Centralized Control of System Voltage/Reactive Power Using Genetic Algorithm

This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) based centralized voltage and reactive power control strategy. The proposed strategy aims to prevent voltage fluctuations and/or unconvergence cases by coordinating the operation of voltage/ reactive power control equipments, such as on load tap changer (OLTC) of transformers, automatic voltage regulator (AVR) of distributed generations, and shunt capacitors (SCs). The problem is formulated as a combinatorial nonlinear optimization problem. That is, the setting of OLTC transformers and SCs are discrete control variables; the setting of AVR is a continuous variable. To validate the feasibility of the proposed technique, simulations of various operating conditions are conducted and compared with the decentralized voltage control strategy.