This paper presents a tailored version of the alternating direction method of multipliers to achieve a centralized voltage and VAR optimization (VVO) in the electric distribution system. The adopted VVO model is a mixed‐integer nonlinear optimization problem derived from the generic optimal power flow problem. A novel generalized and decomposable version of the VVO model is developed first to establish the proposed approach. The approach accounts for load tap‐changers and switchable capacitor banks for illustration. However, it can be expanded to a broad range of controllable VVO equipment with discrete/integer settings. The approach performance is validated on different distribution networks. Results are compared with current leading heuristic approaches used to solve nonconvex mixed‐integer nonlinear problems such as the Branch‐and‐Bound method. Furthermore, a comparison vs the branch flow model‐based mixed integer second‐order conic programming model is conducted to illustrate the proposed model's advantages. Moreover, to benchmark the proposed approach optimality, a direct search scheme is developed to capture guaranteed globally optimal results. Experiments show the superiority of the proposed approach with noteworthy convergence rates and promising optimal solution allocation.

中文翻译：

---

一种基于乘数法的交替方向方法，用于解决配电系统中的混合整数非线性伏特/无功优化问题

本文介绍了乘法器交替方向方法的定制版本，以在配电系统中实现集中式电压和VAR优化（VVO）。所采用的VVO模型是从通用最优潮流问题衍生而来的混合整数非线性优化问题。首先开发了新颖的VVO模型的广义和可分解版本，以建立所提出的方法。该方法说明了负载分接开关和可切换电容器组。但是，它可以扩展到具有离散/整数设置的各种可控VVO设备。进近性能在不同的分销网络上得到了验证。将结果与当前用于解决非凸混合整数非线性问题的领先启发式方法（例如分支定界法）进行比较。此外，与基于分支流模型的混合整数二阶圆锥编程模型进行了比较，以说明所提出的模型的优点。此外，为了对建议的方法最优性进行基准测试，开发了一种直接搜索方案来捕获保证的全局最优结果。实验表明，该方法具有显着的收敛速度和有希望的最优解决方案分配的优越性。