Semidefinite programming for optimal power flow problems

This paper presents a new solution using the semidefinite programming (SDP) technique to solve the optimal power flow problems (OPF). The proposed method involves reformulating the OPF problems into a SDP model and developing an algorithm of interior point method (IPM) for SDP. That is said, OPF in a nonlinear programming (NP) model, which is a nonconvex problem, has been accurately transformed into a SDP model which is a convex problem. Based on SDP, the OPF problem can be solved by primal–dual interior point algorithms which possess superlinear convergence. The proposed method has been tested with four kinds of objective functions of OPF. Extensive numerical simulations on test systems with sizes ranging from 4 to 300 buses have shown that this method is promising for OPF problems due to its robustness.