Optimal power flow with FACTS devices

Optimal power flow (OPF) is one of the main tools for optimal operation and planning of modern power systems. Needs of OPF development rise, as power systems get more complicated. One of those main needs is the incorporation of power flow flexibility, which the flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices play the main role in it.;Incorporating FACTS devices to be among the OPF problem control variables is the main concern of this thesis. A new formulation of OPF was developed taking into account FACTS devices representations. The developed formulation was solved for the optimal control variable settings with respect to single objective as well as to multi-objective optimization problems. Those objectives were total fuel cost minimization, voltage profile improvement, and voltage stability enhancement. Because of the complicated nature of the resulted problem, an efficient optimization technique was developed and implemented in this study. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique was employed for solving the formulated OPF problem. The effectiveness of PSO was compared to that of genetic algorithm (GA). The potential and superiority of PSO have been demonstrated through the results of different optimization runs. A novel hybrid GA/PSO has been proposed in this study for solving the problem of optimal FACTS devices location. The developed techniques have been tested on a standard IEEE test system. The results have been compared with those reported in the literature. The results of the developed and proposed techniques demonstrate their potential and effectiveness in handling power system optimization problems.