In this paper, a new metaheuristic algorithm that mimics the pollination process of flowers and is known as the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) has been proposed for the solution of the optimal capacitor placement (OCP) problem in a radial distribution system (RDS). The objective of this problem is to minimize the total power loss and cost of capacitor installation by optimal location and sizing of the capacitors. OCP also improves the voltage profile. In this work, the power flow and losses in the network are obtained with the help of load flow analysis using data structures. The proposed FPA approach has been applied to solve 33-, 34-, 69- and 85 bus RDSs. The results obtained are compared with those of the analytical method, fuzzy real coded genetic algorithm, two stage fuzzy approach and teaching learning based optimization algorithms. The comparison shows that FPA is a highly suitable optimization approach for solving capacitor placement problems. © 2018 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University