EAGER: Topology Control for Enhancing the Reliability of the National Power Grid

从经济、安全和社会的角度来看，满足电力需求是当今世界最重要的问题。矛盾的是，很少有控制措施可以保证电网的可靠性（即防止意外停电）。这部分是由于能源行业将电力传输网络视为静态实体的概念。在大多数情况下，响应突发事件（即组件故障）的纠正措施仅包括调度未使用的发电机容量和启动额外的发电机组。相反，拓扑控制是一种创新的方法，使电网运营商能够切换每条传输线的开/关状态。先前的研究表明，找到并实现最佳电网配置（即最佳电网拓扑），并结合最佳的各自发电机调度，可以降低能源生产/输送成本。这项探索性研究（EAGER）早期拨款支持基础研究，以增强电网的主动和被动可靠运行，而无需昂贵的基础设施投资。具体而言，本研究将表明，控制电网的拓扑结构可以提高电网的可靠性。此外，这项研究还将开发所需的程序，以找到最可靠的电网拓扑结构，以响应能源需求的变化。因此，这项研究的主要社会影响是提高预防和解决意外停电的能力，这种情况每年给美国企业和消费者造成大约800亿美元的损失。该研究涉及多个学科，包括电力系统、并行计算和优化。该合同的具体目标是提高输电网的可靠性。这将通过将拓扑控制的创新概念纳入具有代表性的数学程序来实现，以优化大型电力系统的分分钟运行。具体来说，每隔几分钟需要求解的问题是一个混合整数非线性问题（MINLP）。针对将拓扑控制纳入能源系统运行过程中出现的minlp问题，提出了三个解决方案：(1)结合可选表达式对交流潮流进行建模；(2)设计新的分解算法，并与并行计算相结合；(3)利用为了提高电网可靠性，每隔几分钟就需要求解一个MINLP的事实；然而，由于连续的问题实例彼此非常相似，因此可以重用以前最优解决方案的几个属性（例如，绑定约束和其他属性，例如经常有效的在线传输开关）。

Nowadays, fulfilling the demand for electric power is of utmost importance from economic, security, and societal standpoints. Paradoxically, there are very few control actions available to guarantee the power grid's reliability (i.e., to prevent unexpected power outages). This is due in part to the energy industry's conception of the electric transmission network as a static entity. In most situations, the corrective actions in response to a contingency event (i.e., a component failure) consist only of dispatching unused generator capacity and of starting up additional generation units. Conversely, topology control is an innovative approach that equips grid operators with the ability to switch each transmission line's on/off status. Previous research has shown that finding and implementing the best grid configuration (i.e., the best grid topology), in conjunction with the best respective generator dispatch, can decrease energy production/delivery costs. This EArly-Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award supports fundamental research to enhance both the proactive and reactive reliable operation of the power grid without costly infrastructure investments. Specifically, this research will show that controlling the grid's topology can enhance the grid's reliability. In addition, this research will also develop the procedures required to find the most reliable grid topology in response to changes in energy demand. Thus, the primary societal impact of this research is to increase the capability to prevent and resolve unexpected blackouts, which account for approximately $80 billion in losses each year for U.S. businesses and consumers. This research involves several disciplines including power systems, parallel computing and optimization.The specific aim of this award is to enhance the transmission grid reliability. This will be accomplished by incorporating the innovative concept of topology control into representative mathematical programs to optimize the minute-by-minute operations of large-scale power systems. Specifically, the problem that needs to be solved every few minutes is a mixed integer nonlinear problem (MINLP). Three directions are planned to solve the MINLPs that arise when including topology control into the energy system's operations: (1) Combine alternative expressions for modeling alternate current power flows; (2) Devise new decomposition algorithms and combine them with parallel computing; (3) Exploit the fact that, to improve the reliability of the power grid, one needs to solve a MINLP every few minutes; however, since consecutive problem instances are very similar to each other, one can reuse several properties of previous optimal solutions (for example, binding constraints and other properties such as transmission-line switches that have been recurrently effective).