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A COMPARATIVE METHOD OF OPTIMAL POWER FLOW FOR IEEE-30 BUS

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Article  in  International Journal of Applied Engineering Research · February 2015

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

A COMPARATIVE METHOD OF OPTIMAL

POWER FLOW FOR IEEE-30 BUS SYSTEM
Veerapandiyan V1, Mary D 2, Kanimozhi S3

1 P.G Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Anna University
Coimbatore- 641013, Tamilnadu, India, Mobile: +918754092650.
2 Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Anna University
Coimbatore- 641013, Tamilnadu, India.
3 P.G Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Anna University,
Coimbatore-641013, Tamilnadu, India.

1 E-mail: veerapandian220@gmail.com
2 E-mail: drmary@gct.ac.in
3 E-mail: kani13392@gmail.com

Abstract- economic information to optimize the power flow

Optimal Power Flow (OPF) in a power system
is an optimal method of reducing the cost of
generation by properly scheduling and updating the
generation. The optimum condition can be attained
by adjusting the available controls (Generator
Dispatch) to minimize the objective function subject
to operational constraints. In this paper a
comparison is made by Newton, GA, PSO and IPM
based Optimal Power Flow method using MATLAB
software. The IEEE-30 bus system is used as a test
system.
solution and to meet the power system demand with
minimum fuel cost. The OPF utilizes all control
variables to minimize the cost of generation. This is
done by minimizing the objective function while
maintaining an acceptable system performance in terms
of generating capability limits and the output of the
compensating devices. In this paper an optimal power
flow method using Newton, Genetic Algorithm,
Particle Swarm Optimization and Interior Point Method
are compared and the results are validated using
MATLAB Software.

Keywords: Interior Point Method (IPM), Optimal 2. OPTIMAL POWER FLOW

Power Flow (OPF), Genetic Algorithm (GA),
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Newton OPF aims to minimize the single or a multi
Method. objective function, thereby reducing the cost of
generation and to utilize the power system assets in an
efficient manner. There are various OPF solution
1. INTRODUCTION methodologies they are:

In a practical power system, the generating A. Conventional Methods

stations are located far away from the load center and
their fuel costs are also different. During normal 1. Gradient Methods
operating condition of the system the generation
a) Generalized Reduced
capacity is more than total demand and losses. Thus,
b) Reduced Gradient
there are many different options for scheduling
c) Conjugate Gradient
generation. The main objective of this paper is to
optimize the real and reactive power scheduling of each
2. Hessian - based
power plant in such a way to reduce the operating cost.
3. Newton – based
This allows the generator’s active and reactive power
to vary freely within the limits so as to optimize the 4. Linear Programming
cost of the power system operation. It also gives the 5. Interior Point

B. Intelligent Method

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

1. Artificial Neural Networks

2. Fuzzy Logic 𝑃𝑖 = 𝑃𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 + 𝑃𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠
3. Evolutionary Programming Qi = QLoad + QLoss
4. Ant Colony
4.2 Inequality Constraints
5. Particle Swarm Optimization
Pgi min ≤ Pgi ≤ Pgi max
These methods are used to calculate power flow
𝑄𝑔𝑖 𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≤ 𝑄𝑔𝑖 ≤ 𝑄𝑔𝑖 𝑚𝑎𝑥
problems such as Gauss Seidal Method, Newton Raphson
Method, Fast De-Coupled Method, Linear Programming The objective function can be minimized only when the
Method, Non-Linear Programming Method, Quadratic
power system is running under normal condition while the
Programming Method, Interior Point Method etc. All these
methods have its own disadvantage. network components are operating within limits.
In this paper optimal power flow using Newton 5. NEWTON OPF METHOD:
Method, GA and PSO based Newton Method and Interior
Point Method are discussed. Among these methods the later
one converges quickly than the other three methods and this
method has advantages of

 Ease of handling inequality constraints by

logarithmic barrier functions

 Speed of convergence and

 The Initialization is not required [6].

3. OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

The Objective function commonly used are

(a) Fuel or active power cost optimization
(b) Active power loss minimization
In this paper the fuel cost and losses are considered as the
objective function they are
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝐹𝑖 = (𝑐𝑖 + 𝑏𝑖 𝑃𝑔𝑖 +𝑎𝑖 𝑃𝑔𝑖 2 )
Where Pgi is the amount of generations in MW at generator
i. ai, bi, ci are the cost coefficients.

4. POWER FLOW EQUATION Figure 1: Newton Method of OPF

The net injected power at each bus and exchanged through

In Power system the power flow equation is solved
the lines connected to this bus is given by by a well known method called Newton method. It is a
flexible method that can be adopted to develop different
𝑁 OPF algorithms suited to the requirements of different
𝑃𝑖 = 𝑉𝑖 𝑗 =1 |𝑉𝑗 | |𝑌𝑖𝑗 | cos(𝛿𝑖 − 𝛿𝑗 − 𝜃𝑖 )
𝑄𝑖 = 𝑉𝑖 𝑁 applications. The Newton approach would not be possible to
𝑗 =1 |𝑉𝑗 | |𝑌𝑖𝑗 | sin(𝛿𝑖 − 𝛿𝑗 − 𝜃𝑖 )
develop practical OPF programs because the admittance
4.1 Equality Constraints matrix is highly sparse. So a special technique is needed to

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

solve the practical problem. Apart from this drawback, the cost and losses of the system. The scheduling can be
Newton’s method has an advantage of rapid convergence improved by increasing the velocity of the bird. This
and the system voltages are maintained near the rated value. method changes the velocity of each particle at each time
Figure 1 shows the Newton method of solving OPF. step towards its pBest and gBest. Initially the particle is
initialized randomly and later due to updating of particle,
6. GA OPF METHOD: the generation dispatch is varied and an optimum value is
In GA based Optimal Power Flow, Genetic reached. It is the fastest method compared to GA; the
Algorithm is used as a search technique for optimization of problem formulation is shown in figure 3.
power flow in different lines of the power system. In this
the chromosome is initialized randomly (i.e) nothing but the
generation and the fitness function is evaluated to find the
best generation to reduce the cost of the system. Then the
chromosomes, which are generated should satisfy the
constraint and then the load flow analysis is carried out
using Newton Raphson method. The iteration retains until
the generation cost of generator reduces. Genetic Algorithm
is accomplished using three primary operations: Parent
reproduction, crossover and mutation [3]. The details of
important operations during the solution of GA based
Optimal Power Flow are as follows:

Figure 3. PSO OPF Method

8. IPM OPF METHOD:

Figure 2. GA OPF Method Interior Point Method is an optimization method, to
optimize the quadratic type of objective function in an
7. PSO OPF METHOD: easier manner and it does not require any initial point. The
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is an inequality constraints are handled easily. The primal-dual
evolutionary algorithm that may be used to find optimal (or method of IPM is used to solve OPF problem. However, we
near optimal) solutions to numerical problems. Particle consider the voltage in rectangular coordinates to solve the
Swarm Optimization was originally developed using the problem and the problem formulation is discussed as shown
flocking behavior of birds [1]. In simulations, birds would in figure 4.
begin by flying around with no particular destination and
spontaneously formed flocks until one of the birds flew over
the roosting area. Due to the simple rules the birds used to
set their directions and velocities, a bird pulling away from
the flock in order to land at the roost would result in nearby
birds moving towards the roost. This helps in scheduling the
generator similar to that of birds, the velocity determines the
optimal scheduling of each generator and thereby reducing

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

10. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

10.1 Comparative Results

Table 1: Cost and Loss Variation

System NR GA PSO IPM

Parameter

TC($/h) 944 918.236 801.84 891.67

Loss(MW) 9.9093 9.0 7.79 6.89

The Table 1 shows that the total cost of generation

Figure 4. IPM OPF method
9. TEST SYSTEM:
The IEEE 30 Bus Test Case shown in figure
5, represents a portion of the American Electric Power
System (in the Midwestern US) as of December, 1961.
Basically, it has 30 bus out of which 6 buses are generator
bus and 3 synchronous condensers. The maximum and
minimum voltage at each bus should be within the limit of
0.95≤ V≤1.06.
and real power loss of an IEEE 30 bus system by various
method of Optimal Power Flow. The GA method reduces
the cost and losses of the system by properly scheduling the
generator than Newton method. The PSO, which schedule
the generation based on number of particles, also reduces
the generation and cost to very reasonable value than GA.
The interior point method is a conventional method which is
the most efficient method in terms of loss reduction and cost
of generation is also optimized.
10.2 Losses and Voltage Variation

12
Real Power Losses (MW)

10

4 Losses(MW)
2

0
NR GA PSO IPM
Methods

Figure 6: Real Power loss

Figure 5. One line diagram of IEEE 30 bus system

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

Voltage
1.15
1.1
Voltage (p.u)

1.05 Nominal Voltage

1 NR Method
0.95
0.9 GA
0.85 PSO
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 IPM
No. of buses

Figure 7: Voltage variation at each bus for IEEE-30 bus system

Figure 6 shows the variation losses by various Method (IPM). The voltage variation at each bus is shown
optimal algorithms, the plot shows that the total real power in figure 7 in various optimal power flow method.
loss are very much reduced by ACOPF using Interior Point

10. 3 Generations dispatch variation

Real Power Generation

200

150
P (MW)

Newton
100
PSO
50
GA
0
IPM
PG1 PG2 PG13 PG22 PG23 PG27
Various Generator

Figure 8: Generation Dispatch Results

Figure 8 shows the variation of real power generation

dispatch for each case of OPF. Here the dispatch is
varied in order to optimize the objective function of optimal
power flow.
11. CONCLUSION
This thesis work significantly compared the
various optimal power flow algorithm such as Newton
Method, Genetic Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization
and Interior Point Method. Among these methods the
generation cost and transmission losses of an IEEE-30 bus
system are reasonably reduced by Interior Point Method
OPF than the intelligence method. Since, the intelligence
method uses the Newton method for load flow analysis the
cost, losses are not much reduced and the convergence also
slower. Therefore the intelligence method with an interior

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.76 (2015)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

point method of load will further enhance the convergences

speed and other characteristics as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Comparison Results for OPF

[

Method Convergence Description

Domain
The fastest and most efficient deterministic
algorithms.
IPM Local Many researches to select parameters and
assure convergence.

It has quadratic convergence, but require

penalty terms.
Newton Local Used asa local solver in any other method.

It minimizes the objective function, but the

Intelligence Local losses are not much reduced. Since Newton
(GA, PSO) Method is used for load flow convergence
is slow.

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