Application of Power Flow Sensitivity Analysis and PTDF for Determination of ATC

Power system restructuring throughout the world is undergoing various reforms in the power business. One of the objectives of restructuring process is to allow open access of transmission network to the market participants thereby creating a competitive power market. However it may cause the congestion and further threaten the security of the network. This situation may be avoided by providing the information about available transfer capability of the network to the market players (buyers and sellers). Available transfer capability (ATC) of transmission network is the additional amount of power transfer that can be effected between the buyer bus and seller bus without loss of security. For proper system operations under the various transactions, ATC calculations must be reasonably accurate and fast enough. This paper describes a novel approach of application of sensitivity analysis and power transfer distribution factor for the determination of ATC. Advantages of the proposed approach are also discussed.