Abstract
This paper presents a particle swarm optimisation (PSO) based approach for solving optimal
reactive power dispatch in order to minimise transmission power losses of a system network with
distributed generation. The control variables of the system network are bus voltage magnitudes,
transformer tap settings and reactive power generation capability of the distributed generation unit.
The PSO algorithm is tested on a standard IEEE 14 bus system network and is validated using Newton
Raphson method. Results show that the PSO algorithm performs better than the Newton Raphson
method. The results also show that distributed generation unit sizing and placement has a great effect
on the transmission power losses of the system network.