Controlled islanding using VSC-HVDC links to reduce load shedding

This paper presents a controlled islanding algorithm based on k-means clustering. It considers Voltage Source Converter-based HVDC (VSC-HVDC) links within a synchronous system and places one VSC-HVDC terminal in each island so that power can be exchanged between the islands. This limits load shedding and/or generator tripping and reduces the overall restoration costs. The controlled islanding algorithm has been tested on the IEEE 16 machine 68 bus system and the dynamic behavior of the system is analyzed with a dynamic simulation. It can be seen that the proposed algorithm reduces the amount of shed loads significantly and, thus, shortens the restoration time.