ECE 476

Power System Analysis

Lecture 18: Optimal Power Flow (OPF),
Short Circuit

Prof. Tom Overbye

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
overbye@illinois.edu
Announcements

• Please read Chapters 7 and 8

• HW 7 is 6.62, 6.63, 6.69, 6.71 due on Oct 27; this one
must be turned in on Oct 27 (hence there will be no
quiz that day)
• Optional Reading: Analytic Research Foundations for
the Next-Generation Electric Grid, The National
Academies Press, 2016
• Exam 2 is during class on Tuesday November 15
• Final exam is on Monday December 12, 1:30-4:30pm

1
Calculation of Penalty Factors

Unfortunately, the analytic calculation of Li is

somewhat involved. The problem is a small change
in the generation at PGi impacts the flows and hence
the losses throughout the entire system. However,
using a power flow you can approximate this function
by making a small change to PGi and then seeing how
the losses change:
PL ( PG ) PL ( PG ) 1
 Li 
PGi PGi PL ( PG )
1
PGi
2
Two Bus Penalty Factor Example

PL ( PG ) PL ( PG ) 0.37 MW

 0.0387   0.037
PG 2 PGi 10MW
L2  0.9627 L2  0.9643
3
Example 6.22
58 MW A
56 MW 39 MW A
39 MW 78 MW
39% 21% 29 Mvar
1.05 pu MVA 0.99 pu MVA

3 4
1 1.00 pu
130.0 MW
72 MW 0.0000 52 MW 147 MW 46 MW
92.5 MW
slack

AGC ON 39 Mvar
-0.0825
A A

53% 46% A
A AGC ON
MVA MVA
48% 38%
MVA
MVA

54 MW
20 MW
71 MW A
47 MW 60%
1.04 pu 112 MW MVA
107 MW 0.96 pu

2 5
39 MW 181.9 MW 127 MW
20 Mvar -0.0274 39 Mvar
AGC ON
Total Hourly Cost: 5916.04 $/h Load Scalar: 1.00
Total Area Load: 392.0 MW MW Losses: 12.44 MW
Marginal Cost ($/MWh): 0.00 $/MWh
Optimal Power Flow (OPF)

• OPF functionally combines the power flow with

economic dispatch
• Minimize cost function, such as operating cost,
taking into account realistic equality and inequality
constraints
• Equality constraints
– bus real and reactive power balance
– generator voltage setpoints
– area MW interchange

5
OPF, cont’d

• Inequality constraints
– transmission line/transformer/interface flow limits
– generator MW limits
– generator reactive power capability curves
– bus voltage magnitudes (not yet implemented in
Simulator OPF)
• Available Controls
– generator MW outputs
– transformer taps and phase angles

6
Two Example OPF Solution
Methods
• Non-linear approach using Newton’s method
– handles marginal losses well, but is relatively slow and
has problems determining binding constraints
• Linear Programming
– fast and efficient in determining binding constraints, but
can have difficulty with marginal losses.
– used in PowerWorld Simulator

7
LP OPF Solution Method

• Solution iterates between

– solving a full ac power flow solution
• enforces real/reactive power balance at each bus
• enforces generator reactive limits
• system controls are assumed fixed
• takes into account non-linearities
– solving a primal LP
• changes system controls to enforce linearized
constraints while minimizing cost

8
 Two Bus with Unconstrained Line

With no
overloads the Transmission
Total Hourly Cost : 8459 $/hr
OPF matches Area Lambda : 13.01 line is not
the economic overloaded
dispatch
Bus A 13.01 $/MWh Bus B 13.01 $/MWh

300.0 MW 300.0 MW
197.0 MW 403.0 MW
AGC ON AGC ON

Marginal cost of supplying

power to each bus
(locational marginal costs)
9
Two Bus with Constrained Line

Total Hourly Cost : 9513 $/hr

Area Lambda : 13.26

Bus A 13.43 $/MWh Bus B 13.08 $/MWh

380.0 MW 300.0 MW
260.9 MW 419.1 MW
AGC ON AGC ON

With the line loaded to its limit, additional load at Bus A

must be supplied locally, causing the marginal costs to
diverge.
10
Three Bus (B3) Example

• Consider a three bus case (bus 1 is system slack),

with all buses connected through 0.1 pu reactance
lines, each with a 100 MVA limit
• Let the generator marginal costs be
– Bus 1: 10 $ / MWhr; Range = 0 to 400 MW
– Bus 2: 12 $ / MWhr; Range = 0 to 400 MW
– Bus 3: 20 $ / MWhr; Range = 0 to 400 MW
• Assume a single 180 MW load at bus 2

11
B3 with Line Limits NOT Enforced

60 MW 60 MW
Bus 2 Bus 1
10.00 $/MWh

0.0 MW 10.00 $/MWh

120 MW 180.0 MW
120%
0 MW
60 MW
120% 120 MW
Total Cost 60 MW Line from Bus 1
1800 $/hr
Bus 3 10.00 $/MWh to Bus 3 is over-
180 MW loaded; all buses
0 MW have same
marginal cost
12
B3 with Line Limits Enforced

20 MW 20 MW
Bus 2 Bus 1
10.00 $/MWh

60.0 MW 12.00 $/MWh

100 MW 120.0 MW
100%
0 MW
80 MW
100% 100 MW
Total Cost 80 MW
1920 $/hr LP OPF redispatches
Bus 3 14.00 $/MWh
to remove violation.
180 MW
Bus marginal
0 MW costs are now
different.
13
Verify Bus 3 Marginal Cost

19 MW 19 MW
Bus 2 Bus 1
10.00 $/MWh

62.0 MW 12.00 $/MWh

100 MW 119.0 MW
81% 100%
0 MW
81 MW
81% 100% 100 MW One additional MW
Total Cost 81 MW
1934 $/hr of load at bus 3
Bus 3 14.00 $/MWh
raised total cost by
181 MW
14 $/hr, as G2 went
0 MW up by 2 MW and G1
went down by 1MW
14
Why is bus 3 LMP = $14 /MWh

• All lines have equal impedance. Power flow in a

simple network distributes inversely to impedance
of path.
– For bus 1 to supply 1 MW to bus 3, 2/3 MW would take
direct path from 1 to 3, while 1/3 MW would “loop
around” from 1 to 2 to 3.
– Likewise, for bus 2 to supply 1 MW to bus 3, 2/3MW
would go from 2 to 3, while 1/3 MW would go from 2 to
1to 3.

15
 Why is bus 3 LMP $ 14 / MWh, cont’d

• With the line from 1 to 3 limited, no additional

power flows are allowed on it.
• To supply 1 more MW to bus 3 we need
– Pg1 + Pg2 = 1 MW
– 2/3 Pg1 + 1/3 Pg2 = 0; (no more flow on 1-3)
• Solving requires we up Pg2 by 2 MW and drop
Pg1 by 1 MW -- a net increase of $14.

16
Both lines into Bus 3 Congested

0 MW 0 MW
Bus 2 Bus 1
10.00 $/MWh

100.0 MW12.00 $/MWh

100 MW 100.0 MW
100% 100%
0 MW
100 MW For bus 3 loads
100% 100% 100 MW
Total Cost100 MW above 200 MW,
2280 $/hr the load must be
Bus 3 20.00 $/MWh
204 MW supplied locally.
Then what if the
4 MW
bus 3 generator
opens?
17
Example 6_23 Optimal Power Flow
MISO LMP Price Contour:
830am CDT Oct 24, 2016

Image Source: www.misoenergy.org/LMPContourMap/MISO_All.html

19
Power Markets (Sometimes Known
as Independent System Operator)
• In many places markets are replacing many of the
former planning and operation tools and functions
– MISO is an example of a such a market
• Goal is to replace regulated cost-plus system with
competitive marketplaces
– underlying assumption is in the long-run with
competition prices should decrease
– market should be designed so participants do not have to
provide their true costs to a central authority
• Markets differ widely in what functions they
provide
20
Example Energy Market

Seller 1 ... Seller i ... Seller M

MWh $ MWh $ MWh $

Market Operator

MWh $ MWh $ MWh $

Buyer 1 ... Buyer j ... Buyer N

21
Need to Approximate Gen Curves

$/hr

Actual
curve is
approximated
with a
piecewise
linear
P (MW)
curve

22
Market Receives Offers for Each
Unit

Unit 1 Offers
Unit 1 Cost Blocks

5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3

23
Composite Offers for One Period

Composite

10

8
1
7 2
3
6
4
5
5
6
7
4
8
9
3
10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

24
Dispatch by Auction

• In its simplest form, an auction is a mechanism of

allocating scarce goods based upon competition
– a seller wishes to obtain as much money as possible, and
a buyer wants to pay as little as necessary.
• An auction is usually considered efficient if
resources accrue to those who value them most
highly
• Auctions can be either one-sided with a single
monopolist seller/buyer or a double auction with
multiple parties in each category

25
Auctions, cont’d

• In an auctions buyers make bids to buy, while

sellers make offers to sell.
• The job of an auction is to provide a mechanism for
participants to reveal their true costs while
satisfying their desires to buy low and/or sell high.
• Auctions differ on the price participants receive
and how much information they see along the way

26
Uniform Price Auctions

• Uniform price auctions are sealed offer auctions in

which sellers make simultaneous decisions (done
when they submit their offers).
• Generators can be paid either the last accepted
offer (LAO) or paid the first rejected offer (FRO)
• This provides incentive to offer at marginal cost,
since higher values could cause offers to be
rejected
– thus reigning price should be a reliable signal of marginal
cost
• Price caps are needed to prevent prices from rising
up to infinity when there is limited supply 27
North American ISO/RTO

Image Source: www.isorto.org

Fault Analysis

• The cause of electric power system faults is

insulation breakdown
• This breakdown can be due to a variety of different
factors
– lightning
– wires blowing together in the wind
– animals or plants coming in contact with the wires
– salt spray or pollution on insulators

29
Fault Types

• There are two main types of faults

– symmetric faults: system remains balanced; these faults
are relatively rare, but are the easiest to analyze so we’ll
consider them first.
– unsymmetric faults: system is no longer balanced; very
common, but more difficult to analyze
• The most common type of fault on a three phase
system by far is the single line-to-ground (SLG),
followed by the line-to-line faults (LL), double
line-to-ground (DLG) faults, and balanced three
phase faults

30