Optimal Power Flow for Load Margin Improvement using Evolutionary Programming

Optimal power flow (OPF) has been profoundly identified as one of the main issues in power system operation and planning. Solving the OPF problem is the fundamental aspect in the determination of electricity prices and congestion management. It involves a large dimension nonlinear, non-convex and highly constrained optimization problem which requires a reliable technique in order to provide global optimal solution. This paper presents the application of evolutionary programming (EP) technique in OPF for load margin enhancement with consideration of operational cost and loss reduction. In realizing the effectiveness of the proposed technique, validation was conducted on the IEEE-26 reliability test system. The results obtained from the pre-optimization and post-optimization are compared. The results revealed that the proposed OPF using EP has successfully improved the load margin taking the pre-optimization results as reference.