18

Optimization Methods Application to

Optimal Power Flow in Electric Power Systems

Virginijus Radziukynas and Ingrida Radziukyniene

Summary. Optimal power ow is an optimizing tool for power system operation

analysis, scheduling and energy management. Use of the optimal power ow is
becoming more important because of its capabilities to deal with various situations.
This problem involves the optimization of an objective functions that can take
various forms while satisfying a set of operational and physical constraints. The
OPF formulation is presented and various objectives and constraints are discussed.
This paper is mainly focussed on review of the stochastic optimization methods
which have been used in literature to solve the optimal power ow problem. Three
real applications are presented as well.

18.1 Introduction
As power industry is moving to a competitive market, its operation is strongly
inuenced. In the deregulated environment, the security and economical is-
sues of power systems are coordinated tightly than before. Thus, the need
for fast and robust optimization tools that consider both security and econ-
omy is more demanding than before to support the system operation and
control [34]. Optimization methods have been widely used in power system
operation, analysis and planning. One of the most signicant applications is
optimal power ow (OPF). Since its introduction by Carpentier in the 1962
as a network constrained economic dispatch problem [12], OPF has been
studied and widely used in power system operation and planning, due to its
capability of integrating the economic and security aspects of a power system
into one mathematical formulation.
The OPF issue is one of the most important problems faced by dispatch-
ing engineers to handle large-scale power systems in an eective and ecient
manner. It is a particular mathematical approach of the global power system
optimization problem that aims at determining the least control movements to
keep power system at the most desired state [23]. The OPF provides a useful
support to the operator to overcome many diculties in the planning, opera-
tion and control of power systems. Thus, it represents a exible and powerful
410 V. Radziukynas and I. Radziukyniene

tool, which is widely used in many applications, such as constrained economic

dispatch and voltage control problems [32]. However, the complexity of opti-
mal power ow increases dramatically with large-scale networks, which often
discourages the utilization of this powerful tool in many applications [23]. The
OPF problem aims to achieve an optimal solution of a specic power system
objective function, such as fuel cost, by adjusting the power system control
variables, while satisfying a set of operational and physical constraints [24].
The control variables include the generator real powers, the generator bus
voltages, and the tap ratios of transformer and the reactive power generations
of reactive power (VAR) sources, such as capacitor banks, static VAR com-
pensators (SVC), and static synchronous compensators (STATCOM). State
variables are slack bus power, load bus voltages, generator reactive power
outputs, and network power ows [12]. The constraints include inequality
ones which are the limits of control variables and state variables; and equal-
ity ones which are the power ow equations. In its most general formulation,
OPF is a nonlinear, non-convex, large-scale, static optimization problem,
with both continuous and discrete control variables [6].
In the past few decades, many stochastic optimization methods have been
developed and their applications to global optimization problems become
attractive because they have better global search abilities over conventional
optimization algorithms [12]. This review will address the optimal power ow
problem and stochastic optimization methods used to solve it.

18.2 Overview of Optimal Power Flow

OPF can help in solving many problems. There are some scenarios of OPF
contribution to the analysis of power systems [23]:
In the standard description of the OPF problem, if an empty set is spec-
ied for the controls, the algorithm reduces directly to a typical power
ow problem. The procedures in this case depend on the bus mismatch
equations and provide the same state solution like the classic power ow,
including bus voltages and branch ows.
OPF may be associated with the constrained economic dispatch to dene
the optimal allocation of loads among the generators by specifying the
generation cost characteristics, the network model and the load prole [50].
OPF can also be used to minimize the total real power loss through
reactive power dispatch [32]. In this case, only reactive controls such as
transformer tap positions, shunt capacitors and reactors, and excitation
systems are used to minimize the total losses in the entire network, or in
a subset of the network.
OPF can be used to dene feasible solutions or indicates if one exists using
the so-called minimum of control movements strategy [47]. According to
this strategy, the objective of the optimization process is to minimize the
cost function based on control deviations from the base case [23].