231 research outputs found
AC OPF in Radial Distribution Networks - Parts I,II
The optimal power-flow problem (OPF) has played a key role in the planning
and operation of power systems. Due to the non-linear nature of the AC
power-flow equations, the OPF problem is known to be non-convex, therefore hard
to solve. Most proposed methods for solving the OPF rely on approximations that
render the problem convex, but that may yield inexact solutions. Recently,
Farivar and Low proposed a method that is claimed to be exact for radial
distribution systems, despite no apparent approximations. In our work, we show
that it is, in fact, not exact. On one hand, there is a misinterpretation of
the physical network model related to the ampacity constraint of the lines'
current flows. On the other hand, the proof of the exactness of the proposed
relaxation requires unrealistic assumptions related to the unboundedness of
specific control variables. We also show that the extension of this approach to
account for exact line models might provide physically infeasible solutions.
Recently, several contributions have proposed OPF algorithms that rely on the
use of the alternating-direction method of multipliers (ADMM). However, as we
show in this work, there are cases for which the ADMM-based solution of the
non-relaxed OPF problem fails to converge. To overcome the aforementioned
limitations, we propose an algorithm for the solution of a non-approximated,
non-convex OPF problem in radial distribution systems that is based on the
method of multipliers, and on a primal decomposition of the OPF. This work is
divided in two parts. In Part I, we specifically discuss the limitations of BFM
and ADMM to solve the OPF problem. In Part II, we provide a centralized version
and a distributed asynchronous version of the proposed OPF algorithm and we
evaluate its performances using both small-scale electrical networks, as well
as a modified IEEE 13-node test feeder
Matrix Minor Reformulation and SOCP-based Spatial Branch-and-Cut Method for the AC Optimal Power Flow Problem
Alternating current optimal power flow (AC OPF) is one of the most
fundamental optimization problems in electrical power systems. It can be
formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP) with rank constraints. Solving AC
OPF, that is, obtaining near optimal primal solutions as well as high quality
dual bounds for this non-convex program, presents a major computational
challenge to today's power industry for the real-time operation of large-scale
power grids. In this paper, we propose a new technique for reformulation of the
rank constraints using both principal and non-principal 2-by-2 minors of the
involved Hermitian matrix variable and characterize all such minors into three
types. We show the equivalence of these minor constraints to the physical
constraints of voltage angle differences summing to zero over three- and
four-cycles in the power network. We study second-order conic programming
(SOCP) relaxations of this minor reformulation and propose strong cutting
planes, convex envelopes, and bound tightening techniques to strengthen the
resulting SOCP relaxations. We then propose an SOCP-based spatial
branch-and-cut method to obtain the global optimum of AC OPF. Extensive
computational experiments show that the proposed algorithm significantly
outperforms the state-of-the-art SDP-based OPF solver and on a simple personal
computer is able to obtain on average a 0.71% optimality gap in no more than
720 seconds for the most challenging power system instances in the literature
- …