A particle swarm optimization for reactive power and voltage control considering voltage security assessment

This paper presents a particle swarm optimization (PSO) for reactive power and voltage control (volt/VAr control: VVC) considering voltage security assessment (VSA). VVC can be formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem (MINLP). The proposed method expands the original PSO to handle a MINLP and determines an online VVC strategy with continuous and discrete control variables such as automatic voltage regulator (AVR) operating values of generators, tap positions of on-load tap changer (OLTC) of transformers, and the number of reactive power compensation equipment. The method considers voltage security using a continuation power flow and a contingency analysis technique. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated and compared with reactive tabu search (RTS) and the enumeration method on practical power system models with promising results.