A hybrid tool to assist the operator in reactive power/voltage control and optimization

This paper presents an integral tool to assist the operator in reactive power dispatching for voltage profile improvement and power loss minimization. Advantage is taken of both numerical (conventional) and heuristic (knowledge-based) methods in order to find a practical number of control variables (smooth and/or discrete) which can be effectively used to solve voltage violations or to reduce power losses. Efficiency is measured according to sensitivity of voltages (or power losses) to control variables, current voltage profile and reserve margins. Implementation details of the system, integrated in a control center, as well as some practical results are also presented and discussed.>