Arab J Sci Eng (2014) 39:71837188

DOI 10.1007/s13369-014-1279-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE - ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Gravitational Search Algorithm for Optimal Distributed

Generation Operation in Autonomous Network
J. J. Jamian M. W. Mustafa H. Mokhlis
M. A. Baharudin A. M. Abdilahi

Received: 17 July 2013 / Accepted: 30 November 2013 / Published online: 10 July 2014
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals 2014

Abstract The gravitational search algorithm (GSA) has

been used in this research to optimize output of the multi-
ple distributed generator (DG) units in autonomous distribu-
tion network. With the optimal operation of DGs, the voltage
profile can be improved, thus reducing the power losses in
the system. The performance of GSA is compared with an
established paper, which uses the genetic algorithm (GA) in
analysing similar problem. The results show that the GSA
has superior performance in finding the optimal DG output
compared to the GA technique, either in terms of power loss
as well as the voltage profile. Furthermore, the consistency
of the proposed GSA method is proven by the small stan-
dard deviation value obtained from 20 repetitions of the same
analysis. 1 Introduction

The introduction of distributed generation (DG) technolo-

Keywords Autonomous network Distributed generation gies into the power system has been very popular among the
Gravitational search algorithm Power loss minimization power industry as well as in its related research field. This
Standard deviation recent trend is mainly due to restructuring of the power sys-
tem industry. In addition, DG installation at the distribution
systems is also widely favoured as a means to cater the ever-
increasing demand [1,2]. It also serves to improve existing
reliability issues and system performances in general [3].
J. J. Jamian (B) M. W. Mustafa M. A. Baharudin
A. M. Abdilahi In the literature, many different types of techniques vary-
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Malaysia ing from meta-heuristic approaches [47] to the analytical
e-mail: jasrul@fke.utm.my approaches [810] have been used in solving the optimal DG
M. W. Mustafa output problem, either for single DG [8,9] or multiple DG
e-mail: wazir@fke.utm.my units [11,12]. Moradi et al. [13] have used genetic algorithm
M. A. Baharudin (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques as
e-mail: mariff@fke.utm.my the means to optimize the size and the locations of the DGs,
A. M. Abdilahi respectively, in which each of them solves each of the corre-
e-mail: abdirahmaan11@gmail.com sponding problems. On the other hand, Mistry et al. [14]
H. Mokhlis
used three different optimization techniques to determine
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the optimum capacity and location of DGs. The power loss
e-mail: hazli@um.edu.my minimization and voltage profile improvement were the two

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factors that are considered in order to determine the best loca-
tions and sizes of the DGs. Different approach has been used
by Dias et al. [15] to find the optimum locations of DG. The
authors used the sensitivity factors in their analysis. By rank-
ing the buses based on sensitivity factor in descending order,
the priority lists for DG location is obtained. The top-ranked
buses in these priority lists are taken for the placement of DG.
However, most of the above literatures focus on the deter-
mination of optimal DG capacity and location for a grid-
connected distribution system. In this paper, the operation of
remotely located distribution network that has no grid con-
nection is considered. For this kind of a system, it is important
to ensure that the DG output is sufficient enough to support
the total demand of all the consumers that are served by the
distribution system. Even though the self-sufficiency of the
system is the ultimate objective, it is, however, also important
to operate the DGs at their optimal output to realize the opti-
mum system operations. By doing so, the minimum power
losses could be achieved that will in turn lead to lower DG
output and hence causing the total generation costs of the sys-
tem to be lowered. This is due to the fact that total generation
of DG is the summation of its load demand and the losses.
Therefore, it is unmistakable to reduce the power losses to
achieve the minimum costs incurred through generation of
the DGs.
In this study, the gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is
used to determine the optimum distributed generation output
that will minimize the power loss in the system. The problem
is formulated in the next section followed by the explanation
of the GSA implementation. In the fourth section of the paper,
the results with its detailed discussions are presented, ending
the paper with concluding remarks of the study in the final
section.
2 Problem Formulation
For the autonomous system that has a single DG unit, the
DG unit will be fully utilized to supply the whole demand,
including the power loss in the network. On the other hand,
for the multiple DG unit case, the harmonization of the out-
put from each DG unit can help to reduce the power loss
value, indirectly improving the distribution network perfor-
mance. Thus, by optimizing the DG output, the power loss in
the system will be minimized. However, several constraints
have to be considered in order to ensure that the distribution
network to operate safely. The lists of constraints, which are
included in this paper, are shown below:
(a) Active and reactive power DG constraint:
Pimin PDGi Pimax (1)
 
Q DGi = PDGi tan cos1 (P F) (2)
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Arab J Sci Eng (2014) 39:71837188
The DG must operate within the minimum and max-
imum DG output range. Since the DG is operating at
certain power factor (PF), the reactive power supplied
by DG is limited by Eq. (2).
(b) Supplydemand balance constraint:

k
PDG < PLoad + PLosses , k = no. of DG (3)
i=1
The total power generated by all DG units must be equal
to the summation of the total demand and the power loss
values. It is very important to ensure that the supply
demand balance can be achieved.
(c) Voltage constraint:
0.95 p.u Vbus
new
1.05 p.u (4)
The voltage value at each bus in the system after the DG
connection must be within the acceptable limit, which
is in between 5 % from the rated value. Furthermore,
the DG should also give better overall voltage profile
pattern compared to without DG unit in the system.
Therefore, in this study, the GSA, which is one of the meta-
heuristic techniques, will consider all these constraints in
the optimization process. The analysis was performed using
MATLAB 7.8 on a computer with a Core2Duo processor,
clocked at 2.00 GHz and with 2 GB RAM.
3 GSA Implementation
The GSA was first introduced by Esmat et al. [16] in 2009.
The authors have developed the algorithm based on the law
of gravity, where the gravity that exists between the objects
will cause them to accelerate towards each other. In general,
the gravitational force formula for two objects is directly pro-
portional to the product of their masses and inversely propor-
tional to the square of distance between these two objects as
shown in Eq. (5).
Ma j M pi
Fi j = G (5)
R2
where, F = gravitational force, G = gravitational constant
Mi = mass of object i, M j = mass of object j, R = distance
between objects i and j.
However, after several investigations on optimization
problem, the authors in [16] have proposed some modifi-
cation on the gravitational force formula, where the power of
distance in GSA has been set to 1 as shown in Eq. (6). This
change is necessary to improve the GSA in finding the opti-
mal solution. Thus, for the GSA implementation on optimal
DG outputs problem, the DG output is set as the object (xi )
and the performance of GSA is measured by the power loss
Arab J Sci Eng (2014) 39:71837188 7185

Step 1 Randomize N number of DG output (object - xi).

ii. Gravitational mass and mass (M) for each object at cur-
Step 2 Calculate the Power Loss value for all objects rent set are:
Step 3 Update the Gravitational coefficient , best and worst power loss results from the
initial sets of DG output value using (8) and (9)
fiti worst
Step 4 Calculate the total force in different direction for objects using (6), (10) and (11) mi = (9)
Step 5 Calculate the acceleration and velocity for the object using (12) and (13) best worst
Step 6 Update the DG output value from the acceleration result as shown in (14) mi
if iteration number>iter max then Mi =  (10)
Stop and show the DG output result all (m i )
else

end
Continue to Step 2
where, i = 1, 2, 3,, N , fit = Fitness (Ex: power loss
___________________________________________________________________________ in this study), worst = The worst fitness value (highest
power loss) from the current set, best = The best fitness
Fig. 1 The pseudo code for optimal DG output in autonomous system
analysis
value (lowest power loss) from the current set.
iii. Total force that act on object i


N
f id = rand j f idj (11)
j=1, j=i
Object 1 F12 Object 2
Smaller Mass
Larger Mass
(High Ploss)
where, d = dimension.
(Lower Ploss)
iv. Acceleration, velocity and new position
f id
X2 aid = (12)
X1 Mi
Fig. 2 The illustration on the relationship between object mass and the vidnew = randi vidold + aid (13)
distance
xidnew = xidold + vidnew (14)

where, a = acceleration, v = velocity, x = Object posi-

value (fitness) as shown in Eq. (7). Figure 1 shows the GSA tion (Ex: DG output).
steps required to solve the optimization problem.

Ma j M pi 4 Result and Discussion

Fi j = G (6)
R

max line Figure 3 shows the 33-bus distribution network with 3 DGs
Ploss = I L2 R L (7) that are connected at buses 3, 9 and 31, respectively. The
L=1 locations of the DGs are obtained from [17]. The harmoniza-
tion of the output from these 3 DGs will be determined using
Therefore, the lowest power loss (Ploss ) value in the power
the GSA technique, and the result are compared to the GA
system analysis will be presented as heavy mass object,
method that has been done by [17]. The analysis will also
which caused the slow movement compared to the lighter
cover the power loss value that exists in the system, when
objects. In other words, the bad solution (light mass object)
only single DG unit is installed to fulfil the demand of the
will have a larger movement towards the better solution in
network. In this study, the DGs are operated at PF 0.85.
the optimization process as shown in Fig. 2.
Table 1 shows the comparison between power loss value
In order to relate the object position (xi ) to the mass value
in the system when single DG and multiple DG units are
(M), several formulae are required as shown below:
operated in the system. From the results, regardless of the DG
location, the single DG unit is not able to give lower power
i. The gravitational constant loss value compared to multiple DG results. The difference
between these analyses in giving the minimum power loss
 
iter value is very large. Therefore, this proved that the harmonized
G(iter ) = G 0 e iter max
(8) DG output from several DG units is capable to give minimum
power loss in the system.
The gravitational constant value used in this analysis Table 2 shows the active power and reactive power given
varies for each iteration process where the G0 is initial by GA and GSA analysis. From the figure, both techniques
gravitational constant value and is the decay coeffi- are able to fulfil the PF constraint (0.85). However, the GSA
cient. has given better DG combination output in the system, where

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Fig. 3 The Autonomous

DG
33-bus distribution network with

19

20

21

22
3 DG units

31

32

33
27

29
28

30
26
DG

17

18
10

13

15
11

14

16
12
1

9
2

5
4

DG
23

24

25
Table 1 Comparison single and
multiple DG performance given Single DG analysis Multiple DG analysis
by GSA technique DG at bus 3 DG at bus 9 DG at bus 31 GA [17] GSA

DG1 (bus 3) 3.8490 MW 1.8885 MW 1.8056 MW

DG2 (bus 9) 3.9910 MW 0.9497 MW 0.9984 MW
DG3 (bus 31) 4.1857 MW 1.6920 MW 0.9376 MW
Power loss 134.56 kW 275.97 kW 470.75 kW 56.10 kW 27.27 kW

Table 2 Comparison optimal

multiple DG output in GA [16] PSO GSA
autonomous system P (MW) Q (MVar) P (MW) Q (MVar) P (MW) Q (MVar)

DG1 (bus 3) 1.8885 1.1797 1.8056 1.1209 1.8056 1.1209

DG2 (bus 9) 0.9497 0.5884 0.9984 0.6188 0.9984 0.6188
DG3 (bus 31) 1.692 1.0399 0.9376 0.5811 0.9376 0.5811
Power loss 56.10 kW 27.2675 kW 27.2675 kW

Fig. 4 The voltage profile in 1.04 GSA & PSO GA Vmax = 1.035 p.u
autonomous 33-bus distribution
system 1.03
Vmax = 1.002 p.u
1.02

1.01
Voltage (p.u)

1.00

0.99

0.98 Vmin = 0.987 p.u

Vmin = 0.981 p.u
0.97

0.96

0.95
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Bus Number

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Fig. 5 The convergence curve 28.5

given by GSA and PSO PSO
algorithms 27.26775
28.3 GSA 27.26770
27.26765
28.1

Power Loss (kW)

27.26760
27.26755
27.9 27.26749
27.26750
27.26745
27.7 27.26740
27.26735

104
109
114
119
124
129
134
139
64
69
74
79
84
89
94
99
27.5

27.3

27.1

1
9
17
25
33
41
49
57
65
73
81
89
97
105
113
121
129
137
145
153
161
169
177
185
193
No. of Iteration

the lower power loss value is achieved by GSA analysis

Table 3 The performance of GSA and PSO after 20 independence runs
(Table 1). Hence, by operating the DG at 1.8056, 0.9984 and
0.9376 MW for buses 3, 9 and 31, respectively, the power 20 times PSO performance GSA performance
loss in the system is 27.27 kW, which is 51.4 % lower than Power loss value (kW)
the GA results. Best 27.26749 27.26749
It is also worth mentioning that different voltage profiles Worse 27.26749 27.26749
of the system are obtained when the system is operated using
Mean 27.26749 27.26749
two techniques (i.e. the GA and GSA techniques). From the
Standard deviation 4.95169 108 1.68927 1011
Fig. 4, even though the voltage obtained by both techniques
Average computing time (s) 110.76 42.69
are still within the limit (0.95 p.u < Vbus < 1.05 p.u.),
the maximum voltage value for GA analysis has values that
are very close to the maximum limit. In contrast, the net-
work voltage given by GSA technique is more stable and Therefore, from the whole discussion, it can be said that
far from the minimum or maximum limits. Thus, it can be the GSA provides an interactive solution to the autonomous
said that the GSA does not only give the minimum power distribution network, due to the superiority of the algorithm
loss value, it also provides the better voltage profile of the in achieving lower power loss, better voltage profile and
network. consistent analysis result in solving the optimal DG output
Since the GSA is one of the meta-heuristic methods, it problem.
is important to know the performance of this algorithm in
solving the DG output analysis. Figure 5 shows the exam-
ple of the convergence curve obtained by GSA in the 20 5 Conclusion
runs. Bear in mind that new random number is used for
each run time, in order to test the robustness and the effi- The work presented in this paper has introduced the auto-
ciency of the GSA. From the figure, the convergence results nomous operation of a standard distribution system with
for GSA can be seen after the iteration number is nearly to DG installations at certain bus locations. The optimization
40, regardless of the initial random value that is generated process has been achieved through the use of GSA technique.
by the algorithm. In terms of consistency, Table 3 shows The analysis involved two parts; firstly, the use of a single
that the standard deviation for GSA is very small, which DG, and secondly, the use of multiple DGs (in this case 3
is 1.68 1011 and the average computing time to solve DGs).
the problem is 42.69 s. The smaller standard deviation value Besides, the paper has also presented a comparison analy-
gives an indicator that the GSA will always give similar opti- sis between the GSA and GA methods. It has been shown
mal result for every time the algorithm is being used (if we that the GSA is capable to give the best DG output com-
limited to 9 decimal places and below, the standard deviation bination with the least power loss in the system. Further-
value is zero). more, the GSA gives better voltage profile compared to the

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GA results. Lastly, the smaller number of iteration to reach
the convergence results, fast computing time and consistent
result (based on standard deviation value) makes the GSA an
interesting approach to solve the optimal DG operation for
autonomous distribution network.
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