A study of the use of corrective switching in transmission systems

This paper reviews several publications on the use of switching operations as a control means to relieve overload in transmission lines/transformers or to solve voltage problems. Previous research efforts dealing with the subject are analysed in relation to the objective of the manoeuvre, priority of this kind of action in relation to the others available and the search procedure employed, besides other implementation details. Some practical issues related to switching as a control option are also addressed in this paper. The purpose is to investigate the reasons why such procedures are adopted only in a few systems, and in most of them rarely employed. Distribution feeder reconfiguration for loss reduction or load balancing is not dealt here, neither are switching sequences for network restorative control.