Application of evolutionary programming to reactive power planning-comparison with nonlinear programming approach

This paper proposes an application of evolutionary programming (EP) to reactive power planning (RPP). Several techniques have been developed to make EP practicable to solve a real power system problem and other practical problems. The proposed approach has been used in the IEEE 30-bus system and a practical power system. For illustration purposes, only results for the IEEE 30-bus system are given. Simulation results, compared with those obtained by using a conventional gradient-based optimization method, Broyden's method, are presented to show that the present method is better for power system planning. In the case of optimization of noncontinuous and nonsmooth functions, EP is much better than nonlinear programming. The comprehensive simulation results show a great potential for applications of EP in power system economical and secure operation, planning and reliability assessment.