to the conductor replacement.
and at terminal 35 in Cases 2 and 3 are 2.253%,
2.784% and 1.868%, 3.655%, respectively. By calculating the
equivalent impedance at 55 capacitor terminals in Case 2, it
is found that the resonance frequency lies between 5th and
7th harmonic order (with an average of 6.27) in 6 terminals,
between 7th and 11th harmonic order (with an average of 9.01)
in 29 terminals, between 11th and 13th harmonic order (with
an average of 12.25) in 7 terminals and it is larger than 13th
harmonic order (with an average of 18.96) in 13 terminals. It
can be seen that the resonance frequencies are greater than 7th
harmonic order in most terminals in Case 2. Therefore, after
conductor replacement in Case 3, is decreased in all
terminals, is increased in 42 terminals and it gets
decreased in 13 terminals.
Individual harmonic distortions at terminal voltages, which
are at their critical level in Case 2, may fail to meet the accept-
able range in Case 3 because of conductor replacements around
their own terminals. These conductor replacements cannot be
performed in Case 4, and this is because of considering the har-
monic limits. Therefore, conductor cost is decreased and energy
losses are increased in Case 4 as compared to Case 3.
Case 5 shows that if capacitor placement is performed after
conductor replacement, more economic benet is obtained in
the next six years compared to Case 4. This mainly stems from
the fact that in Case 5, conductor replacement, which is eco-
nomically more protable than capacitor replacement, is imple-
mented rst and therefore has more contribution in loss reduc-
tion compared to the capacitor placement. Thus, the cost of con-
ductors in Case 5 is greater than that of Case 4. The reverse holds
true for the cost of capacitors.
By comparing Cases 4, 5 and 6, it can be inferred that simul-
taneous implementation of capacitor placement and conductor
replacement in the presence of harmonic limits has more eco-
nomic benet than applying them separately. This emphasizes
the mutual relationship between these two methods, especially
at harmonic frequencies.
By Cases 6, 7 and 8, it can be seen that the improvements in
the results when the network extension and time varying nature
of loads are considered. It is obvious from Table III that more
energy loss reduction is achieved in Case 6, whereas power
loss reduction is less in case 6 when compared to Cases 7 and
8. Moreover, it is meaningful that capacitor cost is more in
Cases 7 and 8, and conductors cost is more in Case 6. It im-
plies that the method of capacitor placement is more effective
for power loss reduction during the peak load and conductor
replacement is more effective for energy loss reduction during
the planning horizon. Furthermore, more economic benet is
obtained in Case 7 compared to Case 8. This is because consid-
ering network extension during the planning horizon.
It is noted that to check harmonic voltage constraints, the pro-
posed method only considers peak load period. In this regard,
mention should be paid that harmonic voltages are not expected
to increase during off-peak hours from the values they take at
peak load. To explain it more clearly, frequency characteristic
of the equivalent impedance seen from terminal 20 is shown in
Fig. 6 under three load levels (0.1 p.u., 0.5 p.u. and 1.0 p.u.). As
can be seen from the gure, when the load is reduced to 0.1 p.u.,
the resonance frequency get decreased and lies at 5th harmonic,
and the magnitude of network impedance is increased at har-
monic orders lower than the resonance frequency, which may
seem to cause more severe conditions for harmonic constraints
than that considered during peak hours. However, in interpreting
the results of Fig. 6, two points should be taken into account. The
rst point is that in distribution networks, typical values of load
impedance are much larger than the equivalent impedance of the
network. Therefore, any increase in the magnitude of the load
impedance, as occurs during off-peak hours, would have a lim-
ited impact to increase the equivalent impedance. Further, the
magnitudes of harmonic currents are expected to be in propor-
tion to the fundamental currents [21]. Therefore, the amounts of
harmonic current injections by loads are also decreased during
off-peak hours. In summary, the amount of increase in network
equivalent impedance seen from a given terminal of the net-
work is less than the extent by which harmonic injections are
reduced. Thus, there is no need to check harmonic constraints
for off-peak load hours in the iterations of the optimization pro-
cedure.
2084 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 28, NO. 3, AUGUST 2013
Fig. 6. Magnitude of equivalent impedance seen from terminal 20 of the net-
work under study.
TABLE VIII
LINES TYPE DATA OF THE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK UNDER STUDY
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, capacitor placement and conductor replacement
have been employed simultaneously for energy loss reduction.
This is because these two methods have an inherent coupling
effect with each other, especially in harmonic frequencies. For
more practical application of the proposed method, different
load patterns have been considered and a load estimation
method has been used to account for the time varying nature of
the loads. Possible network extensions have been considered
based on realistic data for the network under study during a
six-year planning horizon. A fast method has been adopted for
energy loss calculation.
Discrete genetic algorithm has been employed for the pro-
posed joint optimization problem. The objective function has
been proposed for minimizing the total cost due to capacitors
placement, conductor replacement and energy losses during the
planning horizon. Constraints of individual and total harmonic
distortions of terminal voltages, current carrying capacity of
conductors and limitation of terminal voltages have been taken
into account. The obtained results veried the effectiveness of
the proposed method for energy loss minimization.
APPENDIX A
DATA OF THE NETWORK EXTENSION FOR THE NEXT SIX YEARS
Extension of the network under study for the next two years,
applied at the outset of the third year is as follows:
1) Increase in rated capacity of transformers 67 and 7 to 315
kVA;
2) 10% of station11 loading is reduced and transferred to sta-
tion6;
TABLE IX
ANNUAL LOADS GROWTH
3) Establishment of new station26 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 20%of station26 loading, 10%of station27
loading and 10% of station24 loading;
4) Establishment of new station46 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 25%of station35 loading, 10%of station34
loading and 20% of station46 loading;
5) Establishment of new station10 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 20% of station10 loading;
6) Establishment of new station13 with rated capacity of 250
kVA. It reduces 30% of station14 loading and 15% of sta-
tion13 loading;
7) Establishment of new station4 with rated capacity of 250
kVA. It reduces 30% of station4 loading and 30% of sta-
tion5 loading;
8) Establishment of new station1 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 30% of station1 loading and 30% of sta-
tion2 loading;
9) Establishment of new station58 with rated capacity of 250
kVA. It reduces 10%of station59 loading, 15%of station58
loading and 15% of station60 loading.
Also, extension of the network for the next ve years, which
is applied at the outset of the sixth year, is given below:
1) Increase in rated capacity of transformers 39, 43, 52, 55,
57, 69 and 71 to 315 kVA;
2) Establishment of newstation28 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 25% of station28 loading;
3) Establishment of newstation30 with rated capacity of 315
kVA. It reduces 30% of station30 loading and 10% of sta-
tion29 loading.
APPENDIX B
DATA OF LINES AND LOADS
Table VII presents the harmonic currents of different cus-
tomer types. Further, information about the population of each
customer type is given in [22] for each load point of the network
under study. The harmonic currents of load points that do not
conform to a single consumer category are estimated by com-
bining these two sets of data.
Tables VIII and IX present the line types data of the network
under study and the annual loads growth, respectively. DLCs
for typical consumer types are presented in [22] for weekdays
in spring. Detailed information about the lines and loads of the
network can be found in [22].
FARAHANI et al.: ENERGY LOSS REDUCTION BY CONDUCTOR REPLACEMENT AND CAPACITOR PLACEMENT IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2085
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Vahid Farahani (S10) was born in Arak, Iran, in 1986. He received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Tech-
nology, Tehran, Iran, in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
His main elds of research are harmonics in power system, distribution
system analysis and optimization and loss reduction of power distribution
systems. He has also authored a book.
Seyed Hossein Hesamedin Sadeghi (M92SM05) received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran,
the M.S. degree in power engineering from the University of Manchester,
Manchester, U.K., and the Ph.D. degree in electronic systems engineering from
Essex University, Colchester, U.K., in 1980, 1984, and 1991.
In 1992, he was appointed as a Research Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN, USA. He is currently a Professor of electrical en-
gineering at Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. His current re-
search interests include electromagnetic compatibility problems in power engi-
neering and electromagnetic non-destructive evaluation of materials. He holds
3 patents and is the author or coauthor of one book, one book chapter, and over
300 papers and technical reports.
Hossein Askarian Abyaneh (SM09) was born in Abyaneh, Isfahan, Iran, on
March 20, 1953. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees, both in Iran, in 1976
and 1982, respectively. He also received another M.S. degree and the Ph.D.
degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
Manchester, U.K., in 1985 and 1988, respectively, all in electrical power system
engineering.
He published over 100 scientic papers in international journals and con-
ferences. Currently, he is a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engi-
neering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, working in the area
of the relay protection and power quality.
Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Agah (M10) was born in Rasht, Iran, on De-
cember 4, 1984. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical
engineering with honors, from Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT),
Tehran, Iran, in 2006, 2008, and 2010, respectively.
His area of research is power quality, power system protection, distributed
generation systems, equipment life modeling and probabilistic analysis of power
systems. He has many experiences in protection, control, and automation of
high-voltage substations in Iran.
Kazem Mazlumi (M11) was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1976. He received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran, in 2000, the M.S. degree from Sharif University, Tehran, Iran, in
2003, and the Ph.D. degree from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran,
Iran, in 2009.
He is currently an Assistant Professor with University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.