Optimal photovoltaic placement by self-organizing hierarchical binary particle swarm optimization in distribution systems

The novel method of BPSO is proposed for solving optimal number and size of photovoltaic (PV) units on a radius distribution system. For the optimal number of PV unit problem, the SHBPSO is used to obtain quick convergence and explore solution space in the new direction. For the problem of the optimal sizes of PV units, the proposed method is used to avoid a local optimum trap. Multiple grid-connected PV units are considered. The SHBPSO can find better locations and sizes than other methods such as the classical BPSO, the BPSO with inertia weight, the BPSO with acceleration coefficients and the BPSO with sigmoid increasing inertia weight on the radial distribution system. The results including the active power of PV supplies injected into the system and total yearly power loss reduction are analyzed. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.