Optimal DG allocation for enhancing voltage stability and minimizing power loss using hybrid gray wolf optimizer

High penetration of photovoltaic and wind turbine-based distributed generators (DGs) can help reduce carbon emissions which is an important goal for the whole world. DG can be used to improve the voltage stability, present generation reserve/emergency, and consequently, the system power quality can be improved. However, it is very important to select the right size and location of a DG so that the power system can increase the gained benefits of such an installation to the maximum. In this paper, a hybrid optimization technique is proposed to determine the optimal allocation of DG in the standard IEEE 33-bus radial distribution system in order to improve the voltage stability and minimize the total power loss. The proposed hyprid technique is based on the gray wolf optimizer algorithm with loss sensitivity factor. The performance of the system is analyzed without DG installation, then it is compared with the performance of the system when DGs are installed with the predefined optimal sizes and locations. The study is performed by MATLAB M-Files and NEPLAN software.