Particle Swarm Optimization Based Improvement of Voltage Profile and Minimization of Losses Using Unified Power Flow Controller

Loss minimization in power system is an important research issue. Transmission line losses in a power system can be minimized by means of reactive power compensation. The unscheduled increment of load variation in a power transmission system has driven the system to experience stressed condition leading to potential cascading trip on the entire system. This phenomenon has also led to voltage profile depreciation below the acceptable secure limit. The significance and use of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices and capacitor placement is in order to alleviate the voltage profile decay problem. Identification of the optimal value of compensating devices required proper optimization technique, able to search the optimal solution with less computation burden avoided. This paper presents a technique to provide simultaneous or individuals controls of basic system parameter like transmission voltage, impedance and phase angle, there by controlling the transmitted power using Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) approach based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique. In this study optimization engine was developed for voltage profile improvement and minimization of losses in a power system which utilized the UPFC as the control variables embedded in to the system’s data. The IEEE 6-bus and IEEE 14-bus systems were used as test systems to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed system. The proposed method is compared with Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The test result showed that the location of UPFC improves the voltage profile of the system and also minimize the transmission line losses.