Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

This paper investigates losses and their reduction in a distribution system. The purpose is to reduce power losses in an 11kV distribution system, achieve efficiency and financial benefits which will result from lower maximum demand charges by the electricity supply companies. The type of losses, the causes of losses and methods of loss reduction in distribution systems were presented. The objectives of the research were to compute the power losses in the distribution system and to find means to reduce the losses. The Gauss-Seidel iterative method was used for the load analysis. The economical power factor is also determined so as to achieve maximum savings. This method was applied to a 34 bus, 11kV, 6MVA distribution system with original power factor of 0.85. The total power loss in the system before capacitor-placement was 221.7089kW. After capacitor-placement the power loss became 172.3kW, with optimum power factor of 0.96.