This paper presents a globally convergent Optimal Power Flow (OPF) algorithm, i.e., an optimization algorithm capable of finding an OPF solution whenever a solution exists. As power systems become heavily loaded and operate close to security limits there is an increasing need for globally convergent OPF algorithms. The proposed algorithm uses the trust region technique of Byrd and Omojokun with the trust region constraint defined by the infinity norm. The subproblems generated in each trust region iteration are solved by primal-dual interior-point methods for quadratic programming. The focus of the proposed OPF algorithm is on the convergence robustness rather than on processing time. The simulations results with the IEEE test systems suggest the expected robustness of the approach.
Optimal Power Flow; Trust-Region Methods; Interior-Point Methods; Global Convergence
