Interior-point based algorithms for the solution of optimal power flow problems

Interior-point method (IPM) is a very appealing approach to the optimal power flow (OPF) problem mainly due to its speed of convergence and ease of handling inequality constraints. This paper analyzes the ability of three interior-point (IP) based algorithms, namely the pure primal-dual (PD), the predictor–corrector (PC) and the multiple centrality corrections (MCC), to solve various classical OPF problems: minimization of overall generation cost, minimization of active power losses, maximization of power system loadability and minimization of the amount of load curtailment. These OPF variants have been formulated using a rectangular model for the (complex) voltages. Numerical results on three test systems of 60, 118 and 300 buses are reported.