State-of-the-Art of Optimal Active and Reactive Power Flow: A Comprehensive Review from Various Standpoints

Mahdi Pourakbari-Kasmaei,Mousa Marzband,Ehsan Naderi,Hossein Narimani,Fernando V. Cerna,Matti Lehtonen

doi:10.3390/pr9081319

Abstract

Optimal power flow (OPF), a mathematical programming problem extending power flow relationships, is one of the essential tools in the operation and control of power grids. To name but a few, the primary goals of OPF are to meet system demand at minimum production cost, minimum emission, and minimum voltage deviation. Being at the heart of power system problems for half a century, the OPF can be split into two significant categories, namely optimal active power flow (OAPF) and optimal reactive power flow (ORPF). The OPF is spontaneously a complicated non-linear and non-convex problem; however, it becomes more complex by considering different constraints and restrictions having to do with real power grids. Furthermore, power system operators in the modern-day power networks implement new limitations to the problem. Consequently, the OPF problem becomes more and more complex which can exacerbate the situation from mathematical and computational standpoints. Thus, it is crucially important to decipher the most appropriate methods to solve different types of OPF problems. Although a copious number of mathematical-based methods have been employed to handle the problem over the years, there exist some counterpoints, which prevent them from being a universal solver for different versions of the OPF problem. To address such issues, innovative alternatives, namely heuristic algorithms, have been introduced by many researchers. Inasmuch as these state-of-the-art algorithms show a significant degree of convenience in dealing with a variety of optimization problems irrespective of their complexities, they have been under the spotlight for more than a decade. This paper provides an extensive review of the latest applications of heuristic-based optimization algorithms so as to solve different versions of the OPF problem. In addition, a comprehensive review of the available methods from various dimensions is presented. Reviewing about 200 works is the most significant characteristic of this paper that adds significant value to its exhaustiveness.

Highlights

Optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD), another type of the optimal power flow (OPF) problem, is an inevitable and crucially important problem to ensure the secure operation of power networks due to the fact that controlling the voltage profile is highly related to regulating reactive power flow, which is the cornerstone of optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) study
It is inferable that the hybrid optimization algorithms are trending, which can be due to the following reasons: (1) they can be implemented to solve a variety of optimization problems, (2) they have a combination of the strong points associated with at least two separate optimization algorithms, and (3) they can significantly reduce the computational complexity of the OPF problem
The developed hybrid algorithm in [10] resulted in zero standard deviation, meaning that the algorithm converged to the same optimal solution even after 30 independent trials, which is a stupendous achievement in the field of heuristic algorithms

Summary

Introduction

The OPF problem can fully represent and handle the network equations and nodal power balance It maintains acceptable boundaries on bus voltage, power flow of branches, and the output power of generators. As an illustration of this, in the past few years, the US environmental protection agency coerced the generation power factories to serve the demand at minimum cost and with the minimum amount of contaminations In this regard, to address the aforementioned issues, the OPF problem has to be considered as a Multi-Objective Optimization Problem (MOOP) capable of satisfying all expectations at the same time. To address the aforementioned issues, the OPF problem has to be considered as a Multi-Objective Optimization Problem (MOOP) capable of satisfying all expectations at the same time To this end, all of the other important and well-known objective functions in this avenue of research are classified and scrutinized in detail in this paper. Optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD), another type of the OPF problem, is an inevitable and crucially important problem to ensure the secure operation of power networks due to the fact that controlling the voltage profile is highly related to regulating reactive power flow, which is the cornerstone of ORPD study

Methods

Results

Conclusion