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Exact Convex R elaxation for Optimal Power Flow in Distribution Networks. Lingwen Gan 1 , Na Li 1 , Ufuk Topcu 2 , Steven Low 1 1 California Institute of Technology 2 University of Pennsylvania. Optimal power flow in distribution networks.
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Exact Convex Relaxation for Optimal Power Flow in Distribution Networks Lingwen Gan1, Na Li1, Ufuk Topcu2, Steven Low1 1California Institute of Technology 2University of Pennsylvania
Optimal power flow indistribution networks • Optimal power flow (OPF) has been studied in transmission networks for over 50 years • DC (linear) approximation • Voltage close to nominal value • small power loss • small voltage angle • Volt/VAR control, demand response problems motivate OPF in distribution (tree) networks • Have to solve nonlinear, nonconvexpower flow No longer true in distribution networks
How to solve nonconvex power flow? • (Heuristic) nonconvex programming. • Hard to guarantee optimality. • Convexify the problem. • Relax the feasible set A to its convex hull. • If solution is in A, then done. • In general, don’t know when relaxation is exact. A Def: If every solution lies in A, then call the relaxation exact.
Outline • Formulate OPF. • Convex relaxation is in general not exact. • Propose a modified OPF. • Modified OPF has an exact convex relaxation.
An OPF example • Volt/VAR control • Potential controllable elements • Inverters of PV panels • Controllable loads (shunt capacitors, EVs)
Mathematical formulation For simplicity, let’s look at one-line networks. Bus 0 Bus 1 Bus n
Mathematical formulation Bus 0 Bus 1 Bus n f is strictly increasing in power loss Nonconvex
Convex relaxation OPF SOCP A Q: does every solution to SOCP lie in A?
Is SOCP exact? In general, no. 1 unit power generation, p injected into the grid, 1-p gets curtailed.
What do we do when non-exact? Modify OPF in order to obtain an exact convex relaxation. A A’ B’ • We want • the grey area to be small; • the relaxation to be exact after modification.
The modification OPF OPF-m What is vilin(p,q)?
What is vilin(p,q)? A’ • An affine function of p and q. • is a linear constraint on p and q. • An upper bound on vi. • Smaller feasible set than OPF.
Grey area is empirically small and “bad” is a good approximation of v Grey area is small. Grey area is “bad”. A’ w
Convex relaxation OPF-m SOCP-m A’ Q: Does every solution to SOCP-m lie in A’?
Exactness of SOCP-m Thm: If condition (*) holds, then the SOCP-m relaxation is exact; the SOCP-m has a unique solution. • Condition (*) • can be checked prior to solving SOCP-m; • holds for all test networks (see later); • imposes “small” distributed generation.
Condition (*) • Depend only on parameters , not solutions of OPF-m or SOCP-m. • Impose small distributed generation.
How to check (*)? much stricter than (*)!
(*) holds with significant margin IEEE network: no distributed generation. Worst case: maximizes . No load, all capacitors are switched on.
(*) holds with significant margin SCE network: 5 PVs with 6.4MW nameplate generation capacity (11.3MW peak load). Worst case: maximizes . No load, all PVs are generating at full capacity, all capacitors are switched on.
Summary • The SOCP relaxation for OPF is in general not exact • Propose OPF-m • The convex relaxation SOCP-m is exact if (*) holds • (*) widely holds in test networks Thank you!