AC-Based Topology Control Algorithms (TCA) -- A PJM Historical Data Case Study

Transmission topology control (line switching) is currently practiced with manual and ad-hoc based actions by ISO control room personnel who rely on a combination of past experience and a fixed data set of line openings linked to various congestion patterns. Our previous work used sensitivity information from the solution of a DC economic dispatch problem to develop topology control algorithms that significantly improve the operators ability to select promising lines to open/close. In control rooms, however, algorithms must rely on AC-based power flow tools to ensure feasibility in the physical network. Considering the computational time constraints that must be met in an operational setting, iterating between DC-based topology control algorithms and AC power flow validation of proposed topology control actions may become intractable in large systems. In this paper we present real system size computational results relying directly on AC-based topology control algorithms that we have developed. In particular, we discuss a case study on three historical weeks of PJM system data where AC-based topology control solutions are presented and compared to the corresponding DC-based solutions.