Graph Shortest Path and Dynamic Programming Applied To Sequencing Ord Control Adjustments

Attaining minimal active power losses in transmission systems by the Optimal Reactive Dispatch (ORD) consist in a timely research topic that may contribute to mitigating the use of scarce resources in the electric power sector by "simply" and optimally tuning its controls. However, power system operators cannot inadvertedly and/or simultaneously realize the ORD control adjustments, and most papers in the literature do not account for the sequence in which such ORD control adjustments must be realized. Thus, this work proposes sequencing ORD control adjustments that minimize active power losses in transmission systems, which, by itself, consists in a large combinatorial optimization problem, by means of a combined approach based on a graph shortest path problem formulation and dynamic programming. As opposed to most works in the literature, which heuristically sequence ORD control adjustments, this work features an approach that guarantees that the obtained sequence path is optimal from the sequencing problem perspective. At last, the existence of a strictly operationally feasible path to the problem of sequencing ORD control adjustments is discussed and addressed by means of numerical results.