Voltage Coordination via Communication in Large-Scale Multi-Area Power Systems. Part I: Principal

This two-part paper deals with the coordination of the control actions in a network of many interacting components, where each component is controlled by independent control agents. As a case study we consider voltage control in large electric power systems, where ever-increasing pressures from the liberalization and globalization of the electricity market has led to partitioning the power system into multiple areas each operated by an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO). Coordination of local control actions taken by those TSOs is a very challenging problem as poorly coordinated operation of TSOs may endanger the power system security by increasing the risk of blackouts. This coordination problem involves many other issues such as communication, abstraction and last but not least optimization. This first part of the paper is devoted to the principals of the coordination control, addressing some of those issues using as a case study the problem of coordination control for avoiding voltage collapse in large-scale multi-area power systems.