Abstract
This paper proposes a novel adaptive range composite differential evolution (ARCoDE) algorithm to efficiently and accurately solve optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) problem. Because of a novel adaptive range strategy for control parameters, the proposed ARCoDE possesses superior exploration and exploitation capabilities that can efficiently handle the ORPD problem involving complicated constraints and discrete and continuous variables. This has been demonstrated in case studies using the IEEE optimal power flow testbeds considering complex wind and demand scenarios. The superior performance of ARCoDE has been further validated through comparisons with several award-winning algorithms in 2014 IEEE Competition on “Application of Modern Heuristic Optimization Algorithms for Solving Optimal Power Flow Problems”, given limited iterations of in evolutionary optimization process.
Highlights
The reactive power dispatch is critical to ensure the security and economy of power system operation
NUMERICAL RESULTS The 41-bus offshore wind power plant (WPP) optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) test case in the 2014 IEEE Competition on ‘‘Application of Modern Heuristic Optimization Algorithms for Solving Optimal Power Flow Problem’’ is used to study the performance of the proposed adaptive range composite differential evolution (ARCoDE). This test case consists of 18 continuous variables associated to wind generator reactive power setpoints, 2 discrete variables associated to stepwise adjustable on-load transformers’ tap position, a discrete variable defining the stepwise adjustment of a regulated capacitor, and a continuous variable defining the adjustment of reactor
In the fast ORPD problem, the reactive power requirements corresponding to the actual operating condition are defined as stepwise changes of reactive power requirements results in 96 scenarios, some of which turn out to be hardto-solve optimization tasks
Summary
The reactive power dispatch is critical to ensure the security and economy of power system operation. The former can be enhanced by introducing exploitive recombination strategies, but the robustness (i.e. the method should obtain good solutions, in reasonable times and not too sensitive to changes in parameters) of the algorithm may be compromised The latter can be handled by different adaptive or self-adaptive mechanisms to shorten the tedious trial-and-error procedure for fine tuning control parameters. A novel control parameter range adaptation mechanism is proposed to enable a highly efficient adaptive tuning of control parameters These novel properties effectively support ARCoDE to conquer the difficulties introduced by the limited numbers of function evaluations due to the critical time requirements in many practical applications including ORPD problem.
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