Unified power flow controller (UPFC) model in the framework of interior point based active and reactive OPF procedure

As the deregulation process of the energy market is taking place, the operation planners are faced with heavily loaded networks and with greater wheeling demand. Therefore, in order to increase the network flexibility, the exploitation of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices becomes more and more significant. For this reason, the system operator needs an extension of the traditional Optimal Power Flow programs capable of managing the models of these new devices. In this paper, a model of the Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is described and introduced in the framework of an Interior Point based OPF procedure and once again the good performances of this solver have been demonstrated. Finally, the paper presents some test cases showing the gains obtainable by the exploitation of UPFC managing wheeling and/or congestion situations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.