A NEW APPROACH FOR OPTIMAL VAR SOURCES PLANNING IN LARGE-SCALE ELECTRIC-POWER SYSTEMS

This paper presents a new approach for contingency-constrained optimal reactive volt amper (VAR) sources planning in large-scale power systems. Features distinguishing the proposed approach from many of the existing methods include that it allows a more realistic problem formulation, and that it can find the (global) optimal solution. The new problem formulation takes into consideration practical aspects of VAR sources; the load constraints and operational constraints at different load levels. This solution methodology based on simulated annealing determines (1) the location to install VAR sources; (2) the types and sizes of VAR sources to be installed; and (3) the settings of VAR sources at different loading conditions. In order to speed up the solution algorithm, this paper makes a slight modification of the fast decoupled load flow and incorporates it into the solution algorithm. This method is suitable for large-scale power systems and has been tested on several power systems with promising results. Simulation results on the IEEE 30 buses system and the Tai-power 358 buses system are presented.