Optimal Transmission Line Switching to Improve the Reliability of the Power System Considering AC Power Flows

Abstract

The reliability of the electrical system is a fundamental study that is carried out to determine the possible deficiencies that an electrical system can have in case of failures, since a failure can cause disturbances, power cuts, and load disconnections. For this reason, Optimal Transmission Switching (OTS) with Optimal AC Power Flows (OPF-AC) is used to reduce disturbances when faults occur and minimize equipment load and disconnections, but OTS offers possible switches in order to make it possible to reduce the damage that can be done for a fault with operating limitations in voltage, power, and angular deviation. However, to have a complete study, it is proposed to use a reliability analysis through contingency ranking to know the risks that a switched system may have at the time of simultaneous or consecutive failures. In addition, a load capacity investigation is conducted to determine if the transmission lines are within their operating limits. The study presents an analysis of the behavior of the switched system and an adequate operation for the mitigation of failures in the system through the switching of transmission lines with analysis of load capacity and reliability. The results presented by the proposed methodology will be compared with Matlab’s Matpower simulation package.