Static security analysis using pipeline decomposition

A pipeline approach to static security analysis is described. Security analysis is decomposed into data preparation, contingency selection, contingency analysis and result output and distributed in a network of workstations. Contingency selection and contingency analysis functions are further decomposed and solved in parallel by groups of processors. An important feature of the pipeline is fault tolerance (the online replacement of a faulted station). Moreover. The numbers of stations in the various stages of the pipeline may be dynamically adjusted to cope with changes in workload conditions. Excellent results have been obtained particularly regarding the way efficiency varies with the number of processors. It has been observed that saturation in speedup curves occurs later than observed with other decomposition procedures (e.g. data decomposition) under similar conditions. The new methods have been implemented and tested using a public domain software system (PVM). Tests have been carried out with the IEEE 300-bus system and the Brazilian Southern-Southeastern system with 810 buses