| Stability is one of the most important problems in power system operation and control. Voltage instability is one type of power system instability that occurs when the system operates close to its limits. Progressive voltage instability, which is also referred to as Voltage Collapse, results in loss of voltage at certain nodes (buses) in the system. Voltage collapse, a slowly occurring phenomena leading to loss of voltage at specific parts of an electric utility, has been observed in the USA, Europe, Japan, Canada, and other places in the world during the past decade. Voltage collapse typically occurs on power systems which are heavily loaded, faulted and/or have reactive power shortages. There are several power system's parameter changes known to contribute to voltage collapse. The most important contributors to voltage instability are: increasing load, generators or SVC reaching reactive power limits, action of tap-changing transformers, line tripping, and generator outages. The differences between voltage collapse and lack of classical transient stability is that in voltage collapse we focus on loads and voltage magnitudes whereas in classical transient stability the focus is on generators' dynamics and voltage angles. Also voltage collapse often includes longer time scale dynamics and includes the effects of continuous changes such as load increases in addition to discrete events such as line outages. Two conventional methods to analyze voltage collapse are P-V and V-Q curves, and modal analyses. Both methods are deterministic and do not encounter any probability for the contingencies causing the voltage collapse. The purpose of this investigation is to identify probabilistic indices to assess the steady-state voltage stability by considering random failures and their dependency in a large-scale power system. The research mainly continues the previous research completed at Tulane University by Dr. J. Bian and Professor P. Rastgoufard and will complement it by including contingency selection scheme and the probabilities of components' failures in evaluating expected values of voltage stability margins. In the future, the introduced method will be used to address voltage security assessments in deregulated power systems. |
