Identifying Critical Limits for the Maximum Loadability of Electric Power Systems

This paper presents a review about the maximum loadability problem and aims to study the main factors that limit this loadability. Specifically this study focuses its attention on determining which electric system buses influence directly on the power demand supply. The proposed approach uses the conventional maximum loadability method modeled by an optimization problem. The solution of this model is performed using the Interior Point methodology. As consequence of this solution method, the Lagrange multipliers are used as parameters that identify the probable bottlenecks in the electric power system. The study also shows the relationship between the Lagrange multipliers and the cost function in the Interior Point optimization modeling like sensitivity parameters. In order to exemplify the proposed methodology, the approach was applied to IEEE test systems.