PSO based placement of multiple wind DGs and capacitors utilizing probabilistic load flow model

•MCS, MPSO and Sensitivity methods based DG and Capacitor planning.•Randomness in load as well as wind power generation (Rayleigh PDF) is considered.•Planning for different penetration levels of WPDGs in single/multiple stage(s).•The operational planning with no constraint violation for voltage dependent load models.•Includes impact analyses of DG/Capacitor planning.

Wind Power Distributed Generators (WPDGs) are being increasingly placed in the power system due to their several technical and environmental benefits. In this paper, a Modified Particle Swarm Optimizer (MPSO) based method is proposed for placement of multiple WPDGs and capacitors. Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) based probabilistic load flow, considering uncertainty in load demand and wind generation, is developed. It is used to modify the WPDGs׳ and capacitors׳ sizes utilizing a sensitivity based approach, which maintains branch currents and bus voltages within their prescribed limits. The proposed method is simple, accurate and generic, and it can provide multiple choices to the utilities to place capacitors and WPDGs under various system constraints. Results on three distribution networks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The impact of the DG placement on the system voltage profile, line loss, environment, and cost of generation has also been investigated on three distribution systems.