Application of the Ant Colony Search Algorithm to Reactive Power Pricing in an Open Electricity Market

Developing an accurate and feasible method for reactive power pricing is important in the electricity market. In conventional optimal power flow models the production cost of reactive power was ignored. In this study, the production cost of reactive power was comprised into the objective function of the OPF problem. Then, using ant colony search algorithm, the optimal problem was solved. The IEEE 14-bus system has been used for application of the method. The results from several study cases show clearly the effects of various factors on reactive power price.