Smart-PGSim: Using Neural Network to Accelerate AC-OPF Power Grid Simulation

Authors: Wenqian Dong and Zhen Xie (University of California, Merced); Gokcen Kestor (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)); and Dong Li (University of California, Merced)

Abstract: The optimal power flow (OPF) problem is one of the most important optimization problems for the operation of the power grid. It calculates the optimum scheduling of the committed generation units. In this paper, we develop a neural network approach to the problem of accelerating the current optimal power flow (AC-OPF) by generating an intelligent initial solution.

The high quality of the initial solution and guidance of other outputs generated by the neural network enables faster convergence to the solution without losing optimality of final solution as computed by traditional methods. Smart-PGSim generates a novel multitask-learning neural network model to accelerate the AC-OPF simulation. Smart-PGSim also imposes the physical constraints of the simulation on the neural network automatically. Smart-PGSim brings an average of 49.2% performance improvement (up to 91%) with respect to the original AC-OPF implementation, computed over 10,000 problem simulations, without losing the optimality of the final solution.




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