On fast transmission topology control heuristics

The standard optimal power flow (OPF) problem minimizes generation costs over one study period assuming a fixed system topology. The prospect of a smart grid incorporating extensive cyber capabilities enabling significant progress in economic efficiency, reliability and environmental sustainability, ought to transform the OPF problem accordingly. This paper discusses the inclusion of tractable dynamic transmission topology control in the OPF problem based on heuristic control policies derived from individual transmission “line profit” criteria. Simulations on the IEEE 118-bus test system demonstrate the effectiveness of the heuristic policies in reducing production costs. As the algorithm's requisite information to identify promising candidate elements for switching is standard output of the OPF solution, the computational effort is up to four orders of magnitude better than dynamic transmission topology control performance reported in the literature.