  In power systems, the incorporation of capacitors offers a wide range of
established advantages. These benefits encompass the enhancement of the systems
power factor, optimization of voltage profiles, increased capacity for current
flow through cables and transformers, and the mitigation of losses attributed
to the compensation of reactive power components. Different techniques have
been applied to enhance the performance of the distribution system by reducing
line losses. This paper focuses on reducing line losses through the optimal
placement and sizing of capacitors. Optimal capacitor placement is analysed
using load flow analysis with the Newton Raphson method. The placement of
capacitor optimization is related to the sensitivity of the buses, which
depends on the loss sensitivity factor. The optimal capacitor size is
determined using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The analysis is conducted
using the IEEE 14 bus system in MATLAB. The results reveal that placing
capacitors at the most sensitive bus locations leads to a significant reduction
in line losses. Additionally, the optimal capacitor size has a substantial
impact on improving the voltage profile and the power loss is reduced by 21.02
percent through the proposed method.
