The increase in wind energy penetration is creating a wide range of technical problems in power networks. Reactive Power Planning is one of these crucial issues which entails all the necessary planning actions to improve the voltage profile as well as the voltage stability in power networks. On the whole, the ultimate aim in reactive power planning could be addressed as the resolution of an optimization problem, in which multiobjective optimization techniques emerge as good alternatives to fulfil several goals simultaneously. Among all these techniques above mentioned, genetic algorithms stand out because of their speed of calculation and simplicity. An existing 140-bus power system is used to validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed method where several wind farms and FACTS units are optimally located. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.