Comparative Analysis of Static Var Compensator and Distributed Generation Installation on Voltage Profile

Abstract

In Indonesia, electricity is a basic need with demand that continues to grow. PT PLN (Persero) projects an increase in electricity consumption of 8.9% by early 2022, highlighting the urgent need to address frequent problems such as blackouts, power losses, and voltage sags in the power distribution system. Effective solutions, including Static VAR Compensator (SVC) and Distributed Generation (DG), have been proposed to improve voltage stability and reduce power losses. This study evaluates and compares the performance of SVC and DG on a standard IEEE 14-bus system under increased load conditions. Using power flow analysis in ETAP, we simulate the installation of SVC at 15.99 Mvar and DG at 20.58 Mvar on bus 9, which shows optimal results. The findings show that DG slightly outperforms SVC in improving voltage stability and reducing power losses, with a 0.16% greater voltage increase and a 3.2 MW or 17.3% reduction in power losses. These results indicate that although both devices meet PLN’s voltage standards and improve power system efficiency, DG provides a slightly superior improvement in overall system performance.