Application of adaptive dynamic programming method to design of secondary voltage controllers

A secondary voltage controller is designed to improve control accuracy and enhance reactive power margin based on adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method. First, utility function is proposed to minimize voltage deviation at pilot buses with respect to their settings and increments of generator terminal voltages. Then cost-to-go function is constructed by accumulating utility function in future. Secondary voltage controller consists of a critic network and an action network, and both are structured with BP neural network. Parameters of critic network and action network are determined through off-line training beforehand. Principle of Bellman optimality is employed to training them iteratively. Simulation studies on a real provincial power system validate correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2016, Power System Technology Press. All right reserved.