Application of a fast and elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm to Reactive Power Dispatch

This paper presents an Elitist Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm version II (NSGA-II), for solving the Reactive Power Dispatch (RPD) problem. The optimal RPD problem is a nonlinear constrained multi-objective optimization problem where the real power loss and the bus voltage deviations are to be minimized. Since the problem is treated as a true multi-objective optimization problem, different trade-off solutions are provided. The decision maker has an option to choose a solution among the different trade-off solutions provided in the pareto-optimal front. The standard IEEE 30-bus test system is used and the results show the effectiveness of NSGA-II and confirm its potential to solve the multi-objective RPD problem. The results obtained by NSGA-II are compared and validated with conventional weighted sum method using Real-coded Genetic Algorithm (RGA) and NSGA.