Fast and accurate optimization and simulation is widely becoming a necessity for large scale transmission resiliency and planning studies such as N-1 SCOPF, batch contingency solvers, and stochastic power flow. Current commercial tools, however, prioritize speed of convergence over accuracy by relying on initial conditions that are taken from the steady state solution of similar network configurations that are not guaranteed to lie within a convex region of a valid solution. In this paper we introduce a globally convergent algorithm to facilitate fast and accurate AC steady state simulation and optimization based on prior knowledge from similar networks. The approach uses a homotopy method that gradually and efficiently translates a previously known network configuration to the current network configuration. The proposed formulation is highly scalable, and its efficacy is demonstrated for resiliency study and optimization of large networks up to 70k buses.
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