Monitoring and mitigating the voltage collapse problem in the Natal network

The two main load centers in the Natal region of the Eskom power system in South Africa are susceptible to voltage collapse during stressed operating conditions. Combined, these two load centers carry about 6,700 MW during peak conditions. Potential voltage collapse problems near these load centers can be avoided by shedding load. This paper proposes a system for real-time prediction and mitigation of the voltage collapse problem. The prediction and mitigation system gathers synchrophasor data to compute the power system state. Then the system uses the state and network data to obtain voltage collapse indices, which provide evidence of proximity to voltage collapse and suggest optimal load-shedding schemes.