Comparative analysis of DG units against Capacitive banks in a micro-grid as an alternative for voltage profile enhancement

Electrical distribution power systems reliability is a critical parameter for electrical networks and their end-users. Among the different parameters associated with these systems reliability, voltage profile is the one that most commonly is affected in the electrical network due to different internal and external parameters such as lines and feeders impedance, system overloads and increment on end-users. An inadequate voltage profile is directly related to affectations for the end-user such as permanent damage to its electric and electronic equipment. Therefore, a bad voltage profile can create losses for both consumers and companies providers of electric energy. With great advances in technologies and concerns about environmental effects, an alternative to improve voltage profiles while taking care of the environment by avoiding the use of no renewable energies are the Distributed Generation (DG) systems. Besides, another approach to enhance the voltage profiles is by compensating reactive power with alternatives such as capacitor banks. This paper proposes an alternative to enhance voltage profiles in a distribution network by comparing the best approach between an active power compensation through DGs and reactive power compensations through capacitor banks. The optimal location for the power generation and the compensators have been analyzed previously from [5], [6], which gives a complete study of the IEEE-14 bus bar system with a result of which bus bar numbers need active or reactive compensation considering the different system loads. Detailed simulations are conducted to explain and verify the results, which have been analyzed also with a statistic approach. This work has found that the voltage profiles are enhanced with an active or reactive compensation and the alternative of which one select (Active, Reactive, Active/Reactive compensation), depends on how much active or reactive power is available to install as well as which bus bar is the most needed to be enhanced.