Analysis and Improvement of Voltage Profile Magnitude in Power Distribution Networks

Electric power system is the main energy source for industrial, commercial, and domestic activities hence its importance cannot be neglected across the world. However, the reverse is the case in the Nigerian power sector where there is inadequate power generation, transmission and distribution networks thereby creating huge economic loss by deploying alternative sources of power. These inadequacies of power systems in Nigeria has been linked to poor voltage profile magnitude in the distribution systems thereby impeding the continuous control and operation of the power distribution networks within the allowable limits that will mitigate burden on the power installation equipment and redue the cost of running the networks. This research therefore seeks to investigate the voltage profile magnitudes in power distribution network of eleven selected distribution networks in GRA 11/0.415 kV, Benin City, Nigeria using the ETAP 19 analytical software. The load flow result using the Newton-Raphson method in ETAP 19 shows that out of a total of eleven (11) load buses being investigated, only two (2) load buses met the voltage magnitude profile limit criteria of between 95% and 105% set for this study, the voltage profile magnitude for police Comms bus and Folake Oke bus are 97.2% and 95.5% respectively representing 18.2% of the investigated network which shows that the two buses were in good operating mode while a total of Nine (9) load buses representing 81.8% of the network violated the voltage constraint limits which prompted the network to behave abnormally. It is worthy of note that all the 11kV buses were all within the voltage limit. The introduction of compensating devices using the optimal capacitor placement brought the network under control where all the load buses were in good operating mode and within the voltage limit set for this study.