This study provides an overview of distributed generation (DG) and shunt capacitor banks (SCB) integration in radial distribution networks (RDN). The integration of DG and SCB (IDG-SCB) supplies active and reactive power to the network to fulfill the network’s increasing power demand, improve power quality, and increase network stability and security. This work also takes into consideration network reconfiguration (N-Rec). The N-Rec is rearranging RDN topology or structure to accomplish particular goals including load balancing, loss decreasing, regulating voltage and enhanced reliability. Reconfiguring the RDN makes sure that no single line is overloaded while others are left unused by dividing loads across its branches. Through load balancing, the system’s overall capacity is maximized and the chance of overloading and related losses is decreased. In addition, N-Rec establishes channels for two-way power flow and maximizes the network’s ability to manage fluctuating generation patterns; reconfiguration makes it easier to integrate IDG-SCBs into the RDN. The purpose of this work is to conduct a review of IDG-SCB with N-Rec in the last five years. The focus of this survey is on the allocation of DG and SCBs, their sizes both continuous and discrete. The optimization methods are categorized based on whether they are single-objective, multi-objective, or hybrid, and then further classified based on the objective functions applied in the method, constraints subjected to optimization, and the RDN that has been tested in the method. Additionally, a statistical analysis is conducted to analyze the most frequently used methods, objective functions, constraints, and RDNs in the field. Finally, As a case study, an analysis was conducted to propose the results of the most objective function used, i.e. power loss, in the most frequently used RDN, which are IEEE 33 and 69-bus RDN. The analysis considered IDG-SCB with N-Rec. The results show the effectiveness of IDG-SCB with N-Rec in improving power distribution system resilience and efficiency, as evidenced by the significant reduction in power loss of up to 97.95% that can be achieved by its implementation.
