Fast and Efficient Method to Assess and Enhance Total Transfer Capability in Presence of Facts Device

This paper presents the application of Genetic Algorithm (GA) to assess and enhance Total Transfer Capability (TTC) using Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices during power system planning and operation. Conventionally TTC is assessed using Repeated Power Flow (RPF) or Continuation Power Flow (CPF) or Optimal Power Flow (OPF) based methods which normally uses Newton Raphson (NR) method and the enhancement of TTC is done by optimally locating FACTS devices using an optimization algorithm. This increases the CPU time and also limits the search space hence resulting in local optimal value in TTC. To eliminate this drawback, in this paper a novel procedure using the optimization algorithm (GA) is proposed which simultaneously assess and enhance Total Transfer Capability (TTC) in presence of FACTS. Also power flow is performed using Broyden’s method with Sherman Morrison formula instead of NR method, which reduces the CPU time further without compromising the accuracy. To validate the proposed method, simulation test is carried on WSCC 9 bus and IEEE 118 bus test system. Results indicate that the proposed method enhances TTC effectively with higher computational efficacy when compared to that of conventional method.