Metaheuristic Optimization Framework for Mitigating Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Impact in Radial and Mesh Distribution System Using DERs and DSTATCOM

As global fossil fuel reserves face unavoidable exhaustion, the prominence of electric vehicles (EVs) continues to escalate. This transition is largely driven by a greater societal commitment to sustainable transport solutions, resulting in a marked increase in the integration of EVs into the modern transportation landscape. Consequently, existing power distribution frameworks are not capable of providing significantly higher levels of active power to support the growing infrastructure of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs). However, this surge in demand poses technical challenges, specifically the degradation of voltage profiles and the escalation of active power losses (APL) within the grid. To counteract these effects and strengthen network stability and self-sufficiency, it is vital to integrate EVCSs, distributed energy resources (DERs), and distribution static compensators (DSTATCOMs) through precise sizing and strategic placement. The core objectives of this optimization approach are to mitigate APL, minimize voltage deviation (VD), and improve the overall voltage stability index (VSI). This study utilizes the IEEE 33-bus system as a benchmark to evaluate system performance in both conventional radial and mesh configurations. The African vulture optimization algorithm combined with dimension learning-based hunting (AVOA-DLH) and the opposition flow direction algorithm (OFDA) are employed in this research to optimize the objective functions. The results demonstrate that the coordinated allocation substantially mitigates the adverse effects of EVCSs integration. For the radial configuration, the best AVOA-DLH solution achieves a power-loss reduction of 79.74%, while the corresponding mesh configuration achieves 85.20%. In the mesh configuration, the best AVOA-DLH solution reduces APL to 23.24 kW, with a VD of 0.0139 p.u. and a VSI of 0.8741 p.u. The annual energy-loss cost is reduced from 110.402×103 PKR to 29.025×103 PKR for the radial system and from 65.70×103 PKR to 12.214×103 PKR for the mesh system. Statistical analysis further indicates a significant performance difference between AVOA-DLH and OFDA.