Optimal Power Flow Solution of the Algerian Electrical Network using Differential Evolution Algorithm

Abstract

This paper presents solution of optimal power flow (OPF) problem of a power system via differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The purpose of an electric power system is to deliver real power to the greatest number of users at the lowest possible cost all the time. So the objective is to minimize the total fuel cost of the generating units and also maintaining an acceptable system performance in terms of limits on generator reactive power outputs, bus voltages, static VAR compensator (SVC) parameters and overload in transmission lines. CPU times can be reduced by decomposing the problem in two subproblems, the first subproblem minimize the fuel cost of generation and the second subproblem is a reactive power dispatch so optimum bus voltages can be determined and reduce the losses by controlling tap changes of the transformers and the static VAR compensators (SVC). To verify the proposed approach and for comparison purposes, we perform simulations on the Algerian network with 114 buses, 175 branches (lines and transformers) and 15 generators. The obtained results indicate that DE is an easy to use, fast, robust and powerful optimization technique compared to the other global optimization methods such as PSO and GA.