IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF A DEFICIENT 11 kV DISTRIBUTION NETWORK USING DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

Abstract

With the inadequate generation, transmission and distribution capacities of the Nigerian Power System, the need to improve on the power that gets to the consumer via the distribution system cannot be overemphasized. Efforts should be made at ensuring a more robust and efficient distribution network in Nigeria. This study aims at improving the performance of a deficient distribution network using Distributed Generation (DG) units optimally placed and sized on the specific buses in the network. The Okada Community distribution network, located in Ovia North-East Local Government Area in Edo State, Nigeria, was used as a case study. Relevant data collected from Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) was used to carry out load flow study on the network using Newton-Raphson iteration technique in ETAP 16.0 environment to ascertain the state of the network under base, minimum and maximum loading conditions. DG units were optimally placed in specific buses using loss sensitivity factor and load flow analysis was then repeated on the enhanced network. Results obtained show that the voltage profile of the network improved drastically after it was enhanced, as all the bus voltages were within the acceptable voltage range unlike the condition before enhancement, where none of the bus voltages was within the acceptable range. The total power loading of the system also improved from 4968 kW and 1633 KVAR to 5398.63 kW and 1774.51 KVAR for base loading condition, from 4094 kW and 1345 KVAR to 4372 kW and 1437 KVAR for minimum loading condition and from 5985 kW and 1967 KVAR to 6647.02 kW and 2184.7 KVAR for maximum loading condition