Optimizing Flexibility in Power Systems by Maximizing the Region of Manageable Uncertainties

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to maximize operational flexibility in power systems by explicitly quantifying and optimizing the range of uncertainties that can be managed while maintaining grid stability, using a semi-infinite optimization approach.

Contribution

It proposes a novel flexibility maximization framework for power grid operation that explicitly accounts for uncertainties and applies a specialized semi-infinite optimization algorithm.

Findings

Maximal uncertainty range identified for power transfer.

Effective optimization of flexibility in power systems.

Application demonstrated on a DC flow model.

Abstract

Motivated by the increasing need to hedge against load and generation uncertainty in the operation of power grids, we propose flexibility maximization during operation. We consider flexibility explicitly as the amount of uncertainty that can be handled while still ensuring nominal grid operation in the worst-case. We apply the proposed flexibility optimization in the context of a DC flow approximation. By using a corresponding parameterization, we can find the maximal range of uncertainty and a range for the manageable power transfer between two parts of a network subject to uncertainty. We formulate the corresponding optimization problem as an (existence-constrained) semi-infinite optimization problem and specialize an existing algorithm for its solution.