Imperialist competitive algorithm for optimal STATCOM design in a multimachine power system

• This paper proposes ICA for optimal designing of STATCOM.
• The best location of STATCOM is determined via PV curves.
• The design problem of STATCOM is formulated as an optimization problem.
• The superiority of the ICA algorithm is compared with GA and open loop one.
• The effectiveness of the proposed controller in damping oscillations is confirmed.

A new optimization technique, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), which is inspired from socio-political phenomenon of imperialistic competition, is proposed in this paper for optimal design of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) in a multimachine environment. PV curves are illustrated to deduce the best location of STATCOM. The STATCOM parameter tuning problem is converted to an optimization problem which is solved by ICA. The performance of the proposed ICA based STATCOM (ICASTATCOM) is compared with Genetic Algorithm (GA) based STATCOM (GASTATCOM) and open loop STATCOM under various operating conditions and disturbances. The superiority of the proposed technique in damping oscillations and enhancing voltage profiles over a wide range of operating conditions and system configurations is confirmed through eigenvalues and time domain simulation results.