Development and evaluation of a SCORPF framework for the National Grid Control Centre

A framework has been developed and implemented in prototype form to allow National Grid Control Centre engineers to have direct access to a fully automated security constrained optimal reactive power flow process. Confidence in the usability and potential of reactive power optimization technology has been established. The framework presented in this paper includes novel shunt switching logic implemented as a solution post-processing step to avoid capacitors and reactors being switched in at the same site. Following detailed feedback from control engineers, the framework was developed to include various extra constraint limits to improve the practical acceptability of the optimization solution. Optimization results are compared to a corresponding manually prepared network study to indicate both the reduction in real power losses and the reduction in generation reactive utilization that can achieved using the technique.