A new sensitivity approach for preventive control selection in real-time voltage stability assessment

Abstract Voltage instability is one of the serious problems in power networks due to the growing demand. Sensitivity analysis has been widely hailed as an effective method for voltage stability prediction and control. However, the common loading margin sensitivity approaches are not appropriate for real-time applications. This is because those approaches are based on continuation power flow or the singularity of the Jacobian matrix to find the maximum loading point. In this study, a new sensitivity method is developed for choosing the most effective control variables for voltage instability prevention in power systems. The sensitivity analysis is performed on a voltage stability index, namely Thevenin-Based Voltage Stability Margin (TVSM), derived from the coupled single-port circuit concept to capture the changes in power system operation. The sensitivity approach is computed via the derivation of nodal voltages (magnitudes and angles) with respect to preventive controls. The proposed sensitivity approach is tested on the IEEE 39 bus network and the IEEE 118 bus network to verify their accuracy.