A new approach to the determination of available transfer capability

In deregulated power systems, available transfer capability (ATC) determination and economic dispatch calculation are important for efficient and competitive utility operation. New approaches that will enable faster and more accurate evaluation are the need of the hour. A comprehensive linear model cast in a linear programming structure is the major contribution of this work.; A comprehensive line-flow based (LFB) linear power flow model was developed. The LFB model was formed using the line flows and the bus voltage magnitude as state variables. The linearized model error was minimized by approximating the nonlinear loss terms around the system operating point. The LBF linear model was applied to the available transfer capability (ATC) determination and economic dispatch calculation.; The ATC determination process is based on the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) suggested methodology that is able to handle non-simultaneous and simultaneous transfers. A heuristic concept of contingency ranking is developed to filter out noncritical contingency lines.; Economic dispatch calculation was implemented using the classical Lagrange optimization method as a non-iterative procedure. The results obtained include the power flow analysis for the economic dispatch.; Software for each application was written for use with a PC. Microsoft ACCESS and EXCEL packages were integrated with a Visual Basic Interface. A set of standard IEEE and other systems was applied to test the performance of the methodologies and programs. The results were compared with other procedures for convergence and accuracy.