A Comparative Performance Evaluation of a Set of Swarm Intelligence based Optimization Algorithms for Economic Operation with FACTS Devices in Power Systems

499-507In this article an effective Reactive Power Management (RPM) method using a Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) has been proposed, which minimizes the loss of energy, improves the power transfer capacity and reduces the overall cost of transmission network lines. The position of FACTS was optimized by two recently proposed heuristic optimization techniques, i.e., Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) and Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO). It is observed that installing the FACTS in this optimal position improves the voltage profile at minimum installation cost. The overall effectiveness of the proposed approaches were examined by implementing it on a IEEE 30-bus network