Benefit of Distributed Generation on Line Loss
Reduction
  
KHDang Jiqing Yu
1. Northeast Dianli University 2.Chengdu Waste-To-Energy Co. Ltd
Jilin China Chengdu China
dkxy4886@hotmail.com yu19860227111@163.com dangtong-sh@hotmail.com
Abstract—The penetration of distributed generation resources
in distribution grids increasing worldwide, it is both a
challenge and an opportunity for a variety of technologies and
operating scenarios. The need to provide acceptable power
quality and reliability will create a very favorable climate for
the entry of distributed resources and innovative operating
practices. Distributed resources is a term that encompasses
both distributed generation and distributed energy storage.
Integration of DG into an existing utility can result in several
benefits. Customers could benefit from DG in term of better
quality of supply at lower cost. Among the many benefits of
distributed generation is a reduced line loss. The purpose of
this paper is to quantify this benefit for the simple case of a
radial distribution feeder with concentrated load and
distributed generator. With the introduction of DG, line loss
reduction can be expected. The analysis is conducted for
varying locations of the distributed generator along the feeder
and for varying output capacities. The results are presented
in graphical form in terms of clearly-defined normalized
parameters.
Key Words—distributed generation, line loss reduction,
distributed resources
I. NOMENCLATURE
G Distance from source to the DG location, km
I G DG output current per phase, A / φ
I L Load current per phase, A / φ
I S Source current per phase, A / φ
L Total length of distribution line, km
Loss B Total line loss before the inclusion of DG, W
Loss AGL Line loss from DG location to the location of
load after the inclusion of DG, W
Loss ASG Line loss from source to the DG location
after the inclusion of DG, W
Loss AT Total line loss after the inclusion of DG, W
PG Real power of DG, W
PL Real power of Load, W
PFG Operating power factor of DG
PFL Power factor of Load
978-1-4244-8165-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
2042

Tong Dang Bo Han
3. Anyang Rural Electric Power Service Center
Anyang China
yxypop@163.com
QG Reactive power of DG, Var
QL Reactive power of Load, Var
r Line resistance per phase per unit length, Ω / km
R Total resistance per phase, Ω / km
Y Fraction of real load power supplied by DG
II. OVERVIEW
Recently distributed generation has achieved prodigious
progress, electric utilities are seeking new technologies to
provide acceptable power quality and reliability to their
customers. Small non-conventional generation option is
rapidly becoming attractive to many utilities because these
technologies produce energy with less environmental impact,
easy to site, and are highly efficient [1-3].
Distributed generation can be considered as “taking
power to the load”. DG promises to generate electricity with
high efficiency and low pollution. Unlike large central power
plants, DG can be installed at or near the load. DG ratings
range from 5 kW up to 100 MW. Maintenance cost for DG
such as fuel cells and photovoltaics is quite low because of
the absence of moving parts [4]. Several DG technologies are
under various stages of development. They include
microturbines, photovoltaic systems, wind energy conversion
systems, gas turbines, diesel engines, and fuel cell systems
[5-7]. At present, wind energy has become the most
competitive among all renewable energy technologies [8].
Integration of DG into an existing utility can result in
several benefits. These benefits include line loss reduction,
reduced environmental impacts, peak shaving, increaseVd
overall energy efficiency, relieved transmission and
distribution congestion, voltage support, and deferred
investments to upgrade existing generation, transmission,
and distribution systems. This paper focuses on line loss
reduction analysis. In this study, one-concentrated load is
assumed at the end of the line.
With the introduction of DG, line loss reduction can be
expected. This factor is analyzed, quantified and presented
in this paper for different locations of the DG along the
feeder and for different DG power outputs.
III. SYSTEM MODELING
Schematics of the two cases are shown in Figures 1 and
2. Both systems have a concentrated load at the line end.
 rL( PL2 + QL2 )
Loss B = (2)
3VP2
B. Line Loss Analysis for System with DG

Assuming that the line is short, voltage drop along the

line is neglected. Schematic of this system is shown in
Figure 2. The complex power supplied by the DG
equals to S L = PL + jQ L Thus, DG output current is given
as:
FIGURE 1. A SIMPLE RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WITHOUT DG.
( PG − jQG )
IG = (3)
Load 3VP
AC Is IL The line loss with the integration of DG is a combination of
two parts:
(I) Line loss from source to the location of DG
IG (II) Line loss from DG location to the location of load
B.1) Line Loss from Source to DG Location
From Figure 2, it can be seen that
DG I S = I L − IG
G km Therefore, the expression for Loss ASG can be given as:

L km rG ( PL2 + QL2 + PG2 + QG2 − 2 PL PG − 2QL QG )

Loss ASG =
3VP2

FIGURE 2. A SIMPLE RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WITH THE ˄4˅

INCLUSION OF DG.
B.2) Line Loss from the Location of DG to Load Location
The load complex power is S L = PL + jQ L , therefore,
Line current in this sector is I which is the same as in
( P − jQL ) L

the current absorbed by load is: I L = L (1) the previous case with no DG. Thus, the line loss in
3VP this section can be expressed as:
IV. LINE LOSS REDUCTION ANALYSIS
r ( L − G )( PL2 + QL2 )
Loss B = ˄5˅
Electrical line loss occurs when current flows through 3VP2
transmission and distribution systems. The magnitude of
the loss depends on amount current flow and the line
resistance. Therefore, line loss can be decreased by reducing B.3) Total Line Loss
either line current or resistance or both. If DG is used to By combining line loss from source to the location of DG
provide energy locally to the load, line loss can be reduced and from DG location to the location of load, the total line
because of the decrease in current flow in some part of the loss can be expressed as:
network.
A. Line Loss Analysis for System without DG rL ( PL2 + Q L2 + PG2 + QG2 − 2 PL PG − 2Q L QG ) G
Loss ASG =
3V P2 L
Schematic of the system for this analysis is shown in ˄6˅
Figure 1. Line loss on a distribution feeder is equal to the
C. Line Loss Reduction
product of line current squared times the line resistance.
Therefore, line loss equation for a three phase system is
Loss reduction (LR) is given by the difference in the line loss
defined as:
with and without DG. Hence,

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LR = Loss − Loss B AT ˄7˅ location, resulting in lower electrical line loss. However,
higher DG ratings cannot always guarantee lower line loss.
rG (2 P P + 2Q Q − P − Q ) 2 2
The figure shows that as DG rating increases higher than 2.0
= L G L G G G

pu, the rate of line loss reduction actually declines. This

3V 2

P
indicates that DG
The positive sign of LR indicates that the system loss may cause a higher line loss in the distribution system if
reduces with the integration of DG. In contrast, the the rating and location of DG are not well justified. Hence,
negative sign of LR implies that DG causes the higher this fact should be taken into account before determining the
system loss. rating and location of DG. The suitable rating of DG mainly
D. Per-unit Loss Reduction depends on the amount and location of load in the feeder.
Per-unit loss reduction (PULR) is defined as the ratio Generally, the higher amount of load, the penetration of DG
of loss reduction to the line loss without DG. PULR can be higher without causing higher electrical line loss in
presents the benefit of DG in normalized form. the system.
The location of DG also plays a vital role for electrical
LR
PULR = line loss. To study this affect, the locations of DG are varied
Loss B along the feeder: 20 (location 1), 40(location 2), 60 (location
˄8˅ 3), 80(location 4), and 100% (location 5) from the source
G while load and DG power factors are kept at 0.85 lagging.
= 2 (2PL PG + 2QL QG − PG2 − QG2 )
( PL + QL2 ) L PULR are calculated once again by (13) and the results are
shown in Figure 4.
Consequently, the percentage of line loss reduction is
simply defined as:

% LR = PURE * 100 ˄9˅

V. RESULTS OF LINE LOSS REDUCTION

ANALYSIS
The influences of varying DG location and varying DG
power output are considered in this section. In order to
evaluate the effect of DG power outputs to the system loss,
both of load and DG power factors are set at 0.85 lagging
and the DG is assumed to install at the middle of feeder. The
DG power outputs are varied over seven values: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6,
0.8, and 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4 pu while the amount of load is kept
constant at 2.0 pu. PULR values calculated using (13) are
plotted against DG power outputs, as expressed in Figure 3

FIGURE 4. VARIATION OF LINE LOSS REDUCTION WITH DIFFERENT DG

POWER OUTPUT AND LOCATION.

Figure 4 clearly indicate that both of rating and

FIGURE 3. VARIATION OF LINE LOSS REDUCTION WITH DG POWER OUTPUT.
From the figure, it is clearly seen that DG can reduce
the line loss in the system. This is due to the fact that DG
supplies a portion of real and reactive power to the load.
Thus, the feeder current reduces from the source to DG
location of DG are highly sensitive to the line loss in the
system. The results show that the line loss reduces as DG is
installed closer and closer to the load. However, this fact
only applies for the case that DG rating is well matched with
the amount of load. If the ratio of DG power output to the
amount of load increases beyond the suitable point, the DG
that installed near the load will cause more electrical line loss
than the one that installed far away from the load. This is
because load cannot consume all the power supplied by DG.
Thus, the remaining power from DG is fed back to the source
via the distribution line, resulting in higher line loss.
However, it should be noted that the location of load in this
study is placed at the line end.

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 VI. CONCLUSIONS [13] Xue Ying-chengˈTai Neng-lingˊIntroduction to the Existing DG
Interconnection Standards Worldwide ˊ Southern Power System
Use of distributed generation is one of the many Technologyˈ2008ˈ2(6)˖13-17.
strategies electric utilities are considering to operate their
systems in the deregulated environment. Several DG
technologies are showing promise for this application.
Inclusion of DG at the distribution level results in several
benefits, among which are congestion relief, loss reduction,
voltage support, peak shaving, and an overall improvement
of energy efficiency, reliability, and power quality.
This paper has considered the benefit of DG on loss
reduction for a simple case of a radial distribution line with
one concentrated load at the end and one DG. The results
clearly indicate that DG can reduce the electrical line loss.
However, the inclusion of DG does not always guarantee the
line loss. The DG rating, location, and operating power
factor are important factors for line loss reduction. Therefore,
those factors have to consider very carefully in order to
determine the best location and rating of DG.
The benefits obtained by the introduction of DG should be
weighed against the costs involved before deciding on the
use of DG. As DG technologies improve and cost decrease,
their use is expected to rise.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Preparation of this paper was supported by the Electrical
Engineering College of Northeast Dianli University. The
sponsorship and encouragement provided by the Electrical
Engineering College are acknowledged with thanks.

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