A conic programming approach to optimal transmission switching considering reactive power and voltage security

Optimal transmission switching (OTS) exploits the flexibility in grid topology to reduce the system dispatch cost. However, DC-power-flow-based OTS solution cannot guarantee a feasible AC dispatch, which is one of the challenges in practical implementation. To bridge the gap between the theoretical basis and practical implementation of OTS, this paper proposes a conic programming approach to the OTS problem. A mixed integer second order cone programming model is formulated to allow for incorporating reactive power and voltage security constraints, which significantly improves the AC feasibility of the OTS solution. The efficacy of the proposed model is illustrated in the IEEE 57-bus system.