Optimal Automatic Generation Control of an Interconnected Power System Under Network Constraints

This paper proposes a methodology to optimize the automatic generation control (AGC) of a multi-area power system, interconnected by means of tie-lines, either in a ring or a radial topology. The optimization formulation aims to minimize the real-time operational cost of the power system while maintaining the tie-line flow thermal limits. A distributed dynamic AGC law based on optimization is derived, which utilizes generation and disturbances in all the interconnected areas by optimally sharing power among the areas in real time. Substantial cost savings can be made by our method especially under the uncertain and high-load variability conditions, caused by high penetration of renewable energy sources or distributed generation into the electricity grid. Numerical example studies are presented to show the effectiveness of our approach.