Multi-load level reactive power planning considering slow and fast VAR devices by means of particle swarm optimisation

The problem of optimal allocation of fast and slow reactive power VAR devices under different load levels is addressed. These devices are supposed to be utilised to maintain system security in normal and contingency states, where corrective and preventive controls are implemented for the contingency cases. Load shedding and fast VAR devices are used in the corrective state in order to restore the system stability very quickly, even though they are highly expensive, whereas cheap slow VAR devices can be used in the preventive state to obtain the desired security level. The main objective is to establish a trade-off between economy and security by determining the optimal combination of fast and slow controls (load shedding, new slow and fast VAR devices). To meet the desired steady-state security limits, a variety of constraints have to be considered during the investigated transition states. The overall problem is formulated as a large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. Particle swarm optimisation as an efficient method for solving such problems is applied to solve the problem. The proposed approach has been successfully tested on the IEEE-14 as well as IEEE-57 bus systems.