This thesis analyzès and tests some néw solution techniques for the optimal power flow problem.This new methodology exploits a parametric technique, callp-d the continuation method, which is applied to different tasks in the solution procedure. In a first application, th'e continuation method l solves the-quadratic subp:t;oblems generàted sequentially by the optimal power This thesis first presents an analysis of the various structures used in optimal power flow algorithms. Then, having chosen and presented the structure of our algorithm, we analyze the quadratic subproblems generated by this algorithm for sorne of its more important tasks: minimum cost, minimum losses and load shedding. New rules are proposed to link the solutions of successive subproblems to erwure the convergence of the nonlinear problem.Then, as a final contribution to the theory, some extensions are suggested for the subproblems: among them are ramp constraints, bus incremental costs, and ~ provisioml for redf'spatching.Numerical simulations of the proposed optimal power flow algorithm using the minimum fuel cast task were performed 'on four test systems. with sizes•