A review of the optimal allocation of distributed generation: Objectives, constraints, methods, and algorithms

Distributed generation, with respect to its ability in utilizing the alternative resources of energy, provides a promising future for power generation in electric networks. Distributed generators contribution to power systems include improvement in energy efficiency and power quality to reliability and security. These benefits are only achievable with optimal allocation of distributed resources that considers the objective function, constraints, and employs suitable optimization algorithm. In this paper, a comprehensive review on the optimal allocation of distributed generators was carried out for different objectives, constraints, and algorithms. Current review highlights how the methods and algorithms for optimal distributed generation allocation play an important role in improving the accuracy and efficiency of the results.