1994 Iba
1994 Iba
1994 Iba
Kenji Iba
Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Kobe, Japan
Abstract: This paper presents a new approach t o The second problem is the integer problem. Most
optimal reactive power planning based on a genetic control variables ( transformer tap positions, switchable
algorithm. Many outstanding methods to this problem shunt capacitorlreactor banks) should have integer
have been proposed in the past. However, most these values. No matter how precise a continuous solution
approaches have the common defect of being caught to a may be, it is impossible to assign these values directly
local minimum solution. The integer problem which to control valuables. Since modern high voltage
yields integer value solutions for discrete controllers1 systems have high capacity bank units such as 80-
banks still remain as a difficult one. The genetic l2OMVA in their capacitorlreactor banks, simple
algorithm is a kind of search algorithm based on the round-off calculations could lead to significant errors.
mechanics of natural selection and genetics. This Although a mixed integer programming (MIP) is
algorithm can search for a global solution using prepared for this purpose, the process is more
multiple path and treat integer problem naturally. The complicated than conventional continuous approaches.
proposed method was applied t o practical 51-bus and
224-bus systems to show its feasibility and capabilities. Artificial intelligence(A1) technologies, partic-
Although this method is not as fast as sophisticated ularly expert systems are utilized for this OPF
traditional methods, the concept is quite promising and problern[6l7[71. This approach consists of "If-then'' based
useful in the coming computer age. production rules. Conflicting rules and/or rules which
generate endless loops should not be included. If more
Pevwords : Genetic Algorithm, Optimal Power Flow, than two rules are applicable, proper priorities should
Global Minima, Reactive Power Allocation, Integer be selected (conflict resolution). The construction. of
Problem, Expert system such strict rules (meta-rules), however, require
extensive help from skilled knowledge engineers.
1. Introduction Genetic algorithms (GAS) are optimizing methods
based on the mechanics of natural selection and
The optimal power flow problem (OPF) has been a geneticstsl. GAS have already been applied to some
traditional problem in power system controllplanning. power system problems [91-[121. Although GAS are
Extensive studies have been carried out. Nonlinear capable of yielding global minima, they have required
prograaming (NLP) approaches have been presented tremendous computing time.
[11,[21. Successive linear programming (LP) has been
proposed by the present authod31. The Newton approach A new attempt to apply GAS t o reactive power
and the quadratic approach had been successfully planning is presented in this paper. Although the basic
applied [41,[51. Most of these approaches can be idea is based on GAS, the method is quite different from
categorized as constrained optimization techniques. conventional GAS' approach. The principal features
Expert systems based on AI technology have also been and keywords of the method are listed below:
addressed to this problemt61.
Searches multiple paths to reach a global optimal
Although these techniques have been successfully Uses various objective functions simultaneously
implemented in existing power systems, difficulties Treats integeddiscrete variables naturally
remain. The first problem is that it is easy to be caught Uses unique two intentional genetic operations;
by a local minimum solution. Since OPF is not a mathe-
matically convex problem, most techniques might
- Interbreeding: Crossover using network topology
- Manipulation: AI based stochastic "if-then" rules
converge to a local minimum instead of a unique global
minimum. If the starting point (initial condition) is
located near the global optimal point, the solution
obtained may be true. There is, however, no guarantee 2. ConceDts of Proposed Method
of this. Mathematical proof to be the global optimal 2.1 Multide Path Search
may not be indispensable in practical applications if the
obtained solutions are quasi-optimal. The solutions, Most previous approaches, such as LP, NLP and
however, are sometimes infeasible if tight margins Newton approaches, are single path search algorithms.
(constraints) for state variables are applied. Same Starting from an initial condition, they improve the
difficulties can be observed in optimization by neural state variables in every iteration. There is a single path
network using the Hopfield model. from the initial condition through a converged solution.
For example, in the maximizing problem sketched in
Fig.1, the converged goal might be a local maximum
point (i.e., top of lower hills); as well, there is no way t o
judge whether or not it is the global optimal. If such
methods are caught or arrested by local maxima, there
This paper was presented at the 1993 IEEE Power Industry is no way to escape, except applying random noise. The
Computer Application Conference held in Scottsdale, Arizona, same thing occurs in modern artificial neural networks
May 4 - 7, 1993. such as the Hopfield model.
0885-8950/94/$04.00 0 1993 IEEE
686
Starting from various initial conditions, the tradi- where :A implies step size or b a d u n i t capacity in pu
tional approach seems t o trace multiple paths. Each
path, however, will not interchange information with It should be noted that the larger the A*,step size,
other paths. The multiple path search is completely the smaller the possible integer number a t each
different from the repetition of a single path search. controller. The state space i.e., total number of
Finding the global optimal will be essential in long combinations can be reduced for large step sizes. This
range planning for power systems where the systems' is one of excellent feature of GA based techniques.
configuration is significantly changed.
2.4 Genetic ODerationg
2.2
. .
Various Obiectwe Functions A text bookM gives following GA features;
.............................
There are many aims in reactive power planning,
such as, loss andlor invest cost minimization. Some GA is a blind search using stochastic operations, not
constraints might be treated as penalty functions. In deterministic rules. No information or knowledge
many applications, a weighted summation of various concerning to objects is required. Operators are simple
objective functions is used to evaluate total performance itself, involving nothing more complex than random
as shown in Equation(1). This becomes a quite number generation (mutation), string copying (repro-
duction) and partial string exchanging (crossover).
complicated function which may have steep cliffs or .............................
walls in state-space. This fact makes it more difficult to These features are powerful in some applications
find a global optimal solution in linear-sensitivity based
such as information processing. The proposed method,
approaches. however, violates these criteria. Instead of applying
flx) = C wi gi(x) -->minimize ---- (1) mutation (random noise), simple AI-based rules are
applied to improve solutions. This operation might be
where gi(x) : objective function of i-th objective called "manipulation". In addition to applying random
string exchanging (crossover), topolo@al information
wi : weight of i-th objective
687
and various objective functions are utilized for string 3. Detail of ProDosed ADD roach
exchanging. This operation might be called “inter-
breeding“. These intentional operations, which may 3.1 Remesentab’on of Control Variables
not be GAS in the strict sense, dramatically accelerate The details of the proposed approach are described
the convergent speed. This approach, however, fails to in this chapter. Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of this
find the global optimal point if these operations are approach. Discrete control variables are represented as
applied deterministically. a chromosome or string X in Equation(2). If an X is
specified, a unique power flow solution can be obtained
2AI-based”if-then”f using traditional power flow calculations ( in which
The difficulties in constructing production-rules multiple power flow solutions[l3] are ignored). The
has been described previously. However, there are combination of strings, i.e, the size of the state-space, is
many simple rules which may not be strict but may be defined in Equation(6), where Xmin and Xmax denote
valid in many cases. The proposed approach applies the upper and lower limits in integer values.
such if-then rules stochastically. The priority or validity
of these rules can be taken into account by introducing a r”r (xy““- x p
i=l
+ 1) ---_---- (6)
kind of probabilitc factor. Equations (4) and ( 5 ) show the 3.2 DecomDositiodClassification into Subsvstem8
relationships.
A network is decomposed into subsystems using
AI( expert system): regiodarea information. Considering network topology
If (condition)i then (action)i ---- (4) and connections, one can divide a system manually.
Proposed approach Every controller and state variable are categorized and
Generate uniform random value ‘rnd ( 0 < rnd < 1) labeled in each subsystem. Various objective functions
If ( rnd < (thresholdh and (condition)i ) then (action)i are calculated independently in each subsystems. The
----- (5) purpose of these classification and evaluation is to get
8 some information for effective gene operations. The
power flow (PF) calculation is applied to entire systems
Considering regiodarea information, we can ( not to each subsystems 1.
decompose or classify a large power system into some
subsystems. We do not have to apply a mathematical 3.3 Creation of First Generation
strict approach for this division, rough and manual
approach is s a c i e n t . Suppose a system is decomposed The first generation of chromosomes is created
into four subsystems ( area-A,B,C and D) as illustrated using uniform random variables, as shown in Equation
in Fig.3, each subsystems are partially evaluated with (7).Generated chromosomes which do not converge to a
an objective function. Fig. 4 shows an example of such solution during PF calculations are eliminated from the
evaluations for three individuals or members in a list. It is difficult to create a first generation for large
generation. The present proposed approach applies a systems, since chromosomes generated by Equation(7)
genetic operation: partial string exchanging (crossover) seldom converge to a solution. Another scheme should
using this information. Selecting one of excellent be applied to large systems. If some initial conditions
subsystems, this approach constructs a new system as are located near the optimal point, it is a good idea to
shown in Fig.3. This selection should be done according add these conditions to the first generation, though this
to the “roulette rule“, a stochastic selection technique, may lessen the capability of finding the global optimal
so as to maintain the flexibility and global sense. The point. Although creation of the first generation seems
idea of this operation is similar to agricultural plant- to be a trivial process, this is in fact one of the most
breeding, however, is not a conventional GA technique. important aspects.
Xi = INT (RND . ( X Y -~ XP + I)) + XP ---- (7)
where:
RND : Generate uniform random value 0 < RND < 1
INT(*) : Return the next lowest whole number of *
.
ReadPFData
I_.- ...-..-....... .r-.:.~.1 --::.:.~:
.......................................
I....-----.....----- .............................
i Represent Discrete Control Variables
! and Create Chromosome Template
of objective
unction
Fig.7 Roulette Used in Stochastic Selection
-4:
.
-6 I
-8 I I
0 40 80 I60
Controllers 120
Fig. 14 Difference Between Two Solutions in 224-Bus System (Case-C minus Case-A)
69 1
10000 5. Conclusions
This paper presents a new approach t o the
1000 reactive power allocation planning. The GA-based
method utilizes unique intentional operations. The first
is "interbreeding" which is a kind of crossover using
decomposed subsystems. This idea is a little similar to
agricultural plant-breeding, since it assembles a whole
system using good parts with various features.
The second is "gene-recombination'' or "manip-
ulation" which improves power system profiles using
AI-based stochastic "If-then'' rules. Rough rules can be
A B C D applied stochastically to many chromosomes. This idea
comes from recent biochemicallgenetic engineering.
. , I . I . I . I .
0 40 60 20 80 This approach is successfully applied to practical
iterations 51-bus and 224-bus systems. Multiple search can find
Fig. 13. Convergent Characteristics (224-Bus System) out many quasi-optimal solutions in discrete control
values. Although there is no mathematical proof or
guarantee that the solution is global, it is most likely to
......I ........:.................
" ~
: ...................:.. ~
: . .................,100
,: be so. Test results show good convergent characteristics
95 8 and feasible computing speed.
10 80 '5
50 5 Although this method is not a s fast as
30 2 sophisticated traditional methods for large systems,
10 2
remarkable advance in computer technology will soon
, .-g
U)
eliminate this defect. It might be a paradox, however,
0 creating time consuming methods is important t o
n utilize the all CPU power of recent computers.
"10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Converged Iterations
Fig.15 Required Iterations to Converge Referencess
........I ....................,.........I ................. ~ ...............
: : : : ; j ; : i 1
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It is true that the complexity of the method grows Kenii Iba (M87) was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1955. He
exponentially with system size. However, the ability of received the B.S, the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in
recent computers, has been improved exponentially, electrical engineering from Waseda University in 1978,
too. Required memory for the method will not be a in 1980 and in 1990 respectively. He joined Mitsubishi
serious problem for recent computers. Since the Electric Corp. in 1980. Dr. Iba is a member of IEEE and
proposed method has not been tuned up very well, it IEEJ. His office address is "1-1-2 Wadasaki-cho, Hyogo-
have possibility to be improved more by some ideas or ku, Kobe 652, Japan" ( E-mail [email protected])
careful investigations. GA based methods will be quite
promising in coming new computer age.
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