Minimizing Active Power Losses and Voltage Deviations for Reactive Power Planning Considering Bus Vulnerability

Abstract

This paper presents a novel Rhinoceros Swarm Optimization (RSO) algorithm to solve the Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) problem in modern power systems. The growing energy demand and economic expansion have increased stress on power networks, making voltage stability a critical concern. Our two-stage approach first identifies vulnerable buses using three stability indices (FVSI, LSI, and VCPI), then optimizes control variables through the proposed RSO algorithm. The proposed RSO is validated and tested on standard IEEE 57, Algerian 114, and Nordic-44 bus power systems. The implementations are carried out in MATLAB 2019a Simulink platform. The findings of the proposed RSO approach are contrasted with the existing methods like Sine-Cosine Algorithm (SCA), Improved Differential Evolutionary (IDE), Lévy-flight Phasor Particle Swarm Optimization (LPPSO), Gradient Jellyfish Search Optimizer (GJSO), and Adaptive Beluga Whale Optimization (ABWO) to confirm the superiority of the proposed technique. Thus, for standard IEEE 57 the power loss of the proposed RSO method is 22.05 MW contrasted to the existing SCA, IDE, LPPSO, GJSO, and ABWO methods which attain a power loss of 24.34 MW, 25.05 MW, 25.50 MW, 26.10 MW and 27.01 MW respectively.