Abstract: “Distributed Generation (DG) has been growing rapidly in power systems due to their potential solution for issues, like the deregulation in power system, to meet the power demand and the shortage of transmission capacities. Improper allocation of DG sources in power system would not only lead to increase power or energy losses, but can also jeopardize the system operation. The optimal placement of DG is necessary for the maximization of reliability and stability in power system. There are several research studies to solve DG placement problem by various objectives and their imposed constraints. However, the methodical principle for this subject is still an obscure problem. This paper presents an overview and general backgrounds of research and development in the field of different solution methods for optimal placement of DG found in the literature .This paper has reviewed some of the most popular methods including analytical technique, optimal power flow methods (OPF) and evolutionary”

Keywords: Distributed generation (DG); optimal location; analytical methods; optimal power flow (OPF); evolutionary computational methods