Effect of Capacitor Switching on Reactive Power Control in Electrical Distribution Network

In electrical distribution network, load varies over the day, with very low load from midnight to early morning and peak values occurring in the evening due to the load demand by the consumer. This variation in load demand leads to variation in reactive power because most loads are inductive especially in industries where three phase industrial motors are used. In addition, Furthermore, the variation in reactive power affects current flow through the lines, transformers, generators and cause power losses in distribution network. Hence, there is the need to ensure reliable energy distribution even in the presence of load and reactive power variations. This research paper applied shunt switching capacitor for reactive power control of electrical distribution network using 11 kV distribution network located at Monatan, Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria as a case study. Hourly load data of the network were collected to determine the reactive power of the network for stability evaluation. Capacitor Switching Compensation was incorporated into distribution network using KCL algorithm as power flow to form Capacitor Switching Compensation Model (CSCM) to improve the reactive power of the distribution network and simulation was carried out in MATLAB environment. The results showed that reactive power of the distribution network was 3.1. The CSCM improved the reactive power to 52 %. The study showed that incorporating capacitor switching as a compensation technique enhances the stability of the distribution network. Keywords: Electrical Distribution Network, Reactive Power, Capacitor Switching Compensation Model, Power Loss, Load Data, MATLAB. DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/13-4-03 Publication date:August 31st 202