Multi-area transfer capability evaluation using voltage stability constraints

This paper presents a decomposition method to evaluate the power transfer capability by taking into account the voltage stability constraints for multi-area power systems. Each area uses an REI-type network equivalent to represent the external areas and computes its transfer capability via the continuation power flow (CPF). The choice and updating procedure for the continuation parameter employed by the CPF is implemented in a distributed manner. The proposed method leads to potential gains in computational efficiency with limited data exchange between areas. The developed procedure is successfully applied to the 3 area IEEE 118 bus test system. Comparative numerical results obtained by using the integrated and the multi-area procedures are presented to validate the proposed method.