Techniques for managing power flows in active distribution networks within thermal constraints

The Autonomous Regional Active Network Management System (AuRA-NMS) is a developmental distributed network management system that offers flexible, real-time restoration, voltage and thermal control solutions. The “plug and play” nature of this control platform requires the functionality to perform robustly on any distribution network regardless of topology or electrical characteristics. The techniques under evaluation should be generic solutions that can be applied to any network. Progress in the development of techniques for managing power flows in the presence of thermal constraints is discussed and the analysis of the initial results of the studies undertaken to date is presented in this paper. The control techniques presented and demonstrated in this paper are based on novel applications of two techniques to the problem of managing power flows within thermal constraints: constraint programming; and current tracing. Solution speed and generator access level are evaluated for the two methods and conclusions drawn about the applicability of the techniques.