OPTIMIZATION METHOD FOR REACTIVE POWER PLANNING BY USING A MODIFIED SIMPLE GENETIC ALGORITHM

This paper presents an improved simple genetic algorithm developed for reactive power system planning. The successive linear programming (LP ) is used to solve operational optimization sub-problems. New populati on selection and generation method which makes the use of Benders' cut is presented in this paper. It is desirable to find the optimal solut ion in few iterations, especially in some test cases where the optimal results are expected to be obtained easily. However, the simple genet ic algorithm has failed in finding the solution except through an exte nsive number of iterations. Different population generation and crosso ver methods are also tested and discussed. The method has been tested for 6 bus and 30 bus systems to show its effectiveness. Further improv ement for the method is also discussed.