Power system optimization using parallel scenario algorithm

Systematic consideration of various scenarios of operational planning, development and power system control is becoming a necessity and the only way to involve and compare different technologies that are now present in power engineering. Comparison of all the relevant characteristics of the considered technology is of great significance for power system designers or operators. However, the differences between characteristics and dimensions of variables in optimization procedure models lead to the fact that classical algorithms become computationally inefficient and more difficult to implement. In this paper a procedure that is based on a heuristic optimization method and Pareto optimality is proposed. The procedure enables comparison of all considered scenarios in the entire space of control variables, while their parallel processing ensures timely elimination of scenarios that do not provide a better solution for any criteria than the other scenarios. The proposed procedure is illustrated on the example of selecting type, size and location of FACTS devices in the IEEE 57 bus test system. The optimization results, with different number of objective functions, illustrate the effectiveness of the procedure and point out the possibility of application in solving optimization problems of realistic power systems.