  Reactive power plays an important role in supporting the real power transfer
by maintaining voltage stability and system reliability. It is a critical
element for a transmission operator to ensure the reliability of an electric
system while minimizing the cost associated with it. The traditional objectives
of reactive power dispatch are focused on the technical side of reactive
support such as minimization of transmission losses. Reactive power cost
compensation to a generator is based on the incurred cost of its reactive power
contribution less the cost of its obligation to support the active power
delivery. In this paper an efficient Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based
reactive power optimization approach is presented. The optimal reactive power
dispatch problem is a nonlinear optimization problem with several constraints.
The objective of the proposed PSO is to minimize the total support cost from
generators and reactive compensators. It is achieved by maintaining the whole
system power loss as minimum thereby reducing cost allocation. The purpose of
reactive power dispatch is to determine the proper amount and location of
reactive support. Reactive Optimal Power Flow (ROPF) formulation is developed
as an analysis tool and the validity of proposed method is examined using an
IEEE-14 bus system.
