Technique for Reactive Loss Reduction and Loading Margin Enhancement Using the Curves of Losses versus Voltage Magnitude

This paper presents an alternative methodology to obtain the precise amount of shunt reactive power compensation in order to simultaneously reduce the total reactive power losses, improve the voltage profile and increase the loading margin of power systems. The amount of shunt reactive power compensation to be allocated is determined based on the curve of the total reactive power losses versus the voltage magnitude of a chosen bus. The best places for shunt reactive compensation are defined by the load bus participation factors of the critical mode provided by the static modal analysis. Simulation results employing shunt capacitors obtained with the new approach for the IEEE test systems (14, 57 and 300 buses) show that the procedure leads to a reduction in total reactive and active power losses and simultaneously improves the voltage profile and loading margin.