Optimal reactive power flow of power systems with two-terminal HVDC and multi distributed generations using backtracking search algorithm

•The loss of power systems having DGs and HVDC links is minimized by BSA.•The power system is modeled closest to the real world.•The BSA is tested on modified IEEE 30 and 57-bus test systems with different cases.•The BSA results are compared with the results by various heuristic and numerical methods.•The power losses by BSA are lesser than those by the others for all cases.