Location and tuning of TCPSTs and SVCs based on optimal power flow and an improved cross-entropy approach

• A new method called the CE approach is used for location and setting of FACTS.
• To enhance the convergence speed a modification of the CE approach is proposed.
• The Bernoulli distribution is used because the locations are discrete variables.
• The performance of the CE algorithm is compared with GA and sensitivity analysis.

In this paper, a location and tuning method for TCPSTs and SVCs is presented based on the optimal power flow and the cross-entropy (CE) approach. The nontraditional optimization technique based on simulation is used to optimize various process parameters of power systems with multiple FACTS devices. Such concerned parameters determine the location choice and rated values of FACTS devices. The simulation is performed on a 30-bus power system with two types of FACTS controllers, that is, the static var compensator (SVC) and the thyristor-controlled phase shifting transformer (TCPST). By comparing with the sensitivities computation results, it validates the proposed method, and represents the ability of such method on the combinatorial problems solution of FACTS devices location in large-scale power systems.