A distributed algorithm for fast optimal power flow regulation in Smart Grids

Abstract

This paper deals with the solution of the optimal power flow (OPF) problem under voltage regulation by means of a distributed algorithm. Taking inspiration from the recent literature on distributed-OPF, the approach is developed via the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), and provides a fully decentralized, scalable, very fast, and robust method, whose performance is shown in meaningful scenarios. Unlike most of the literature, no semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations of the OPF problem is used, but local subproblems are addressed via efficient interior point methods (IPMs) to guarantee limited local processing efforts.