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Paper: ISGT0117

A Three-layer Severity Index for Power System

Voltage Stability Assessment using Time-series
from Dynamic Simulations

Luigi Vanfretti, PhD

Associate Professor and Docent
Smart Transmission Systems Lab
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden

Rafael Segundo, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
Smart Transmission Systems Lab
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden

Background
FP7 iTesla project aims to develop a toolbox for use of TSOs to operate
the European power system in the years to come. (www.itesla-project.eu/)

Dynamic impact assessment of time-domain simulations is part of the

off-line analysis within the iTesla toolbox

Appropriate post-contingency severity indexes needs to be determined

to classify the impact of contingencies
A 3 layer index to assess voltage stability has been developed
Main advantage of this index is its simplicity to classify a given
contingency using the different layers
The index has been designed with the requirement of fast computation
and to provide a good measure of how severe the contingency is.

Single Voltage Source (SVS) Model

No other information about the power system other than the time series
is available.
Identification of a simple equivalent model from the time series of the
simulations is performed.
Simple equivalent models of the power system and the load at a
measurement point are estimated from the data (SVS Model).
The simplicity of the models were selected by considering the trade-off
between model accuracy and speed to compute the stability limits.

unknown variables

data from time-series

Requirements to compute the index

To have a set of 3 time-series with different
loading levels:
(a) Low load level
(b) Acceptable load level
(c) At the limit (heavy) load level
To take measurements in pre-and-post
contingency for each loading level
Loading Level

Pre-contingency Post-contingency

Low

Va, Pa, Qa

^ ^ ^
Va,
Pa, Qa

Acceptable

Vb, Pb, Qb

^ ^
^
Vb,
Pb, Qb

Heavy

Vc, Pc, Qc

^ ^ ^
Vc,
Pc, Qc

Main idea of the index

Combining this data, two different PV
curves can be estimated
The proposed VS index provides a measure
of how far the system is from the maximum
loadability limit (Plim, Vlim) .
The operational limits are defined by the
best judgement of the analyst or operator.
Operational Limit

Theoretical Limit

The 3 layer index

The three layers of the index are:

Distance related to
POWER limit

Odd rows refer to

pre-contingency data
Pair rows refer to
post-contingency data

min

Single Bus Index (SBI)

All Buses Index (ABI)
Global Bus Index (GBI)

Distance related to
VOLTAGE limit

Application to the Nordic Power System

Case Study 1:
One of the double tie-lines in the
Central area, which connects bus 38
with bus 40 was tripped at 10 sec.
Three simulations (with the same
contingency) were performed.
Using the pre-and-post contingency
data the proposed voltage stability
index was calculated

Both elements of GBI are negative indicating that

voltage and power limits were violated at some
loading level.
ABI indicates a violation at heavy loading levels (c),
as indicated by the negative numbers of elements
(1, 3) and (1, 6).
SBI is inspected and it is found that both power and
voltage limits were violated at heavy loading levels
on bus 40

Summary
A three-layer index to assess power system voltage stability has been
described.
The index is calculated using time series from dynamics simulations
without any other information about the mathematical model of the
system.
The index is composed of a matrix (SMI), a vector (AMI) and a two
element matrix (GMI) to facilitate its interpretation.
Nonlinear simulations using the KTH-Nordic32 were performed to
validate the proposed index