Decentralized optimal power flow control for overlapping areas in power systems

The task of controlling a power system is generally accomplished by several entities, each responsible for a distinct part of the system. For the enhancement of the system security, controllable devices such as FACTS devices are installed and operated by these entities. But in order to avoid conflicting behavior coordination is needed, leading to the concept of multiarea control. In this paper, it is assumed that the areas are determined independently from each other according to the influence of the control devices. As a consequence, overlapping areas may result necessitating an extension of the applied multiarea control method based on approximate Newton directions. In addition, it is taken into account that part of the grid might not be included in any of the areas. Index Terms--FACTS, limited area control, multiarea control, optimal power flow.