2090 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO.

4, OCTOBER 2011
Optimal Distributed Generation Allocation
and Sizing in Distribution Systems via
Articial Bee Colony Algorithm
Fahad S. Abu-Mouti, Student Member, IEEE, and M. E. El-Hawary, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractDistributed generation (DG) has been utilized in
some electric power networks. Power loss reduction, environ-
mental friendliness, voltage improvement, postponement of
system upgrading, and increasing reliability are some advantages
of DG-unit application. This paper presents a new optimization
approach that employs an articial bee colony (ABC) algorithmto
determine the optimal DG-units size, power factor, and location
in order to minimize the total system real power loss. The ABC
algorithm is a new metaheuristic, population-based optimization
technique inspired by the intelligent foraging behavior of the hon-
eybee swarm. To reveal the validity of the ABC algorithm, sample
radial distribution feeder systems are examined with different test
cases. Furthermore, the results obtained by the proposed ABC
algorithm are compared with those attained via other methods.
The outcomes verify that the ABC algorithm is efcient, robust,
and capable of handling mixed integer nonlinear optimization
problems. The ABC algorithm has only two parameters to be
tuned. Therefore, the updating of the two parameters towards the
most effective values has a higher likelihood of success than in
other competing metaheuristic methods.
Index TermsArticial bee colony (ABC), distributed genera-
tion (DG), metaheuristic optimization algorithm, power losses re-
duction.
NOMENCLATURE
Number of buses.
Real power ows from bus to bus .
Reactive power ows from bus to bus .
Real power load at bus .
Reactive power load at bus .
Bus voltage at bus .
Resistance of line connecting buses and .
Reactance of line connecting buses and .
Real power loss between buses and .
Active power magnitude injected at bus .
Manuscript received August 12, 2009; revised March 13, 2010; accepted May
13, 2011. Date of current version October 07, 2011. Paper no. TPWRD-00609-
2009.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3J 1Z1 Canada (e-mail: abumouti@dal.ca;
elhawary@dal.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2011.2158246
Reactive power magnitude injected at bus .
Real power multiplier set to zero when there is
no active power source or set to 1 when there is
an active power source.
Reactive power multiplier set to zero when there
is no reactive power source or set to when
there is a reactive power source.
System voltage at bus .
Specied allowable voltage value.
System apparent power ows from bus to bus
.
System apparent power ows from bus to
bus .
System rated apparent power ows from bus to
bus or vice versa.
Minimum distributed generation (DG)-unit size
in kilovolt amperes.
Maximum DG-unit size in kilovolt amperes.
Minimum DG-units operating power factor.
Maximum DG-units operating power factor.
Apparent power load at bus .
I. INTRODUCTION
B
ECAUSE of the considerable advantages of DG-unit
application (e.g., power loss reduction, environmental
friendliness, voltage improvement, postponement of system
upgrading, and increasing reliability), there has been a signif-
icant rise in interest by researchers. Practical application of
the DG-unit, however, proves difcult. Social, economic, and
political factors affect the nal optimal attained solution.
Solution techniques for DG-unit deployment are attained via
optimization methods. The DG-unit application can be inter-
preted as a mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem. Usu-
ally, it includes maximizing the system voltages or minimizing
power loss and cost. The solution criteria vary from one appli-
cation to another. Therefore, as more objectives and constraints
are considered in the algorithm, more data is required, which
tends to add difculty to implementation.
0885-8977/$26.00 2011 IEEE
ABU-MOUTI AND EL-HAWARY: OPTIMAL DG ALLOCATION AND SIZING IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2091
Optimization tools have been employed to solve different
DG-unit problems. Tools such as genetic algorithm (GA), evo-
lutionary programming (EP), and particle swarm optimization
(PSO) are promising and still evolving in this eld. Some of
those techniques have been modied to enhance their solution
performance or to overcome other limitations. In addition, most
of these tools have many parameters to be tuned.
A methodology for evaluating the impact of DG-units on
power loss, reliability, and voltage prole of distribution net-
works was presented in reference [1]. The authors represented a
DG-unit as a PV bus that is different from what radial distribu-
tion feeders are designed for. The authors implied that on-line
systems including DG-units can achieve better reliability during
interruption situations to keep customers supplied. The authors
stated that the simplest representation of DG-units operating
in parallel with the system, especially in radial feeders, is as
negative active and reactive power injections, independent of
the system voltage at the terminal bus. When using multiple
DG-units as PV congurations, it is unrealistic to manage these
DG-units as available for dispatching because they may not be
controlled by the utility. According to the IEEE standard, dis-
tributed resources (DR or DG) are not preferred to regulate the
voltage (i.e., PV-bus) at the point of installation [2]. Distribution
systems were designed for one-way power ow (i.e., from the
utility power source to the end user). The insertion of DG in the
distribution system violates this basic assumption and can dis-
rupt distribution operation if not carefully employed, potentially
causing islanding, protection disturbances, upset voltage regu-
lation, and other power quality problems. DGs normally follow
the utility voltage and inject a constant amount of real and reac-
tive power [3].
In reference [4] the optimal size and location of DG-unit
(for planning purposes) based on a predetermined power loss
reduction level (up to 25%) were proposed. The objective of
the method was to reach that level with minimum net DG-unit
cost (i.e., DG-unit cost subtracted from saving). The maximum
number and size of the DG-units was found to be two and 40%
of peak loads, respectively. The solution was achieved using se-
quential quadratic programming.
Maximizing the voltage support in radial distribution feeders
using a DG-unit was discussed in [5]. The method used a voltage
sensitivity index to determine the DG-units optimal location.
Then, the DG-unit active and reactive powers were adjusted to
obtain maximum voltage support. The weakest bus was identi-
ed using Thevenins theorem.
Minimizing power loss by nding the optimal size, location
and operation point of DG-unit was suggested in [6]. A sensi-
tivity analysis relating the power loss with respect to DG-unit
current injection was used to identify the DG-unit size and
operation point. The proposed method was tested for constant
impedance and a constant current model. One of the test sys-
tems assumed that loads were uniformly distributed, which is
rare in practical feeder systems. The location of the DG-unit
was based on the assumption of downstream load buses, which
may not be appropriate for different feeder congurations.
The authors of [7] employed the GA for optimal power ow
(OPF) to minimize the DG-units active and reactive power cost.
Two examples of DG-unit optimization cases were considered,
Fig. 1. Single-line diagram of a two-bus system.
with and without reactive power injection. Signicant reduction
in the search space was attained by eliminating the DG-unit size.
However, DG-unit dispatching can cause operational problems
in the distribution feeders.
An algorithm was offered in [8] to maximize the reduction of
load supply costs as well as operational schedules for all feeder
load levels exploiting EP. The optimal solution was selected
based on maximum cost reduction, which was attained through
evaluating the cost of DG-unit supply scenarios based on the
base case.
The authors of [9] proposed an analytical method to calculate
the optimal DG-unit size. In addition, an approximate loss for-
mula to identify the optimal DG-unit placement was suggested.
The method offered was based on the exact loss formula. The
power ow was employed twice, with and without the DG-unit.
The adopted DG-unit injected only active power.
In this paper, a new optimization approach that utilizes an ar-
ticial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to determine the optimal
DG-units size, power factor, and location in order to minimize
the total system real power loss is proposed. Sample feeder sys-
tems are examined, as well as various test cases. The results
reveal that the ABC algorithm is efcient, fast-converging, and
capable of handling complex optimization problems.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section III
presents the mathematical formulations of the problem, Sec-
tion IV explains the ABC algorithm, Section V describes the
ABC algorithm in solving the DG-unit application, Section VI
includes results and discussion, and Section VII outlines the
conclusions.
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
One advantage of deploying a DG-unit in distribution net-
works is to minimize the total systemreal power loss while satis-
fying certain operating constraints. In other words, the problem
of DG-unit application can be interpreted as nding the optimal
size and location of that DG-unit to satisfy the desired objec-
tive function subject to equality and inequality constraints. Re-
liability, accuracy, and exibility of the DG-unit solution algo-
rithmare inuenced by the power-owanalysis used. Therefore,
the overall algorithm accuracy is highly reliant on that analysis.
It can be said that the power-ow analysis is the heart of the
DG-unit solution algorithm. Accordingly, the power-ow algo-
rithmoffered in [10] is applied in this paper. Consider, as shown
in Fig. 1, a sample two bus system including DG-unit.
The mathematical formulations of the mixed integer non-
linear optimization problem for the DG-unit application are as
follows:
2092 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
The objective function is to minimize the total system real
power loss
(1)
The equality constraints are the three nonlinear recursive
power-ow equations describing the system [10]
(2)
(3)
(4)
where .
The inequality constraints are the systems voltage limits,
that is, 5% of the nominal voltage value
(5)
In addition, the thermal capacity limits of the networks
feeder lines are treated as inequality constraints
(6)
The boundary (discrete) inequality constraints are the
DG-units size (kVA) and power factor
(7)
(8)
Practical concerns in terms of DG-unit sizes and power
factors are considered in the proposed method. Since the
rounded-off issues of the DG-units size or are treated
initially in the proposed method, the accuracy of the re-
sults is guaranteed. The preselected (discretized) DG-unit
sizes are from 10%80% of the total system demands (i.e.,
), approximated to integer values with a 100-step
interval between sizes.
The DG-units is set to operate at practical values [11],
thta is, unity, 0.95, 0.90, and 0.85 towards the optimal result.
Moreover, the operating DG-units (i.e., lagging or leading)
must be dissimilar to the buss load at which the DG-unit
is placed [12]. Consequently, the net total of both active and
reactive powers of that bus (where the DG-unit is placed) will
decrease.
III. ARTIFICIAL BEE COLONY (ABC) ALGORITHM
The articial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is a new meta-
heuristic optimization approach, introduced in 2005 by
Karaboga [13]. Initially, it was proposed for unconstrained
optimization problems. Then, an extended version of the ABC
algorithm was offered to handle constrained optimization
problems [15]. Furthermore, the performance of the ABC
algorithm was compared with those of some other well-known
population-based optimization algorithms, and the results and
the quality of the solutions outperformed or matched those
obtained using other methods [15][19].
The colony of articial bees consists of three groups of bees:
employed, onlookers, and scout bees. The employed bees are
those which randomly search for food-source positions (solu-
tions.) Then, by dancing, they share the information of that food
source, that is., nectar amounts (solutions qualities), with the
bees waiting in the dance area of the hive. Onlookers are those
bees waiting in the hives dance area. The duration of a dance
is proportional to the nectar content (tness value) of the food
source currently being exploited by the employed bee. Hence,
onlooker bees watch various dances before choosing a food-
source position according to the probability proportional to the
quality of that food source. Consequently, a good food-source
position (solution) attracts more bees than a bad one. Onlookers
and scout bees, once they discover a new food-source position
(solution), may change their status to become employed bees.
Furthermore, when the food-source position (solution) has been
visited (tested) fully, the employed bee associated with it aban-
dons it, and may once more become a scout or onlooker bee. In
a robust search process, exploration and exploitation processes
must be carried out simultaneously [13], [20]. In the ABC al-
gorithm, onlookers and employed bees perform the exploration
process in the search space, while on the other hand, scouts con-
trol the exploration process. Inspired by the aforementioned in-
telligent foraging behavior of the honey bee [13], the ABC al-
gorithm was introduced.
One half of the colony size of the ABC algorithm represents
the number of employed bees, and the second half stands for
the number of onlooker bees. For every food-sources position,
only one employed bee is assigned. In other words, the number
of food-source positions (possible solutions) surrounding the
hive is equal to the number of employed bees. The scout
initiates its search cycle once the employed bee has exhausted
its food-source position (solution.) The number of trials for
the food source to be called exhausted is controlled by the
limit value of the ABC algorithms parameter. Each cycle of
the ABC algorithm comprises three steps: rst, sending the
employed bee to the possible food-source positions (solutions)
and measuring their nectar amounts (tness values); second,
onlookers selecting a food source after sharing the information
from the employed bees in the previous step; third, deter-
mining the scout bees and then sending them into entirely new
food-source positions.
The ABC algorithm creates a randomly distributed initial
population of solutions , where signies
the size of population and is the number of employed
bees. Each solution is a -dimensional vector, where
is the number of parameters to be optimized. The position of
a food-source, in the ABC algorithm, represents a possible
solution to the optimization problem, and the nectar amount
of a food source corresponds to the quality (tness value) of
the associated solution. After initialization, the population of
the positions (solutions) is subjected to repeated cycles of the
ABU-MOUTI AND EL-HAWARY: OPTIMAL DG ALLOCATION AND SIZING IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2093
search processes for the employed, onlooker, and scout bees
cycle , where is the maximum
cycle number of the search process. Then, an employed bee
modies the position (solution) in her memory depending on
the local information (visual information) and tests the nectar
amount (tness value) of the new position (modied solution.)
If the nectar amount of the new one is higher than that of
the previous one, the bee memorizes the new position and
forgets the old one. Otherwise, she keeps the position of the
previous one in her memory. After all employed bees have
completed the search process, they share the nectar information
of the food sources and their position information with the
onlooker bees waiting in the dance area. An onlooker bee
evaluates the nectar information taken from all employed bees
and chooses a food source with a probability related to its
nectar amount. The same procedure of position modication
and selection criterion used by the employed bees is applied
to onlooker bees. The greedy-selection process is suitable for
unconstrained optimization problems. However, to overcome
the greedy-selection limitation specically in a constrained
optimization problem [13], Debs constrained handling method
[21] is adopted. It employs a tournament selection operator,
where two solutions are compared at a time when the following
conditions are imposed: 1) any feasible solution is preferred
over an infeasible one; 2) among two feasible solutions, the one
with better objective function value is preferred;and 3) among
two infeasible solutions, the one having the smaller constraint
violation is preferred.
The probability of selecting a food-source by onlooker
bees is calculated as follows:
tness
(9)
where is the tness value of a solution , and is the
total number of food-source positions (solutions) or, in other
words, half of the colony size. Clearly, resulting from using (9),
a good food source (solution) will attract more onlooker bees
than a bad one. Subsequent to onlookers selecting their preferred
food-source, they produce a neighbor food-source position
to the selected one , and compare the nectar amount (tness
value) of that neighbor position with the old position.
The same selection criterion used by the employed bees is ap-
plied to onlooker bees as well. This sequence is repeated until all
onlookers are distributed. Furthermore, if a solution does not
improve for a specied number of times (limit), the employed
bee associated with this solution abandons it, and she becomes
a scout and searches for a new random food-source position.
Once the new position is determined, another ABC algorithm
cycle starts. The same procedures are repeated until
the stopping criteria are met.
In order to determine a neighbouring food-source position
(solution) to the old one in memory, the ABC algorithm alters
one randomly chosen parameter and keeps the remaining pa-
rameters unchanged. In other words, by adding to the current
chosen parameter value the product of the uniform variant
and the difference between the chosen parameter value
and other random solution parameter value, the neighbor
food-source position is created. The following expression
veries that:
(10)
where and both are . The multiplier
is a random number between and .
In other words, is the th parameter of a solution that
was selected to be modied. When the food-source position has
been abandoned, the employed bee associated with it becomes
a scout. The scout produces a completely new food-source po-
sition as follows:
(11)
where (11) applies to all parameters and is a random
number between . If a parameter value produced using
(10) and/or (11) exceeds its predetermined limit, the parameter
can be set to an acceptable value [13]. In this paper, the value
of the parameter exceeding its limit is forced to the nearest
(discrete) boundary limit value associated with it. Furthermore,
the random multiplier number is set to be between
instead of .
Thus, the ABC algorithm has the following control parame-
ters: 1) the colony size , that consists of employed bees
plus onlooker bees ; 2) the limit value, which is the number
of trials for a food-source position (solution) to be abandoned;
and 3) the maximum cycle number .
IV. ABC ALGORITHM FOR DG-UNIT APPLICATION PROBLEM
The owchart of the ABC algorithm is illustrated in Fig. 2.
The solution steps of the proposed ABC algorithm for DG-unit
application are described as follows.
Step 1) Initialize the food-source positions (solutions pop-
ulation), where . The solution
form is as follows.
Step 2) Calculate the nectar amount of the population by
means of their tness values using
tness (12)
where represents the response of (1) at
solution .
Step 3) Produce neighbor solutions for the employed bees by
using (10) and evaluate themas indicated by Step 2).
Step 4) Apply the selection process.
Step 5) If all onlooker bees are distributed, go to Step 9).
Otherwise, go to the next step.
Step 6) Calculate the probability values for the solutions
using (9).
Step 7) Produce neighbor solutions for the selected onlooker
bee, depending on the value, using (10) and evaluate
them as Step 2) indicates.
Step 8) Follow Step 4).
Step 9) Determine the abandoned solution for the scout bees,
if it exists, and replace it with a completely new
solution sing (11) and evaluate them as indicated in
Step 2).
2094 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 2. Flowchart of the ABC algorithm.
Step 10) Memorize the best solution attained so far.
Step 11) If MCN, stop and print result. Otherwise
follow Step 3).
Employed and onlooker bees select new food sources in the
neighbourhood of the previous one in their memory depending
on visual information. Visual information is based on the com-
parison of food-source positions [16]. On the other hand, scout
bees, without any guidance while looking for a food-source po-
sition, explore a completely new food-source position. There-
Fig. 3. Single-line diagram of the 69-bus feeder system.
fore, scouts are characterized, based on their behavior, by low
search costs and a lowaverage in food-source quality. Occasion-
ally, the scouts can fortunately discover rich, entirely unknown,
food sources. In the case of articial bees, the articial scouts
could have the fast discovery of the group of feasible solutions
as a task [22].
Parameter-tuning, in metaheuristic optimization algorithms,
inuences the performance of the algorithmsignicantly. Diver-
gence, becoming trapped in local extrema, and time-consump-
tion are such consequences of setting the parameters improp-
erly. The ABC algorithm, as an advantage, has few controlled
parameters. Since initializing a population randomly with a
feasible region is sometimes cumbersome, the ABC algorithm
does not depend on the initial population to be in a feasible re-
gion. Instead, its performance directs the population to the fea-
sible region sufciently [14].
The controlled parameter (limit) is an important parameter in
the ABC algorithm. Indeed, it governs the algorithm from being
trapped in a local extrema. Therefore, it is suggested in [13] that
it has the value of or at least .
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To check the validity of the proposed ABC algorithm, the
69-bus radial distribution feeder system was considered in dif-
ferent test cases. In addition, the results of sample feeder sys-
tems were compared with those obtained via other methods. The
proposed ABC algorithm is implemented in C, and was exe-
cuted on an Intel core 2 duo PC with 2.66-GHz speed and
4 GB RAM.
Furthermore, we studied two load scenarios, scenario I and
scenario II. For the rst scenario, the loads are identical to the
values given in [24]. In other words, the total demands of the
69-bus system are 3802.19 kW and 2694.60 kVar. Scenario II,
on the other hand, represents the situation where the loads of
the feeder system increased by 50%. The single-line diagram of
the 69-bus feeder system is shown in Fig. 3. The voltage pro-
les of the feeder system due to different load scenarios are il-
lustrated in Fig. 4. Table I lists the default case results of the
chosen feeder system. The substation voltage and load power
factors in both scenarios were considered as 1.0 p.u. and lag-
ging , respectively.
The test cases conducted were applied at both load scenarios
to solve the mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem de-
scribed in Section III. Single and multiple DG-unit applications
represent test case 1 and test case 2, respectively. The third test
ABU-MOUTI AND EL-HAWARY: OPTIMAL DG ALLOCATION AND SIZING IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2095
Fig. 4. Voltage proles of the 69-bus system at different load scenarios.
TABLE I
SUMMARY OF THE 69-BUS SYSTEM DEFAULT CASE
case utilizes a single DG-unit and a capacitor. The fourth test
case is similar to the third test case; however, the DG-unit is con-
trolled to supply active power only. Fixing the DG-units size
to a predetermined value is involved in the fth test case, which
is commonly the case from a practical perspective. The objec-
tive functions in all tested cases are to minimize the systems
real power loss. However, overall system voltage improvement
is considered as an additional goal in test case 2. To avoid over-
compensation situations, the DG-unit size constraint is set w.r.t.
scenario I in all tested cases. In addition, the capacitor size (dis-
crete constraint) is set from 1504050 kVar with a 150-step in-
terval between sizes [25].
The proposed ABC algorithm results were obtained after car-
rying out 30 independent runs. In other words, the initial pop-
ulation was randomly generated in each run by using different
seeds. In this paper, the controlled parameter (limit) is tuned as
suggested in [13], and half of the colony size is the number of
employed bees. Thus, since the ABC algorithm has only two
parameters (unlike other well-known metaheuristic algorithms)
to be tuned, the number of trial-and-error experiments will be
signicantly fewer, which is one merit of the ABC algorithm.
A. Test Case 1
In this test case, an exact solution method was created to
verify the results of the proposed ABC algorithm. The exact
method provided the optimal result by examining all possible
solution combinations and then retaining the optimal one. Al-
though the exact method is time and memory consuming, it
will answer the pertinent question raised: how far is the pro-
posed algorithms optimal result from the exact optimal one?
Table II lists the optimal solutions obtained by the exact method
for both scenarios. Finally, the proposed ABC algorithm results
are recorded in Table III.
Clearly, as shown in Table III, the best results of the proposed
ABC algorithm, in both scenarios, were identical to those opti-
TABLE II
EXACT METHOD OPTIMAL RESULT OF TEST CASE 1
Fig. 5. Compensation results of test case 1 for 69-bus system due to load sce-
nario I.
mally obtained using the exact method. The real power loss re-
ductions at both scenarios were 89%and 90%, respectively. Fur-
thermore, under scenarios I and II, the system improved
by 0.0631 p.u. and 0.103 p.u., respectively. The enhancement
results in terms of voltage proles and loss reductions are illus-
trated in Figs. 5 and 6. Approximately 120 W was the difference
between the best and the worst (local minima) results under sce-
nario II. This was due to the DG-unit size in the worst result
being 100 kVA less.
B. Test Case 2
The number of possible solution combinations for this test
case and the remaining ones were tremendously large. Conse-
quently, the exact method in these test cases would have re-
quired massive amounts of time and memory. As an alternative,
the proposed ABC algorithm was exhaustively utilized to solve
those test cases with a 2000 . The convergence charac-
teristic of the exhaustive ABC algorithm under different sce-
narios is shown in Fig. 7. It is important to state that the proposed
ABCand exhaustive-ABCalgorithms successfully achieved the
same best solutions for test cases 2 4. As Table IV shows, fur-
ther compensation to the system under different load scenarios
2096 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
TABLE III
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE ABC ALGORITHM OVER 30 INDEPENDENT RUNS AT TEST CASE 1
Fig. 6. Compensation results of test case 1 for 69-bus system due to load sce-
nario II.
was attained when another DG-unit was added. In other words,
15.92 kW and 36.73 kW were the additional power loss reduc-
tions at scenarios I and II, respectively, w.r.t. single DG-unit ap-
plication. In addition, the systems at both scenarios were
enhanced to be virtually 1.0 p.u.. Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate these
results. The insignicant difference (i.e., 1.2 W) at scenario II
between the best and worst (local minimal) results was caused
by placing the second DG-unit at bus 18 instead of the optimal
location (bus 17).
C. Test Case 3
In this test case, we demonstrated the effect of installing (op-
timally) a reactive power source as well as a DG-unit simultane-
ously in order to satisfy the objective function. Once more, the
convergence characteristic of the exhaustive ABC algorithm
of this test case is illustrated in Fig. 10. The proposed ABCalgo-
rithm, as shown in Table V, successfully identies the optimal
solutions in each run. The real power loss reductions at both
scenarios were 92%. The system improved by 0.0675
p.u. and 0.11 p.u. at scenarios I and II, respectively. Figs. 11
and 12 illustrate the enhancement results at scenarios I and II,
respectively.
Fig. 7. Convergence characteristics of the exhaustive-ABC algorithm at test
case 2.
D. Test Case 4
The DG-unit in this test case was restricted to supply real
power only. The convergence characteristic of the exhaustive
ABC algorithm is exemplied in Fig. 13. Noticeably, as shown
in Table VI, the proposed ABC algorithm in both scenarios
achieved the optimal solution in every independent run. Fur-
thermore, the real power loss reductions as well as the systems
, at both scenarios, were slightly improved in w.r.t. test
case 1. In addition, the optimal location for the DG-unit and ca-
pacitor was at bus 61. In other words, the solution of this test
case represented a DG-unit running at 0.8 leading power factor.
The enhancement results in terms of voltage prole and loss re-
duction are illustrated in Figs. 14 and 15. A summary of all test
cases best results obtained by the proposed ABC algorithm in
terms of voltage prole improvements and power loss reduc-
tions are demonstrated in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively. Among
all test cases, test case 2 showed the maximum power loss re-
ductions, as well as voltage prole improvements.
E. Test Case 5
Practical application of the DG-unit, however, proves dif-
cult. Social, economic, and political factors affect the nal op-
timal attained solution. Therefore, the DG-units size, in this
test case, is constrained to 1000 kVA. In other words, the des-
ignated value is approximately 20% of the total systems loads.
In this experiment, load scenario I of the 69-bus feeder system
was adopted.
As Table VII shows, the optimal solution obtained by the pro-
posed ABCalgorithmis identical to the one attained by the exact
method. The real power loss reduction after deploying the op-
timal DG-unit of this test case was 63.4%, which is less than
ABU-MOUTI AND EL-HAWARY: OPTIMAL DG ALLOCATION AND SIZING IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2097
TABLE IV
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE ABC ALGORITHM OVER 30 INDEPENDENT RUNS AT TEST CASE 2
Fig. 8. Compensation results of test case 2 for 69-bus system due to load sce-
nario I.
that obtained without limiting the DG-unit size. The enhance-
ment results in terms of voltage prole and loss reduction are
illustrated in Fig. 18.
F. Comparative Study
Although the proposed ABC algorithm proved its robustness
in solving the previous test cases, an additional radial distribu-
tion feeder systemwas considered. The IEEE 33-bus and 69-bus
radial distribution feeder systems were adopted for comparison
purposes. Therefore, the results of the proposed ABC algorithm
were compared with the solutions obtained based on the analyt-
ical method [9] and GA method [26]. Tables VIII and IX sum-
marize the optimal solutions achieved by these methods. The
DG-unit applications in [9] and [26] were limited to supply real
power only. In addition, scenario I was utilized in this com-
parison. The single-line diagram of the 33-bus feeder system
is shown in Fig. 19.
Observing Tables VIII and IX, the results in terms of op-
timal placement of the DG-unit were identical. However, if the
optimal DG-unit sizes in the analytical or GA methods were
Fig. 9. Compensation results of test case 2 for the 69-bus system due to load
scenario II.
Fig. 10. Convergence characteristics of the exhaustive-ABC algorithm at test
case 3.
rounded off to the closest practical rate, the accuracy of the re-
sults would be affected. The proposed algorithmavoids this lim-
itation and the accuracy of the results is guaranteed. Besides
that, a slight improvement in loss reduction is achieved by the
proposed ABC algorithm in both systems.
2098 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
TABLE V
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE ABC ALGORITHM OVER 30 INDEPENDENT RUNS AT TEST CASE 3
Fig. 11. Compensation results of test case 3 for the 69-bus system due to load
scenario I.
G. Discussion
Deregulating electric power networks is one of the fac-
tors that hasten DG-unit applications. In addition, renewable
resources push the DG-unit applications problem to a dif-
ferent-dimension (i.e., supply-uncertainty). Both consumers
and utilities benet from the DG-unit application, for example,
in terms of reliability and energy savings. However, employing
the DG-unit practically is not an easy task. Many factors:
environmental, social, economical, and even political, affect the
nal optimal attainment solution. Therefore, the decision-maker
has some different questions to consider in the optimization
problem: whether the optimal DG-unit placement is practically
available; whether the appropriate DG-units type is allowable
at that location; which one, utility or consumer, has control on
that DG-unit, and so on. All of these variables will signicantly
inuence the optimal solution. Consequently, different DG-unit
application problems have their own practical constraints and,
thus, the results obtained for one problem are not necessarily
valid for another.
Fig. 12. Compensation results of test case 3 for the 69-bus system due to load
scenario II.
Fig. 13. Convergence characteristics of the exhaustive-ABC algorithm at test
case 4.
Since the DG-unit is relatively small in size compared to a
central generation plant, an independent producer or distribu-
tion network operator (DNO) could own one. However, individ-
uals could own their own DG-units, attempting to reduce their
load demands at peak-times or even to go off-grid. Furthermore,
ABU-MOUTI AND EL-HAWARY: OPTIMAL DG ALLOCATION AND SIZING IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS 2099
TABLE VI
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE ABC ALGORITHM OVER 30 INDEPENDENT RUNS AT TEST CASE 4
Fig. 14. Compensation results of test case 4 for the 69-bus system due to load
scenario I.
some individuals could supply back to the grid to reduce their
electric bill after an agreement with the utility. All of these as-
pects are signicant in future research.
Mostly, the DG-unit application problem is solved during the
planning stage. One advantage of that is time consumption is not
a major factor in the solution algorithms performance. How-
ever, in the case of a dynamical problem (online situation), the
time factor is highly signicant due to systemstate security (i.e.,
dynamic and transient conditions).
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a newpopulation-based ABChas been proposed
to solve the mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem. The
objective function was to minimize the total system real power
loss subject to equality and inequality constraints. Simulations
were conducted on the IEEE 33- and 69-bus radial distribu-
tion feeder systems. The proposed ABC algorithm successfully
achieved the optimal solutions at various test cases, as the exact
and exhaustive ABC algorithms prove. The results of the pro-
posed ABC algorithm were compared with those attained by
Fig. 15. Compensation results of test case 4 for the 69-bus system due to load
scenario II.
Fig. 16. Voltage prole enhancement of all test cases due to different load sce-
narios.
other methods. Among all test cases, test case 2 had the max-
imum power loss reductions as well as voltage improvements.
2100 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 17. Power loss reductions of all test cases due to different load scenarios.
TABLE VII
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE ABC ALGORITHM OVER 30 INDEPENDENT RUNS
AT TEST CASE 5
Fig. 18. Compensation results of test case 5 for the 69-bus system due to a
limited DG-unit size.
The ABCalgorithmis simple, easy to implement, and capable
of handling complex optimization problems. The convergence
tendency of the proposed ABC algorithm in all test cases shows
TABLE VIII
COMPARISON OF OPTIMAL DG-UNIT RESULTS FOR THE 33-BUS FEEDER
SYSTEM
TABLE IX
COMPARISON OF OPTIMAL DG-UNIT RESULTS FOR THE 69-BUS FEEDER
SYSTEM
Fig. 19. Single-line diagram of the 33-bus feeder system.
that the algorithmrelatively converges in fewer numbers.
Further insight of the solution quality achieved by carrying out
30 independent runs for all test cases as the statistical results
was reported in Tables IIIVI. Evidently, the ABC algorithm
has excellent solution quality and convergence characteristics.
The efciency of the proposed ABC algorithm is conrmed by
the fact that the standard deviation of the results attained for
30 independent runs is virtually zero. Furthermore, parameter-
tuning in metaheuristic optimization algorithms inuences the
performance of the algorithm signicantly. Other well-known
metaheuristic algorithms (e.g., PSO, GA, and EP) have many
parameters to tune. In contrast, the ABC algorithm has only two
parameters (colony size and max. iteration number) to be tuned.
Therefore, the updating of the two parameters towards the most
effective values has a higher likelihood of success than in other
competing metaheuristic algorithms.
The performance of the proposed ABC algorithm shows its
superiority and the potential for solving complex power system
problems in future publications.
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Fahad S. Abu-Mouti (S07) received the B.Sc. de-
gree in electrical engineering from Qatar University,
Doha, Qatar, in 2003 and the M.A.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from Dalhousie University,
Halifax, NS, Canada, in 2008, where he is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree.
From 2003 to 2006, he joined the Saudi Electricity
Company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was in
charge of the O&M section. In 2009, he received
a government scholarship. His research interests
include distributed generation and renewable energy
resources applications, power system operation and control, planning, and
metaheuristic optimization algorithms.
Mr. Abu-Mouti is a member of the Saudi Council of Engineers.
M. E. El-Hawary (S68M72F90) received the B.Eng. degree in electrical
engineering (Hons.) from the University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt, in
1965, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB,
Canada, in 1972.
Currently, he is Associate Dean of Engineering and has been Professor
of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Dalhousie University, Halifax,
NS, Canada, where he has been since 1981. He served on the faculty and
was a Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, Memorial University
of Newfoundland, for eight years. He was Associate Professor of Electrical
Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
for two years and was Instructor at the University of Alexandria. He pioneered
many computational and articial-intelligence solutions to problems in eco-
nomic/environmental operation of power systems. He has written ten textbooks
and monographs, and many refereed journal articles. He has consulted and
taught for more than 30 years.
Dr. El-Hawary is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) and
the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). He was a Killam Memorial
Fellow with the University of Alberta.