A multiobjective model for the location of capacitors in radial distribution networks

The installation of shunt capacitors in electrical distribution networks can effectively reduce energy and peak power losses, while improving quality of service particularly promoting a better voltage profile. Economic and operational benefits depend mainly on the number, location and sizes of the capacitors installed. In this problem, multiple and conflicting evaluation aspects are generally at stake, such as minimizing capacitor installation cost and reducing system losses. Multiple objective models explicitly address these distinct concerns, and they entail analyzing trade-offs between the different objectives to select a satisfactory compromise solution from the set of potentially non-dominated solutions which can be accepted as the output of the decision process. In this paper, a tabu search based approach is presented, which provides decision support in the problem of capacitor location in radial distribution networks. The model explicitly considers two conflicting and incommensurate objective functions, related to cost and operation aspects of evaluation.