IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution

Research Article

ISSN 1751-8687
Optimal power factor for optimally located Received on 22nd December 2015
Revised on 1st March 2016
and sized solar parking lots applying Accepted on 18th March 2016
doi: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2015.1553
quantum annealing www.ietdl.org

Mehdi Rahmani-andebili ✉
The Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
✉ E-mail: mehdir@g.clemson.edu

Abstract: Investigating optimal value of the power factor for the optimally allocated and sized solar parking lots of the
plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) based on minimum total cost of the problem over the given planning period is the aim
of this study. Covering a parking lot with photovoltaic (PV) panels can keep the PEVs cool, charge their batteries for
free, and generate extra energy and deliver it to the grid. Moreover, the inverter installed in the charging station of a
parking lot is capable of generating or absorbing reactive power by changing the operating mode of the inverter
without any degradation of the PEV’s battery. Therefore, the PEVs and the solar parking lots can be applied as the
auxiliary sources of active and reactive powers by the local distribution company (DISCO). In this study, in order to
achieve realistic results, the economic aspects and technical factors of the system, and also the behavioural model of
the PEVs fleet are taken into consideration in the planning problem. Moreover, the stochastic nature of the PEVs
behaviour and power of the installed PV panels are modelled in the problem. Herein, the planning problem is solved
applying quantum annealing (QA).

Loss total energy loss of system over the planning

Nomenclature period (MW)
P̃, P rated and current active power demands of a
Indices bus (MW), respectively
PEV
P̃ , PPEV rated and current powers of the battery of a
b, Nb index and number of branches in the system,
PEV (kW), respectively
respectively SPL
P̃ , PSPL rated and current powers of the installed PV
d index of day
panels in a solar parking lot (MW), respectively
e, Ne index and number of the PEVs parked in a solar  CHS , PCHS
P active power limit and current active powers of
parking lot, respectively
′ the charger installed in a solar parking lot
i, i , Ni indices of bus and number of the buses in the
(MW), respectively
system, respectively  CHS , QCHS
Q reactive power limit and current reactive power
h index of hour
of the charger installed in a solar parking lot
y, PP index of year and planning period, respectively
(MVAR), respectively
Q̃, Q rated and current reactive power demands of a
System parameters and variables bus (MVAR), respectively
R resistance of a branch (Ω)
CostSPL investment cost for installing a solar parking lot S
CHS
apparent power limit of the charger installed in
($/MW) a solar parking lot (MVA)
CostM maintenance cost of a solar parking lot ($/MW SOCA state of charge of batteries of the arrived PEVs
per year)   fleet to a solar parking lot (%)
CostMaintenance total maintenance cost of the installed solar 

MVA, |MVA| magnitude of rated and current apparent powers
parking lots over planning period ($) flowing through a branch (MVA), respectively
CostInvestment  
total investment cost for installing the solar Ṽ , |V | magnitude of rated and current voltages of a
parking lots over planning period ($) bus (kV), respectively
CostLoss total energy loss cost of the system over πE electricity price ($/kWh)
planning period ($) ΔCH value of discount on charging fee of the battery
D PEVs demand of the PEVs fleet (MW) of a PEV (%)
F value of the objective function of the problem ηV limit for tolerance of voltage profile at every
over the planning period ($) bus (%)
IncomePEVs income due to charging batteries of the PEVs Y admittance of branch (℧)
($) c phase angle of admittance of a branch in polar
Market
Income income due to purchasing less energy from the coordinate system
wholesale market ($) δ phase angle of voltage of a bus in polar
IFR, ITR inflation rate and interest rate (%), respectively coordinate system
|I| magnitude of current flowing through branch ρ1, ρ2 parameters used in the load modelling
(A)

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2538 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Quantum annealing parameters

α 2, β 2 probability amplitudes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Probability_amplitudethat a Q-bit is observed in ‘0’
state and ‘1’ state, respectively
q, NQ index of a Q-bit and number of Q-bits in the binary
numeral system, respectively
k, Nk index and number of trials for producing new
solution at every temperature, respectively
j, SPL, PF indices of variable type, solar parking lot, and power
factor, respectively
Q Q-bit matrix of the problem variables
O value of the observed Q-bit
f Boltz Boltzmann function
r QA random value in the range of [0,1)
Rot rotation gate
Fig. 2 Top six solar parking lot markets in the USA [7]
Δj rotation angle
j sigmoid interim heating function
ω1, ω2, ω3 controlling parameters
ɛ internal energy of the molten metal
Ω internal energy updating function
g QA coefficient for gradually decreasing temperature of
the molten metal
uQA , uQA
0 initial and current temperature of the molten metal,
respectively

1 Introduction
A recent study demonstrates that almost 27% of total energy
consumption and 33% of greenhouse gas emissions in the world
are related to the transportation sector [1]. Replacing internal
combustion based vehicles with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) is
a promising strategy to mitigate the energy security and
environmental issues, since PEVs can be charged by electricity
generated by renewables as the free and clean energy resources
[2]. Based on the study presented in [3, 4], PEVs utilisation is
being increased rapidly in some developed countries because of
the advancement of battery technology. As can be seen in Fig. 1,
production and price of the batteries have ascending and
descending trends, respectively [5]. Moreover, the same trends are
true for production and price of photovoltaic (PV) panels [5].
According to the research conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory [6], most cities’ surfaces are 35–50%
composed of the stuff and 40% of that pavement is parking lots.
Thus, the best idea in a long time is covering parking lots with PV
panels [7]. The solar parking lots can reduce air temperature, cool
down cars, power up parked PEVs, and generate a lot of energy
[7]. Solar panels installed in the parking lots can start generating
power sooner than conventional power plants, which take several
years to construct [7]. Solar parking lots distributed throughout the
Fig. 3 Solar parking lot installation through 2016 [7]
city generate electricity right where it is used, reducing
transmission losses on the power grid and helping to prevent
power outages caused by overloaded transmission lines [7]. Due to
solar panels produce the most electricity on sunny days when the
demand for air-conditioning peaks, they reduce the load on
conventional power plants at the most critical time [8].
As is illustrated in Fig. 2, California State has the biggest market
for solar parking lot in the USA [7]. As can be seen in Fig. 3, based
on the prediction presented in [7], as costs of solar parking lot
installation continues to decline, the solar parking lot market
expands.
The recent studies demonstrate that DC-link capacitor of the
inverter installed in a charger of the PEV (as the onboard charger)

Fig. 1 Historical data and predicted curves related to the production and price of PV module and Li-ion electric vehicle battery pack [5]

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2016, Vol. 10, Iss. 10, pp. 2538–2547
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 2539

Fig. 4 Operation quadrants of a charger
or in a charger of the parking lot (as the offboard charger) is capable
of generating or absorbing reactive power by changing the operating
mode of the inverter without any impact on the active power
operation of the PEV or the parking lot, and also without any
degradation of the battery of the PEV [9]. Therefore, this
characteristic brings about a considerable opportunity for the
distribution companies (DISCOs) to apply the PEVs and the solar
parking lots as the auxiliary sources of active and reactive powers.
However, supplying reactive power using onboard chargers have
some inherent disadvantages such as the mobility of the PEVs and
the limited power of the batteries of the PEVs. Therefore, offboard
chargers installed in the solar parking lots can be considered as the
sources of active and reactive powers, since they are not mobile
and they are rated at much higher power levels.
Fig. 4 and Table 1 present the operation quadrants and modes of
an offboard charger installed in a solar parking lot. As can be seen in
Fig. 4, the charger can work in four quadrants, but the amount of
apparent power that the charger can operate is confined by the
charger active and reactive power limits. Based on this, if the
PEVs parked in the solar parking lot absorb the maximum active
power from the parking lot, the parking lot will not be able to
inject any reactive power to the grid. Also, as can be seen in
Table 1, 12 operation modes can be defined for the charger of the
parking lot.
In [10, 11], the economic and technical characteristics of the PEVs
fleet have been discussed. Several studies have investigated the
charging station allocation problem on some real power systems
including grids of Beijing [12], Seattle [13], Portugal [14], and
Germany [15]. Moreover, the charging station placement has been
done in the literature based on various objective functions
including minimum energy and power losses [16–20], maximum
reliability [21–23], maximum voltage stability [24–26], and
maximum sustainability [27]. Nonetheless, all the considered
Table 1 Operation modes of a charger
charging stations in the above mention studies are grid-supplied
charging stations and solar parking lots have been disregarded. In
[28], just converting the parking lots into solar charging stations
for the commuters has been investigated. Moreover, the capability
of the charging stations for simultaneously generating both active
and reactive powers has been ignored. In addition, the customers’
load type in every bus of the electrical system has been neglected
in the planning problem. Furthermore, the behaviour of the PEVs
fleet have not been realistically modelled in the problem.
In this study, the problem of optimal sizing and placement of solar
parking lots and determining optimal value of power factor for them
is investigated from the local DISCO’s viewpoint based on minimum
total cost of the problem over the planning period and applying
quantum annealing (QA). In fact, the local DISCO investigates the
optimal power factors, places, and sizes of the solar parking lots in
the distribution network, and then introduces them to the aggregators.
The cost and income terms of the objective function include total
investment cost for purchasing and installing solar parking lots in the
optimal locations, present worth value of maintenance cost of the
installed solar parking lots, present worth value of energy loss
cost, present worth value of income due to charging batteries of
the PEVs, and present worth value of income because
of purchasing less energy from the wholesale market due to value
of the energy generated by the solar parking lots.
Herein, the behaviour of the PEVs fleet is modelled applying three
parameters including the number of the arrived PEVs to the solar
parking lot, a number of the departed PEVs from the solar parking
lot, and state of charge (SOC) of the arrived PEVs to the solar
parking lot [21, 29]. In addition, the customers’ load types
including residential, commercial, and industrial are modelled in
the planning problem and load model-based power flow is applied
instead of the conventional power flow. Moreover, in order to
achieve realistic results, economic factors such as inflation and
interest rates and technical factors including yearly load growth
rate, yearly utilisation growth rate of the PEVs, and daily and
hourly variations of the load are taken into consideration in the
planning problem. In addition, in order to model the stochastic
nature of the behaviour of the PEVs fleet and power of the
installed PV panels in the solar parking lots, the value of the
uncertain states of the problem are forecasted at every hour of
the day and their uncertainties are taken into account by applying
the expected value of the uncertain states. Also, the security
constraints of the system including loading limit of the lines,
voltage magnitude limits of the buses, and active and reactive
power limits of the solar parking lots are considered over the
given planning period.
The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. Customers’
load type modelling in load model-based power flow is presented
in Section 2. The planning problem is formulated in Section
3. The proposed optimisation technique for solving the planning
problem is presented in Section 4. Section 5 is concerned with the
numerical study and results analysis, and finally Section 6
concludes the paper.

Quadrant| ID of Value of Value of Operation 2 Modelling customers’ load type in load

operation active reactive mode
mode power power
model-based power flow

I 1 positive zero charging In a conventional power flow problem, at every PQ-bus, value of
2 zero positive inductive active and reactive power demands are definite and constant, value
3 positive positive charging and of voltage magnitude and phase angle are unknown, and (1) and
inductive
II 4 negative zero discharging
(2) hold
5 zero positive inductive
6 negative positive discharging 
Ni
       
and inductive Pi = V ′ V Y ′  cos c ′ + d ′ − d , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni
i i ii ii i i
III 7 negative zero discharging i′ =1
8 zero negative capacitive
9 negative negative discharging (1)
and capacitive
IV 10 positive zero charging 
Ni
       
11 zero negative capacitive Qi = − V ′ V Y ′  sin c ′ + d ′ − d , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni
i i ii ii i i
12 positive negative charging and i′ =1
capacitive
(2)

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2540 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Table 2 Exponent of active and reactive power demands of different present worth value of income due to charging batteries of the
customers’ load types [30] PEVs over the planning period, and present worth value of income
Customers’ load type ρ1 ρ2 because of purchasing less energy from the wholesale market due
to value of the energy generated by the solar parking lots over the
industrial (Ind.) 0.18 6.00 planning period
residential (Res.) 0.92 4.04   
commercial (Com.) 1.51 3.40 F = min CostInvestment + PWV CostMaintenance
     
+PWV CostLoss − PWV IncomePEVs − PWV IncomeMarket
However, in a real electric power system, value of variable (5)
parameters of the system components is not equal to their rated
amounts and the system does not work at nominal operating point. 3.2 Cost and income terms
For instance, in a real electrical distribution network, voltage
profile at each bus is not equal to its nominal value due to power 3.2.1 Investment cost: The total investment cost for purchasing
loss in the feeders. Therefore, since value of active and reactive and installing solar parking lots in the optimal locations of the system
power demands of load points has a dependency on their operating is presented in the following equation
voltage profile, value of active and reactive power demands of
different load types would not be constant and definite and they 
Ni
SPL
can be changed [30]. Consequently, in the load model-based CostInvestment = CostSPL P̃i (6)
power flow, in addition to values of voltage magnitude and phase i=1
angle, values of active and reactive power demands are variable
and unknown at every load point. Behaviour of different 3.2.2 Maintenance cost: The present worth value of
customers’ load types can be mathematically modelled by maintenance cost of the installed solar parking lots over the
symbolising the alterations in their active and reactive power planning period is given in the following equation
demands due to changes in their voltage profile. The voltage
dependent load models are expressed mathematically in the
 
 Maintenance 
PP Ni
SPL 1 + (IFR/100) y
following equations PWV Cost = CostM
P̃i ×
 r1 y=1 i=1
1 + (ITR/100)
V   
 
Pi = P̃i ×  i  , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni (3) (7)
Ṽ i 
 r2 3.2.3 Energy loss cost: In (8), value of energy loss of the system
V   
  over the planning horizon is presented. Moreover, the present worth
Qi = Q̃i ×  i  , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni (4)
Ṽ i  value of the system energy loss cost over the given planning period is
given in the following equation
where P̃i , Q̃i , Ṽ i are the rated active power demand, rated reactive

PP 
365 
24 
Nb  2
power demand, and rated voltage at bus i, respectively. Values of  
ρ1 and ρ2 as the exponents of active and reactive power demands Loss = 10−6 Rb × Iy,d,h,b  (8)
y=1 d=1 h=1 b=1
for industrial, residential, and commercial load types are presented
in Table 2 [30].
(see (9))

3 Problem formulation
3.1 Objective function
The objective function of the problem is minimising total cost of the
system over the defined planning period considering economic and
technical factors such as inflation and interest rates, yearly load
growth rate, yearly utilisation growth rate of the PEVs, hourly and
daily variations of the load demand, customers’ load types
(residential, commercial, and industrial), and different electricity
prices at different load levels. Also, load model based power flow
is applied instead of the conventional power flow. Variables of the
optimisation problem include value of the power factor and value
of the rated power of the installed solar parking lot at every bus of
the system.
As can be seen in (5), the different terms of the objective function
include total investment cost for installing solar parking lots in the
optimal locations, present worth value of maintenance cost of the
installed solar parking lots over the planning period, present worth
value of energy loss cost of the system over the planning period,
3.2.4 Income due to charging batteries of the PEVs: The
hourly value of demand of the PEVs fleet at every bus is
determined using (10). The value of this demand at every bus of
the system is determined using the parameters related to the
behaviour model of the PEVs fleet including a number of
the arrived PEVs, a number of the departed PEVs, and SOC of the
arrived PEVs [21, 29]. In addition, the present worth value of
income due to charging batteries of the PEVs over the planning
period is given in (11). Discount on charging fee of the PEVs
(ΔCH) is considered to motivate the PEVs’ owners to park their
vehicles at the solar parking lots. (see (10) and (11) at the bottom
of the next page)
3.2.5 Income due to purchasing less energy from the
wholesale market: The present worth value of income because
of purchasing less energy from the wholesale market due to value
of the energy generated by the solar parking lots over the planning
period is given in the following equation: (see equation (12) at the
bottom of the next page)

 
   PP 365 
24 Nb  2 1 + (IFR/100) y
 
PWV CostLoss = Rb × Iy,d,h,b  × pEh × 1000 × (9)
y=1 d=1 h=1 b=1
1 + (ITR/100)

Ney,i

 SOCAy,d,h,i,e P̃
PEV
 
DPEVs
y,d,h,i = 1− × e ∀y [ {1, . . . , PP}, ∀d [ {1, . . . , 365}, ∀h [ {1, . . . , 24}, ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni (10)
e=1
100 1000

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 2541
3.3 Security constraints equation

3.3.1 Loading limit of the lines: The loading constraint of  2

every branch, as its thermal limit, is presented in (13). As can be |a|2 +b = 1 (18)
seen, magnitude of the apparent power flowing through every
branch must be less than the allowable limit for the branch The Q-bit matrix of the problem variables (Q matrix) is defined in
(19). By looking at the matrix, the following key points can be
     

b ,
MVA  ≤ MVA ∀b [ 1, . . . , Nb (13)
outlined:
b
 
† Every bus of the system (∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni ) is considered as a
candidate for installing a solar parking lot.
3.3.2 Voltage magnitude limits of the buses: Magnitude of † Each sub-matrix indicates value of a variable coded in the binary
voltage of every bus cannot be beyond the allowable minimum numeral system (with NQ Q-bits).
and maximum limits † The Q matrix includes three types of variables (location of the
    solar parking lot, rated power of the installed solar parking lot, and
hV     hV     value of the assigned power factor for the installed solar parking lot)
1− × Ṽ i  ≤ Vi  ≤ 1+ × Ṽ i , ∀i [ 1, ..., Ni (14)
100 100 ⎡⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤⎤
aSPL
1,1 · · · aSPL
1,N SPL aSPL
Ni ,1 ··· aSPL
Ni ,N SPL
⎢ ⎣ SPL Q
⎦ ··· ⎣
Q
⎦⎥
3.3.3 Active, reactive, and apparent power limits of the ⎢ b · · · bSPL bSPL ··· bSPL ⎥
⎢ 1,1 1,N SPL Ni ,1 Ni ,N SPL ⎥
charger of the solar parking lot: The active, reactive, and Q=⎢
⎢ ⎡ aPF
Q
⎤ ⎡ Q
⎤⎥
⎥
apparent power limits of the charger installed in a solar parking lot ⎢ · · · aPF
1,N PF aPF · · · aPF
Ni ,N PF ⎥
⎣ ⎣ 1,1 Q
⎦ ··· ⎣
Ni ,1 Q
⎦⎦
are given in (15). These limits have been graphically illustrated in bPF · · · bPF bPF · · · bPF
Fig. 4 1,1 1,N PF
Q
Ni ,1 Ni ,N PF
Q

⎧ (19)
 CHS  CHS
⎨ −Pi ≤ Pi ≤P
CHS
⎪ i
  Herein, the value of the objective function of the problem is
 CHS
−Q ≤ Q CHS
≤ 
Q
CHS
, ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni (15)
⎪
⎩
i i i defined as the value of the internal energy of the molten metal (ɛ)
 CHS
−S i ≤ Si CHS 
≤ Si
CHS
and then it is tried to minimise the amount of this energy. In the
following, different steps for applying QA algorithm in the
problem are presented and described.
3.3.4 Power limit of the installed PV panels in the solar
parking lot: The total rated power of the installed PV panels in † Step 1: Obtaining primary data.
the solar parking lot should be less than value of the apparent
power limit of the charger of the solar parking lot, since power of Setting controlling parameters of the QA algorithm: These
the PV panels is confined by the charger parameters include uQA QA
0 , g , and Nk, as the initial temperature of
  the molten metal, coefficient for gradually decreasing temperature
≤ Si
SPL CHS
P̃i , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni (16) of the molten metal, and the number of trials or iterations for
producing new solution at every temperature, respectively.
Obtaining parameters of the system: Values of all the system
4 Proposed optimisation technique
parameters are obtained.
Initialising Q-bits: Initial value of the Q-bit matrixis quantified as
In this study, quantum computation concept is applied in the
follows:
simulated annealing (SA) algorithm to design the QA optimisation
algorithm and solve the optimisation problem [31]. Other √ √
optimisation algorithms could be used in this problem; however, 2 2
aji,q
= j
, bi,q = ,
quantum parallelism, as the superiority of the quantum 2 2 (20)
computation, which originates from the entanglement and    
uncertainty of quantum states, is the advantage compared to the ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni , ∀q [ 1, . . . , NQj , ∀j [ {SPL, PF}
other algorithms [32].
A classical bit can be either 0 or 1, while in quantum computation, † Step 2: Generating an acceptable solution.
a quantum bit (Q-bit) is a linear superposition of both states 0 and 1
that lies in both states at the same time [33], as can be seen in (17). Interim heating: Since the observation method cannot generate a
However, when a Q-bit is observed, it collapses to one determined different solution when the current Q-bits solution stays in the
state with a certain probability determined states, an interim heating process is applied to impose
disturbance on the Q-bits before their observation [31] (see
Q = a|0l + b|1l (17) equation (21) at the bottom of the next page)

Herein, |0〉 and |1〉 represent the states ‘0’ and ‘1’, respectively; |α |2 Herein, j(θk^ ) is defined as a sigmoid heating function presented in
and |β |2 represent the probability amplitudes http://en.wikipedia.org/ (22) [31]. Since value of the sigmoid heating is big (near to unity) at
wiki/Probability_amplitudethat the Q-bit will be observed in the ‘0’ high temperature and small (near to zero) at low temperature, the
state and ‘1’ state, respectively, with respect to the following observed bits have small relationship with the current Q-bits state

⎛ ⎞
Ney,i
 CH   
   PP 
365 
24 
Ni 
SOCAy,d,h,i,e D 1 + (IFR/100) y
PWV Income PEVs
= ⎝ 1−
PEV
× P̃e × 1 − × ph ⎠ ×
E
(11)
y=1 d=1 h=1 i=1 e=1
100 100 1 + (ITR/100)

 
   PP 365 
24 Ni
1 + (IFR/100) y
PWV Income Market
= Py,d,h,i × 1000 × ph ×
SPL E
(12)
y=1 d=1 h=1 i=1
1 + (ITR/100)

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2542 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
in initial stages and have great relationship in final stages. This
characteristic of the heating process results in global searching in
initial stages and local searching in final stages

  v3  
j uk =  QA
, ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (22)
−v1 × (uk /u0 ) −v2
1+e

Observing the Q-bits: The Q-bits observation is done for every Q-bit
separately by comparing the probability amplitude of being ‘0’ state
(or ‘1’ state) with a random variable. (see (23))

Checking the problem constraints: All the constraints are checked

and if they are correct, the algorithm goes on, otherwise, the
process is repeated from Step 2.
Updating value of the internal energy of the molten metal: Herein,
value of the internal energy of the molten metal related to the
observed Q-bits (1Ok ) is measured


1O
k k ≤ 1k
1O  
1k+1 = , ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (24)
Vk 1O
k . 1k

where value of Ωk is computed using (25) [33]

  p 2   p 2
Fig. 5 Updating scheme of Q-bits
Vk = 1k × cos fkBoltz × +1O
k × sin fk
Boltz
× , a Rotating towards |1〉
2 2 (25) b Rotating onto |1〉
 
∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk c Rotating towards |0〉
d Rotating onto |0〉

Also, fkBoltz as the Boltzmann function is given in the following

equation the Q-bits updating mechanism using the rotation gate (see (27))

O   Rotji,q,k as the rotation gate is defined in the following equation

fkBoltz = e(1k −1k /uk ) , ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (26) (see (28))

Updating Q-bits: In SA algorithm, every bit has the same probability where
to be changed to ‘0’ or ‘1’ state, while in QA algorithm, every Q-bit p
has a different probability of being observed in ‘0’ or ‘1’ state, thus Dwji,q,k = fkBoltz × × Oji,q,k − wji,q,k (29)
every Q-bits has different activity level. Herein, the new Q-bits are 2
generated using (27). Based on this, the current Q-bits rotate onto

the observed Q-bits whenever 1O k ≤ 1k or the new Q-bits are

b′ji,q,k
wji,q,k = Arctan (30)
generated by the current Q-bits rotating towards the observed a′ji,q,k
values about Dwji,q,k whenever 1O k . 1k . Fig. 5 graphically shows

⎡ #
  ⎤
 2  2  
! ′j " ⎢ aji,q,k + 0.5 − aji,q,k × j uk ⎥
ai,q,k ⎢ ⎥      
⎢ ⎥
′j = ⎢ #
  ⎥ ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni , ∀q [ 1, . . . , NQj , ∀j [ {SPL, PF}, ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk
bi,q,k ⎢     ⎥
⎣ j
2
bi,q,k + 0.5 − bi,q,k j
2
× j uk ⎦

(21)

⎧  2
⎪
⎨0 a′ji,q,k ≥ rQA  
   
Oji,q,k =  , ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni , ∀q [ 1, . . . , NQj , ∀j [ {SPL, PF}, ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (23)
⎪
⎩1
2
a′ji,q,k , rQA

⎧ ! "
⎪
⎪ 1 − Oji,q,k
! " ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ k ≤ 1k
1O
 
a′ji,q,k+1 Oji,q,k    
= ! " ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni , ∀q [ 1, . . . , NQj , ∀j [ {SPL, PF}, ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (27)
b′ji,q,k+1 ⎪
⎪
⎪ a′ji,q,k
⎪ j
⎩ Roti,q,k ×
⎪
b′ji,q,k
1O
k . 1k

 ⎡  ⎤
cos Dwji,q,k − sin Dwji,q,k      
Rotji,q,k =⎣   ⎦ ∀i [ 1, . . . , Ni , ∀q [ 1, . . . , NQj , ∀j [ {SPL, PF}, ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (28)
sin Dwji,q,k j
cos Dwi,q,k

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2016, Vol. 10, Iss. 10, pp. 2538–2547
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 2543
Fig. 6 Electrical distribution system under study that includes residential, industrial, and commercial customers [34]

Fig. 7 Geographical dispersal of the PEVs in the area

Table 3 Percentage of the PEVs fleet at every bus of the system † Step 3: Checking number of the iteration for the current
temperature.
Bus % Bus % Bus % Bus %
If the number of trials at current temperature is not equal to the
1 1 8 1 15 9 22 6 predefined value (Nk), the process is repeated from Step 2,
2 1 9 1 16 10 23 8
3 1 10 4 17 10 24 10 otherwise, temperature of the molten metal is decreased based on
4 1 11 1 18 5 25 5 the following equation
5 4 12 1 19 1 26 1
6 1 13 3 20 1 27 1  
7 1 14 5 21 6 28 1 uk+1 = gQA × uk , ∀k [ 1, . . . , Nk (31)

Table 4 Parameters of the electrical distribution network under study [34]

First bus End bus Active demand, MW Reactive demand, MVAR R, Ω X, Ω Loading limit of branch, MVA Load type

1 1 0.1992 0.0905 – – – Res.

1 2 0.1992 0.0905 0.0228 0.0116 36 Res.
2 3 0.4979 0.2263 0.0428 0.0624 35 Res.
3 4 0.4979 0.2263 0.0508 0.0464 34 Res.
4 5 0.5432 0.2354 0.0548 0.0480 34 Ind.
5 6 0.5432 0.2354 0.0444 0.0560 30 Com.
6 7 0.5432 0.2263 0.0464 0.0740 29 Res.
7 8 0.5884 0.2535 0.0572 0.0584 28 Com.
8 9 0.5884 0.2535 0.0564 0.0640 27 Res.
9 10 0.6337 0.2716 0.0600 0.0640 27 Com.
10 11 0.6790 0.2806 0.0488 0.0160 13 Com.
11 12 0.6790 0.2897 0.0532 0.0308 13 Res.
12 13 0.6790 0.2806 0.0456 0.0476 12 Com.
13 14 0.4979 0.2263 0.0548 0.0572 11 Com.
14 15 0.8600 0.4164 0.0672 0.0508 10 Com.
15 16 0.8600 0.3893 0.0656 0.0556 7 Res.
16 17 0.8600 0.3893 0.0408 0.0284 5 Com.
17 18 0.8600 0.4074 0.0408 0.0284 2 Com.
10 19 0.8600 0.4164 0.0400 0.0148 12 Res.
19 20 0.8600 0.4164 0.0544 0.0176 11 Ind.
20 21 0.8600 0.4255 0.0620 0.0338 11 Ind.
21 22 0.9053 0.4436 0.0564 0.0332 9 Ind.
22 23 0.9053 0.3621 0.0720 0.0368 7 Ind.
23 24 0.9053 0.3621 0.0636 0.0164 5 Ind.
24 25 0.9506 0.3712 0.0628 0.0144 2 Ind.
5 26 0.8600 0.3621 0.0720 0.0368 3 Res.
26 27 0.8600 0.3621 0.0636 0.0164 2 Com.
27 28 0.8600 0.3621 0.0628 0.0144 1 Ind.

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2544 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
 Table 7 Value of the controlling parameters for applying the QA
algorithm

uQA
0 g_ Nk NQSPL NQPF ω1^ ω2^ ω3^
QA

100 0.9 100 3 4 50 0.2 1

Fig. 8 Hourly load demand of the system at valley, off-peak, and peak
periods [34]

Fig. 10 Predicted values and expected value for the power of the PV panels
installed in the solar parking lots
Fig. 9 Daily demand level of the system throughout one year [34]
5 Numerical study
Table 5 The price of electricity at different periods [35] 5.1 Characteristics of the system under study
Valley period Off-peak period Peak period
The electrical distribution network under study is illustrated in Fig. 6,
time interval, h 1–10 11–18 19–24
which is a 28-bus system including different customer types such as
electricity price, ¢/kWh 15 21.38 32.02 industrial, commercial, and residential customers [34]. The
geographical dispersal of the PEVs fleet in the area is shown in
Fig. 7. Also, the percentage of the PEVs at every bus of the
system is presented in Table 3. Moreover, the parameters of the
† Step 4: Concluding. system under study including values of active and reactive load
demands at each bus, branches’ impedances, branches’ loading
Checking temperature of the molten metal: Temperature of the limit, and customers’ load type at every bus are given in Table 4 [34].
molten metal is measured and if the molten metal is frozen, the The hourly load demand of the system at valley, off-peak, and
optimisation process is finished, otherwise, the process is repeated peak periods is illustrated in Fig. 8 [34]. Also, daily demand level
from Step 2. of the system throughout one year can be seen in Fig. 9 [34]. In
Introducing outcomes: The consequences include optimal value addition, the price of electricity at different periods including
of the Q-bit matrix as the optimal value of the problem variables. valley, off-peak, and peak and their intervals are presented in
Table 5 [35]. Furthermore, Table 6 presents the value of the
parameters of the problem. Moreover, values of the controlling
Table 6 Parameters and initial data of the problem parameters for applying the QA algorithm are given in Table 7.
Figs. 10–13 illustrate hourly predicted values and hourly expected
Description Index Value value of the uncertain states of the problem including power of the
PV panels installed in the solar parking lots, percentage of
investment cost for installing solar parking lot, $/MW CostSPL 300,000
maintenance cost for the installed solar parking lot, Cost M 3000 the arrived PEVs to the solar parking lots [21], percentage of the
$/MW per year departed PEVs from the solar parking lots [21], and SOC of the
P
CHS
active power limit of the charger installed in the solar 4 arrived PEVs to the solar parking lots [21]. The hourly value of
parking lot, MW the uncertain states of the problem (illustrated in Figs. 10–13)
reactive power limit of the charger installed in the  CHS
Q 1
solar parking lot, MVAR have been generated using value of the mean and standard
apparent power limit of the charger installed in the  CHS
S 4.12 deviation of the Gaussian distribution function related to every
solar parking lot, MVA uncertain state at every hour of the day [21].
inflation rate, %/year IFR 10
interest rate, %/year ITR 15
load growth rate, %/year – 1
utilisation growth rate of PEVs, %/year – 1 5.2 Results
PEV
rated power of battery of a typical PEV, kW P̃ 10
total number of the PEVs in the area – 1000 The simulation results of the problem before and after planning are
discount on charging cost of the PEVs batteries, % ΔCH 50 given in Tables 8 and 9. As can be seen in Table 8, after optimal
maximum allowable tolerance for voltage level of ηV 0.04 setting power factor in optimally located and sized solar parking
every bus, %
planning period, year PP 20
lots, value of the energy loss and value of the total cost of the
problem are decreased about 49 and 34%, respectively. Although

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2016, Vol. 10, Iss. 10, pp. 2538–2547
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 2545
 Table 8 Simulation results of the problem before and after planning
considering load model of the demand

Before After Reduction

planning planning percentage

energy loss, MWh 194,770 99,278 49

total cost of energy loss, $ 28,204,000 14,376,000 49
total investment cost, $ 0 9,300,000 –
total maintenance cost, $ 0 1,259,800 –
total income due to 0 3,526,400 –
charging batteries of the
PEVs, $
total income due to 0 2,815,500 –
delivering energy to the
grid, $
total cost, $ 28,204,000 18,594,000 34

Table 9 Optimal size, location, and power factor of the solar parking
lots considering load model of the demand

Optimal Optimal size of the solar Optimal value of

Fig. 11 Predicted values and expected value for the percentage of the location parking lot, MW power factor
arrived PEVs to the solar parking lots [21]
14 1 0.928
15 4 0.995
16 4 0.995
17 4 0.995
18 4 0.995
22 2 0.980
23 4 0.995
24 4 0.995
25 4 0.992

installing solar parking lots in the distribution network has cost about
$10,559,800 over the planning period (for investment and
maintenance costs of the installed solar parking lots), it results in
about $6,341,900 direct income over the planning period (for
charging batteries of the PEVs and delivering energy to the grid)
and $13,828,000 indirect income over the planning period
(because of power loss reduction).
Moreover, as can be seen in Table 9, the installed solar parking
lots must have different sizes and different value of power factors.
As a general consequence, the farthest solar parking lots from the
sub-distribution transformer have bigger size and more power
factor compared to the nearest ones. Fig. 14 illustrates the average
voltage level of the system buses before and after planning. As
can be observed, before planning, the voltage profile of buses 12–
Fig. 12 Predicted values and expected value for the percentage of the
25 has violation; however, their voltage level is improved and
departed PEVs from the solar parking lots [21]
enters the allowable bounds after optimal planning.

Fig. 13 Predicted values and expected value for the SOC of the arrived Fig. 14 Average voltage level at every bus of the system before and after
PEVs to the solar parking lots [21] planning

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2546 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Table 10 Optimal size, location, and power factor of the solar parking
lots disregarding load model of the demand
Optimal Optimal size of the solar Optimal value of
location parking lot, MW power factor
14 4 0.995
15 4 0.995
16 4 0.995
17 4 0.995
18 4 0.995
22 4 0.995
23 4 0.995
24 4 0.995
25 4 0.992
Table 10 presents the simulation results of the problem without
considering the load model of the demand at every bus of the
system. As can be seen, suboptimal value for the size of the solar
parking lot at buses 14 and 22 have been determined. Also, the
value of the assigned power factor for the installed solar parking
lots at the above mentioned buses are inconsistent with the results
of the simulation of the problem with consideration of the load
models. In other words, ignoring the real load model of different
type of the customers including residential, commercial, and
industrial customers can affect the outcomes of the optimal
placement and sizing of the solar parking lots and even optimal
value of the adjusted load factor in some locations.
6 Conclusion
In this study, the planning problem for setting optimal power factor
in the optimally located and sized solar parking lots was investigated
based on minimum total cost of the problem and applying a novel
optimisation technique entitled quantum annealing algorithm.
Herein, the solar parking lots were considered as the active and
reactive powers sources. After optimal sizing and placement of the
solar parking lots and optimal power factor setting in the parking
lots, the energy loss of the system and the total cost of the
problem over the planning period were decreased markedly, and
also voltage profile of all the system buses was improved
appropriately. The solar parking lots installed in the optimal
locations had various sizes and different power factors. In
addition, it was observed that disregarding the load model of the
demand in the planning problem can affect the consequences of
the problem. Therefore, this key factor must be taken into
consideration by the local DISCO, since the projected results
would not be achieved after installing the solar parking lots in the
real electrical distribution system.
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