Optimal Power Flow in Direct Current Networks2
Optimal Power Flow in Direct Current Networks2
I. I NTRODUCTION
The optimal power flow (OPF) problem seeks to control
power generation/demand to optimize certain objectives such
as minimizing the generation cost or power loss [1]. It is one
of the fundamental problems in power system operation.
There is increasing interest in direct current (DC) networks, especially DC-microgrids, due to their advantage in
accommodating distributed energy resources such as distributed generation, storage devices, and plug-in electric
vehicles [2]. DC networks are particularly attractive when
loads are DC in nature, e.g., in data centers. This paper
focuses on the OPF problem in DC networks.
The OPF problem is difficult to solve due to the nonconvex
power flow physical lows, and there are in general three ways
to deal with this challenge: (i) linearize the power flow laws;
(ii) look for local optima; and (iii) convexify the power flow
laws, which are described in turn.
Power flow laws can be approximated by some linear
equations in transmission networks, and then the OPF problem reduces to a linear program [3][5]. This method is
widely used in practice and often quite effective, but there
is no guarantee that a feasible solution be found.
Various algorithms have been proposed to find a local optimum of the OPF problem, e.g., successive linear/quadratic
programming [6], trust-region based methods [7], [8], Lagrangian Newton method [9], and interior-point methods
[10][12]. Some of these algorithms, especially NewtonRalphson based, are quite successful empirically. But in
general, there is no guarantee that these algorithms converge,
nor converge to nearly optimal solutions.
Convexification methods are the focus of this paper. It is
proposed in [13][15] to transform the power flow constraints
into linear constraints on a positive semidefinite rank-one
matrix, and then remove the rank-one constraint to obtain a
semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation. If every solution
of the SDP relaxation is of rank one, then a global optimum
of the OPF problem can be recovered by solving the SDP
relaxation. In this case, the SDP relaxation is called exact.
Strikingly, the SDP relaxation is exact for the IEEE 14-,
978-1-4673-5717-3/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
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Bus j
Vj
Bus i
Vi
yij
Ii
pi
Fig. 1.
i j;
distribution networks (DC microgrids are distribution networks), voltages deviate significantly from their nominal
values, and therefore voltage regulation is an important
operational constraint. In distribution networks, lines are usually over-provisioned to support the demand, and therefore
line constraints are not likely to bind. Even if some line
constraints are binding, the utility company can upgrade
the line (distribution lines are much easier and cheaper
to construct than transmission lines). We do not consider
security constraints in distribution networks for simplicity.
Voltage regulation imposes the voltage Vi at bus i to be
maintained within externally specified range [V i , V i ], i.e.,
2) Current balance:
Ii =
iN
Iij ,
i N;
j: ji
3) Power balance:
pi = Vi Ii ,
i N.
over p, V, p0
s.t. pi = Vi
(Vi Vj )yij ,
pi pi pi ,
V i Vi V i ,
i N;
j: ji
j: ji
i N +.
(2)
For example, if bus i has an inelastic load with power consumption di , and a generator that can generate any amount
of power between 0 and its capacity Ci , then pi = di and
pi = Ci di . Note that pi and pi can be positive or negative.
There are many operational constraints in a practical
OPF problem, including voltage constraints, line (thermal)
constraints, security constraints, etc. In this work, we only
consider voltage constraints for the following reasons. In
1 Voltages,
(3)
i N +.
V i Vi V i ,
i N +;
i N +.
i j or i = j,
(5)
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over p, W, p0
X
s.t. pi =
(Wii Wij )yij ,
i N;
(6a)
j: ji
pi pi pi ,
2
i
V Wii V
i N +;
2
i,
Wij = Wji 0,
(6b)
i N +;
(6c)
i j & i < j;
(6d)
ij &i<j
(6e)
over p, W, p0
s.t. (6a), (6b), (6c), (6d);
W {i, j} 0,
i j & i < j.
(7)
R1 SOCP has a significantly lower computational complexity than the SDP relaxation;
R2 SOCP is exact under existing conditions that guarantee
the exactness of the SDP relaxation.
To demonstrate R2, we review existing conditions that
guarantee the exactness of both relaxations in Propositions
1 and 2, which follow directly from a more general result in
[27, Theorem 3.1].
Proposition 1 ( [15]) If pi = for i N + and fi is
strictly increasing for i N , then the SDP relaxation is
exact.
Proposition 2 ( [18]) If pi = for i N + and fi is
strictly increasing for i N , then SOCP is exact.
The conditions in Propositions 1 and 2 are the same, which
demonstrates R2.
III. A SUFFICIENT CONDITION
We study the exactness of SOCP in this section. In
particular, a sufficient condition is provided in the following
theorem, which is proved in Section III-A.
Theorem 2 If V i = for i N + and f0 is strictly
increasing, then SOCP is exact.
The theorem implies that if voltage upper bounds are not
binding, then SOCP is exact.
Theorem 2 still holds if power injection constraints (2) are
generalized to p P where P is an arbitrary set, since the
proof of Theorem 2 does not require any structure on P.
Theorem 3 If SOCP is convex and exact, then it has at most
one solution.
The theorem is proved in Appendix B.
Theorem 3 still holds if power injection constraints (2) are
generalized to p P where P is an arbitrary convex set.
A. Proof of Theorem 2
The idea of the proof is as follows. Under the conditions
in Theorem 2, for any feasible point w of SOCP that violates
(6e), there exists another feasible point w0 of SOCP that has
a smaller objective value than w. Hence, every solution of
SOCP must satisfy (6e), i.e., SOCP is exact.
More specifically, Theorem 2 follows from the following
two lemmas, which are proved in Appendix C and D.
Lemma 1 Let w = (p, W, p0 ) be an arbitrary feasible point
of SOCP. If V k = for k N + , and w violates (6e)
on some i j where i, j N + , then there exists another
feasible point w0 = (p, W 0 , p0 ) of SOCP that violates (6e)
on k l whenever {k, l} {i, j} =
6 .
Lemma 1 implies that violation of (6e) propagates to neighboring lines: for any feasible point w of SOCP that violates
(6e) on some line i j, there exists another feasible point
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A PPENDIX
A. Proof of Theorem 1
It is straightforward to show that, for any feasible point
x = (p, V, p0 ) of OPF, if one defines W according to (5),
then the point (x) = (p, W, p0 ) is feasible for OPF and
has the same objective value as x. It remains to show that
the map is bijective, i.e., both injective and surjective.
First show that the map is injective, i.e., for x, x0
FOPF , if (x) = (x0 ), then x = x0 . Denote x = (p, V, p0 )
and x0 = (p0 , V 0 , p00 ), then (x) = (p, W, p0 ) where W
satisfies Wij = Vi Vj for i j or i = j, and (x0 ) =
(p0 , W 0 , p00 ) where W 0 satisfies Wij0 = Vi0 Vj0 for i j or
i = j. Therefore it follows from (x) = (x0 ) immediately
that p = p0 and p0 = p00 . To show that x = x0 , it remains to
prove that V = V 0 .
It follows from (x) = (x0 ) that W = W 0 , which implies
Wii = Wii0 for i N , i.e.,
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Vi2 = Vi02 ,
i N.
Define w := (w
+ w)/2,
(8a)
(8b)
(8c)
Wij2
C. Proof of Lemma 1
It suffices to prove that, given any feasible point w =
(p, W, p0 ) of SOCP that violates (6e) on some line i
j where i, j N + , there exists a feasible point w0 =
(p0 , W 0 , p00 ) of SOCP with (p0 , p00 ) = (p, p0 ), that violates
(6e) on k l whenever {k, l} {i, j} =
6 .
Note that (6e) is equivalent to
p
k l,
Wkl = Wkk Wll ,
and (7) is equivalent to
0 Wkl
i j.
q
ii W
jj W
ii W
jj
2 W
ii W
jj + W
ii W
jj
W
(10)
l: lk
=
=
l: lk
pk .
l: lk
0
Wkk
Wkk
ykl
l: lk
k l.
It follows that
ii W
jj + W
ii W
jj
W
Wkk Wll ,
if {k, l} = {i, j}
Wkl +
y
ij
0
if {k, l} = {i} or {j} (9)
Wkl = Wkl + P
h: hk ykh
Wkl
otherwise.
+W
)/2 in (8c), and simplify
for i j. Substitute W = (W
using (8a) and (8b) to obtain
ii W
jj + W
ii W
jj = 2W
ij W
ij ,
W
X
X
0
Wkl
ykl
l: lk
ykl + P
yij
l: lk
l: lk
ykl
ykl
l: lk
l: lk
i j.
ii /W
ii for i N , then 0 = 1 and i = j
Define i := W
if i j. Since the network (N , E) is connected, it follows
ii = W
ii for i N . Then, it
that i = 1 for i N , i.e., W
follows from (6e) that
q
q
ij = W
ii W
jj = W
ii W
jj = W
ij
W
= W
. It
for i j. To this point, we have shown that W
follows immediately that w
= w,
which completes the proof
of Theorem 3.
Wkk
X
l: lk
=
=
ykl
Wkl ykl
l: lk
l: lk
pk .
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If {k, l} =
6 {i, j}, then one of k, l is in {i, j}, and the other
is not. Without loss of generality, assume that k = i and
l
/ {i, j}. Then,
q
q
p
0
0 W =
0 W0 .
Wkk
|Wkl
| = |Wkl | Wkk Wll < Wkk
ll
ll
p 0
0
Hence, Wkl
6=
Wkk Wll0 on k l whenever {k, l}
{i, j} =
6 .
Finally prove that w0 is feasible for SOCP if V k = for
k N + . The point w0 satisfies (6a) according to (10). Since
w = (p, W, p0 ) is feasible for SOCP, one has pk pk pk
for k N + . Then it follows from p0 = p that pk p0k pk
for k N + , i.e., w0 satisfies (6b). It follows from (9) that
0
Wkk
Wkk V 2k for k N + , i.e., w0 satisfies (6c) if
V k = for k N + . To check (7), note that for k l, if
{k, l} =
6 {i, j}, then
h p
i q
0
0
0
Wkl = Wkl 0, Wkk Wll 0, Wkk Wll ;
l: lk
=
=
l: lk
pk .
l: lk
0
Wkk
Wkk
ykl
l: lk
0
Wkl
ykl
l: lk
ykl + P
y0i
l: lk
l: lk
ykl
ykl
l: lk
l: lk
Wkk
=
=
ykl
l: lk
Wkl ykl
l: lk
l: lk
pk .
l: lk
0
Wkk
ykl
l: lk
Wkk
0
Wkl
ykl
l: lk
ykl
l: lk
X
X
l: lk
l: lk
iN
= pk y0i < pk .
if {k, l} = {0, i}
Wkl +
y0i
0
P
W
+
if {k, l} = {i}
Wkl =
(11)
kl
h: hk ykh
Wkl
otherwise.
0
(12)
l: lk