A Novel Methodology on Optimal Reactive Power Compensation

A Novel Methodology on Optimal Reactive Power Compensation Considering Switching Counts of Discrete Reactive Power Compensators

This article proposes a methodology on optimal reactive power compensation considering the limited allowable switching counts of discrete reactive power compensators in substations represented by power capacitors and reactors. The reactive power vacancy is the reactive power through the outgoing side in the main transformer, while the control variables are the switching states of the compensators at each moment. An initial optimal reactive power compensation schedule is then obtained to minimize the average residual reactive power without considering the constrained switching counts of the discrete reactive power compensators. After calculating the switching counts of the compensators and the state counts of the reactive power compensation schedule, the methodology merges into the adjacent reactive power compensation state the state that shows the smallest reactive energy difference with the adjacent state when the total switching counts of a certain compensator in the initial schedule outnumbers its maximum allowable switching counts. Given the total capacity and capacity ratios of the discrete reactive power compensators, the methodology can finally obtain the optimal reactive power compensation schedule satisfying the constrained switching counts of each compensator through the iterative mergers of the reactive power compensation states. By employing the gray wolf equilibrium optimizer (GWEO), the total capacity and capacity ratios of the discrete reactive power compensators are finally obtained, realizing a dual optimization for reactive power compensator configuration and compensator switching state control.