Reliability impact for optimal placement of power factor correction capacitors considering transient switching events

The power factor can be enhanced in many ways, one of which is a capacitor installation to correct the power factor at a particular location. While power factor correction capacitors are commonly used in power systems to generate Mvar at the bus, this could have an adverse reliability impact. To overcome this issue, a new optimal capacitor placement formulation is proposed, and the reliability, as well as the transient switching event impact, is assessed. The proposed formulation is included in the objective function, which is used to find the lowest cost based on many factors. The genetic algorithm optimisation technique is used to find the optimal minimised cost. The new formulation is applied to two test networks to assess its effectiveness. Moreover, the uncertainty impact and future system growth are considered to guarantee the robustness of the objective function. Finally, reliability calculations are added to the objective function to evaluate the capacitor installation impact on the power system.