The interior point branch and cut method for optimal power flow

As a complex mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, optimal power flow (OPF) is hardly to be solved by strict polynomial-time algorithm. In this paper, we present an interior point branch and cut method (IPBCM) for decoupled OPF problem. We use the modern interior point algorithm to solve active power suboptimal problem because it is very efficient for nonlinear programming problem. Reactive power suboptimal problem is a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, we use IPBCM to iteratively solve its linearizations. Compared with simplex cutting plane method, IPBCM is more efficient because of its polynomial-time characteristic. Furthermore, we discuss some important issues in the implementation of IPBCM. Numerical simulations on IEEE 14-57 buses standard test systems have shown that the proposed method is efficient in solving OPT problems for large-scale power systems.