An OPF based approach for assessing the minimal reactive power support for generators in deregulated power systems

Reactive power support is an important ancillary service for secure and reliable operation in power markets. It has recently been recognized that the reactive power support for a generator has two components: one for supporting its own real power transmission and the other for supplying reactive demand, improving system security, and controlling system voltage; and that only the second part should receive financial compensation in competitive power markets. This makes the problem of separating these two components a new focus of current research. An OPF based reactive power optimization model along with a power flow tracing based method is proposed in this paper to tackle this problem. The methodology is tested on four test systems. Detailed analysis of the results of the 39-bus test system is reported.