Parallel Optimal Reactive Power Flow Based on Cooperative Co-Evolutionary Differential Evolution and Power System Decomposition

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power systems Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 249 - 257
• Main Authors: Liang, C.H., Chung, C.Y., Wong, K.P., Duan, X.Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-02-2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Cobalt; Computer architecture; Convergence; Cooperative co-evolution; Decomposition; differential evolution (DE); Evolution; Evolutionary computation; optimal reactive power flow (ORPF); Optimization; Optimization methods; parallel computing; Parallel processing; power system decomposition; Power system modeling; Power systems; Reactive power; Topology; Voltage
• ISSN: 0885-8950; 1558-0679
• DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2006.887889

Differential evolution (DE) is a promising evolutionary algorithm for solving optimal reactive power flow problems, but it requires relatively large population to avoid premature convergence. In order to overcome this disadvantage, a novel decomposition and coordination method based on the cooperative co-evolutionary architecture and the voltage-var sensitivity-based power system decomposition technique is proposed and incorporated with DE in this paper. It is implemented with a three-level parallel computing topology on a PC-cluster. Based on the IEEE 118-bus system test case, the effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified by comparison with the parallel basic DE not using the decomposition and coordination technique