Optimal Location of Unified Power Quality Conditioner in Distribution System for Power Quality Improvement

• Harmonic and sag minimization are important task in power system operation and planning.
• UPQC is a promising power electronics device to solve power system operational problem.
• Optimal location of UPQC is very much important to solve distribution line loss and cost problem.
• COA is capable of handling the problem of optimal placement of multiple UPQC.
• COA tends to have fast and steady convergence characteristics within reasonable number of iterations.

The increased use of nonlinear loads in distribution system is increasing the distortion in the voltage and current waveforms. Moreover, the distribution systems are inherently unbalanced. This paper presents Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA) based Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) allocation in three phase unbalanced distribution network. The performance of UPQC is studied in terms of minimization of load disturbance during fault condition in the test systems, % reduction of total harmonic distortion and individual harmonics, minimization of real power loss, decrease in voltage unbalance and increase in cost savings during normal operating condition. The performance of COA is compared with other soft computing techniques to get the better results, i.e., better voltage profile, the optimal location and optimal number of UPQCs.