Reactive and Real Power Control for Computationally Effective Voltage and Thermal Management

This paper introduces a new efficient way of controlling or "managing" the active and reactive resources of the system on line in such a way as to maintain viable voltage and current "profiles", that is to keep all voltages within normal limits and all currents within their thermal limits. The disruption to system operation is minimized by using tools of control in priority order. The computational burden is minimized by restricting the computations to moderate size clusters within the large system. The clusters consist of sets of violations and control tools which are effective on these violations along with such nonviolated elements which are responsive to the controls within the cluster. A novel, simple and effective method for finding the clusters is introduced. Because of the limited size of the clusters the computation of the controls is inherently fast but in addition a fast and efficient algorithm is introduced. This overall approach can be operated as an "emergency control" or an ongoing dispatch. In the latter case it will routinely handle any emergencies of the type consisting of more or less widespread voltage and current problems within segments of the system. On the other end of the spectrum these techniques can be used effectively in establishing a restoration sequence or plan for a failed system (with or without blackout).