A Survey of Real-Time Optimal Power Flow

Abstract

There has been a strong increase of penetration of renewable energies into power systems. However, the renewables pose new challenges for the operation of the networks. Particularly, wind power is intermittently fluctuating, and, therefore, the network operator has to fast update the operations correspondingly. This task should be performed by an online optimization. Therefore, real-time optimal power flow (RT-OPF) has become an attractive topic in recent years. This paper presents an overview of recent studies on RT-OPF under wind energy penetration, offering a critical review of the major advancements in RT-OPF. It describes the challenges in the realization of the RT-OPF and presents available approaches to address these challenges. The paper focuses on a number of topics which are reviewed in chronological order of appearance: offline energy management systems (EMSs) (deterministic and stochastic approaches) and real-time EMSs (constraint satisfaction-based and OPF-based methods). The particular challenges associated with the incorporation of battery storage systems in the networks are explored, and it is concluded that the current research on RT-OPF is not sufficient, and new solution approaches are needed.