Optimal Placement of Mini Hydro and Capacitors using Water Cycle Algorithm in Distribution System

Basic Reactive power compensation is provided by capacitor banks and active power compensation is provided by Distributed Generators (DGs) like, Solar, Wind and Mini-hydro power plants.  For obtaining optimal placement of Mini Hydro Power Plants and capacitor banks Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA) is intended. The optimal sizes of Capacitors and DGs chosen are of continuous sizes.   33-Bus and 69-Bus radial  distribution systems are chosen for testing this algorithm to identify potential locations and sizes of Mini hydro and capacitors.   It is found that with the proposed WCA, maximum loss reduction of  79 % is obtained for 33 Bus system and 83.6% for 69 Bus system.  Cost analysis is also presented with three different load levels along with above DGs and Capacitors.  In addition to cost analysis, for the benefit of environment carbon emissions are also calculated and found that there is a reduction of 4,034.57 tons of CO2 emission per year on 33 bus system and 4,607.88 tons of CO2 emission per year on 69 bus system.  It is proved that WCA offers highest loss reduction with minimum sizes of DGs and capacitors compared to any other algorithm available in the literature.  The WCA is easy to implement and the search process is methodic.