Accelerated DC loadflow solver for topology optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Westerbeck, Nico, van Dijk, Joost, Viebahn, Jan, Merz, Christian, Witthaut, Dirk
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Westerbeck, Nico
van Dijk, Joost
Viebahn, Jan
Merz, Christian
Witthaut, Dirk
author_facet Westerbeck, Nico
van Dijk, Joost
Viebahn, Jan
Merz, Christian
Witthaut, Dirk
contents We present a massively parallel solver that accelerates DC loadflow computations for power grid topology optimization tasks. Our approach leverages low-rank updates of the Power Transfer Distribution Factors (PTDFs) to represent substation splits, line outages, and reconfigurations without ever refactorizing the system. Furthermore, we implement the core routines on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), thereby exploiting their high-throughput architecture for linear algebra. A two-level decomposition separates changes in branch topology from changes in nodal injections, enabling additional speed-ups by an in-the-loop brute force search over injection variations at minimal additional cost. We demonstrate billion-loadflow-per-second performance on power grids of varying sizes in workload settings which are typical for gradient-free topology optimization such as Reinforcement Learning or Quality Diversity methods. While adopting the DC approximation sacrifices some accuracy and prohibits the computation of voltage magnitudes, we show that this sacrifice unlocks new scales of computational feasibility, offering a powerful tool for large-scale grid planning and operational topology optimization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_17529
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Accelerated DC loadflow solver for topology optimization
Westerbeck, Nico
van Dijk, Joost
Viebahn, Jan
Merz, Christian
Witthaut, Dirk
Systems and Control
We present a massively parallel solver that accelerates DC loadflow computations for power grid topology optimization tasks. Our approach leverages low-rank updates of the Power Transfer Distribution Factors (PTDFs) to represent substation splits, line outages, and reconfigurations without ever refactorizing the system. Furthermore, we implement the core routines on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), thereby exploiting their high-throughput architecture for linear algebra. A two-level decomposition separates changes in branch topology from changes in nodal injections, enabling additional speed-ups by an in-the-loop brute force search over injection variations at minimal additional cost. We demonstrate billion-loadflow-per-second performance on power grids of varying sizes in workload settings which are typical for gradient-free topology optimization such as Reinforcement Learning or Quality Diversity methods. While adopting the DC approximation sacrifices some accuracy and prohibits the computation of voltage magnitudes, we show that this sacrifice unlocks new scales of computational feasibility, offering a powerful tool for large-scale grid planning and operational topology optimization.
title Accelerated DC loadflow solver for topology optimization
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.17529