Monitoring the effects of on-load tap changing transformers on voltage stability

It is becoming increasingly important for power system planning and operating engineers to be capable of performing comprehensive voltage stability analyses of the systems. This need is largely due to recent trends towards operating systems under stressed conditions as a result of increasing system loads without sufficient transmission and/or generation enhancements. This paper discusses effect of the on-load tap changing transformers (OLTCs) on voltage stability and identifying critical OLTCs to avoid possibilities of voltage instability conditions. The developed approach has been tested on sample systems. Results obtained on an equivalent system of 24-node practical power system are presented.