Resistive Network Optimal Power Flow: Uniqueness and Algorithms

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015 · IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2014.2329324· OSTI ID:1211452

Tan, CW; Cai, DWH; Lou, X

The optimal power flow (OPF) problem minimizes the power loss in an electrical network by optimizing the voltage and power delivered at the network buses, and is a nonconvex problem that is generally hard to solve. By leveraging a recent development on the zero duality gap of OPF, we propose a second-order cone programming convex relaxation of the resistive network OPF, and study the uniqueness of the optimal solution using differential topology, especially the Poincare-Hopf Index Theorem. We characterize the global uniqueness for different network topologies, e.g., line, radial, and mesh networks. This serves as a starting point to design distributed local algorithms with global behaviors that have low complexity, are computationally fast, and can run under synchronous and asynchronous settings in practical power grids.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AR0000226
• OSTI ID: 1211452
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 30, Issue 1; ISSN 0885-8950
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English