Robust Optimal Power Flow Solution Using Trust Region and Interior-Point Methods

A globally convergent optimization algorithm for solving large nonlinear optimal power flow (OPF) problems is presented. As power systems become heavily loaded, there is an increasing need for globally convergent OPF algorithms. By global convergence, one means the optimization algorithm being able to converge to an OPF solution, if at least one exists, for any choice of initial point. The globally convergent OPF presented is based on an infinity-norm trust region approach, using interior-point methods to solve the trust region subproblems. The performance of the proposed trust region interior-point OPF algorithm, when applied to the IEEE 30-, 57-, 118-, and 300-bus systems, and to an actual 1211-bus system, is compared with that of two widely used nonlinear interior-point methods, namely, a pure primal-dual and its predictor-corrector variant.