4426
5, SEPTEMBER 2018
Online Line Switching Method for Enhancing the
Small-Signal Stability Margin of Power Systems
Chongtao Li, Hsiao-Dong Chiang, Fellow, IEEE, and Zhengchun Du, Member, IEEE
Abstract—As a power system operating point alters its position
due to variations in power injections, its small-signal stability
margin (SSSM) may decrease. Under this situation, a network
topology change via line switching can increase the SSSM. In this
paper, an online line switching method for maximizing the SSSM
is presented, taking into account both the solution quality and the
required computational speed. To balance the tradeoff between
speed and solution quality, the line switching method presented in
this paper is composed of three stages: 1) screening; 2) ranking;
and 3) detailed evaluation. The effectiveness of the presented
three-stage method is evaluated on IEEE standard power systems
with promising results.
Index Terms—Small-signal stability, small-signal stability mar-
gin, line switching, optimal network topology, critical mode, Hopf
bifurcation.
I. I NTRODUCTION
MALL-SIGNAL stability analysis of a power system
S determines the asymptotic stability of an operating point
and provides the internal dynamic characteristic of the system.
As power injections vary, the system moves to different equi-
librium points, causing the system modes to continue varying.
Hence, it is important to ensure the small-signal stability of
power systems as power injections vary, say, due to continual
variations in load and renewable energy.
In the past, the task of enhancing power system small-signal
stability mostly relied on the controller’s design for damp-
ing oscillation modes [1]–[3]. Coordinated stabilizer tuning
that considers multiple operating conditions is proposed, for
example, in [4]. However, controller design targeted for one or
multiple operating points may fail to enhance the small-signal
stability margin (SSSM) for other operating points. Hence,
developing online control to enhance the small-signal stabil-
ity of power systems is desirable, considering the nature of
varying operating points.
There are several ways to enhance the SSSM of power
systems. One involves adjusting several controller parameters
Manuscript received June 2, 2016; revised August 31, 2016 and
November 18, 2016; accepted January 14, 2017. Date of publication
January 23, 2017; date of current version August 21, 2018. This work
was supported by China Scholarship Council under Grant 201506285074.
Paper no. TSG-00745-2016.
C. Li and Z. Du are with the Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Smart Grid,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China, and also with the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
(e-mail: ctali@163.com; zcdu@xjtu.edu.cn).
H.-D. Chiang is with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA (e-mail: hc63@cornell.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2017.2656885
1949-3053 c 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 9, NO.
to improve the damping ratio of a critical mode. Generation
re-dispatching can also be used to increase SSSMs. The
scheme of adjusting controller parameters to improve dynamic
performance is based either on eigenvalue tracing [5] or on
rapid searching of the stability boundary [6], [7]. On the other
hand, the scheme of generation re-dispatching or network
topology control will lead the system to different operating
points [8]. Hence, both the equilibrium points and the asso-
ciated critical modes need to be recomputed to ensure the
effectiveness of the control.
Transmission line switching, also termed line switching, is
an economical and effective measure for enhancing power
system operations and stability. In fact, relevant work over the
past thirty years demonstrates the effectiveness of line switch-
ing in providing exciting and promising solutions (see, for
example, relieving line overloading [9]–[12], reducing trans-
mission losses and/or generation cost [13]–[16], and assisting
load recovery [17]). In fact, power system operators some-
times perform network topology to improve voltage profiles
and relieve system congestion [13]–[15]. The action of line
switching can be viewed as trimming power networks into an
efficient power network.
In this paper, we present another application of line switch-
ing to improve power system stability; in particular, a novel
switching methodology to increase load margins to the small-
signal stability limit (SSSL) of a look-ahead power system is
proposed. One popular approach for selecting certain lines to
switch out is to formulate the problem as constrained, mixed-
integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) and apply available
commercial solvers, such as BARON or CPLEX, to solve the
problem. This approach may be effective for certain applica-
tions, but may not be suitable for online application due to its
heavy computational requirements.
To overcome the combinatorial nature of the line switching
problem, which is a MINLP, we have developed a three-
stage methodology employing the strategies of screening,
ranking, and evaluating to achieve high speed (for online
computation) and high-quality line switching solutions to
improve the voltage stability of power systems [18]. The
three-stage methodology also determines multiple high-quality
line switching solutions from which operators can select as
desired.
Given the look-ahead forecasting of load demands and the
generation rescheduling scheme, the SSSM indicates the load
level at which a Hopf bifurcation occurs [19]–[22]. Switching
out transmission lines will alter the SSSM of the system.
Given a set of candidate lines that can be switched off, the
LI et al.: ONLINE LINE SWITCHING METHOD FOR ENHANCING SSSM OF POWER SYSTEMS 4427

line switching problem to increase the SSSM consists of find-

ing the optimal lines whose disconnection can maximize the
SSSM of the system.
In this paper, we extend the three-stage methodology to
improving the small-signal stability via line switching to
increase the SSSM. The main contributions of this paper are:
1) A rigorous formulation of the look-ahead line switching
problem for increasing load margins to the SSSM limit.
2) The proposed method can provide multiple solutions
for high-quality line switching, given a desired number
of switched lines from which operators can select the
“best” one.
3) It is fast and hence, is applicable in online environments. Fig. 1. Eigenvalues shift to the imaginary axis (spectral domain) as the load
Numerical simulation results show that the proposed online level approaches μH (load level domain). The filled and hollowed circles
line switching method can effectively improve the SSSM of represent the eigenvalues at μ = 0 and μ = μH , respectively.
power systems.
J varies with μ, since J is a function of x0 , which satisfies
II. L OOK -A HEAD P OWER S YSTEM M ODELING
f (x0 , μ) = 0. (6)
The look-ahead (say, 30 minutes ahead) nonlinear model for
power system stability analysis can be described as The generalized eigen-triplets (λ, u, v) of (J, T) denote the
 modes and mode shapes of power systems where u and v
T̄ x̄˙ = f̄ (x̄, ȳ, μ)
(1) are right and left generalized eigenvectors of (J, T) associated
0 = ḡ(x̄, ȳ, μ)
with generalized eigenvalue λ.
where x̄ and ȳ are state and algebraic variable vectors,
respectively; f̄ and ḡ are nonlinear equations representing the B. Critical Mode and SSSM
dynamics of power system elements and their relations as well Suppose a study power system is stable at the current oper-
as network equations; and T̄ is the coefficient matrix. Here, ating point. Consider the look-ahead model (3); as μ increases,
μ > 0 indicates the look-ahead load and generation variation. its modes vary. As μ increases, the Hopf bifurcation may
For a linear variation in loads and generation, we have the occur when a pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues of (J, T)
following [23], [24]: cross the imaginary axis of the complex plane. The look-ahead
⎧  
⎪ system loses its stability as μ varies across μH , at which point
⎪
⎪ PL (μ) = PCL + μ PL − PCL
⎨  L
 the Hopf bifurcation occurs, as shown in Fig. 1.
QL (μ) = QCL + μ QL − Q C (2) The SSSM of the look-ahead base case can be measured
⎪
⎪  L L

⎪
⎩ PG (μ) = P + μ P − P
C L C by μH . If the SSSM of the current system is less than 1, the
G G G critical mode will have a positive real part for the forecasting
where PL and PG are the active power of the loads and operation point. Thus, the forecasting equilibrium point will
generators, and QL denotes the reactive power of the loads. be unstable. If the SSSM is a little larger than 1, the critical
Superscripts “C” and “L” indicate the current operating point mode will approach the imaginary axis and the system may
and the look-ahead forecasting equilibrium point. Note that experience a slower decay oscillation after perturbation. Since
equation (1) withμ = 0 represents the current power system the forecasting system may not be accurate, it is important to
stability model and μ = 1 represents the look-ahead power enhance the SSSM to ensure the robust stability of the system
system model. with respect to load variation.

A. Linearized C. Enhancing the SSSM

Model

T̄ x̄ f̄ We seek to identify an optimal network topology N to

Let T = , x = , and f = . (1) can be increase the SSSM of the look-ahead base case (see Fig. 2).
0 ȳ ḡ
simplified as The line switching problem of enhancing the power system
SSSM is formulated as follows:
T ẋ = f (x, μ). (3)
arg max μN H (N )
The linearized model for power system small-signal stability 
analysis at μ can be derived from (3) so that s.t. f N xN N
0 , μH = 0

Tẋ = Jx (4) N ∂f N 
J = 
∂x  x = xN0
where   
 N
Re Λ J , T = 0
∂f 
J= . (5)
∂x  x = x0 n(N − Nbase ) = m (7)
4428
Fig. 2. Small-signal stability boundary (domain) of the current system and
that of the post-line switching (post-switching) system. The aim is to enlarge
the SSSM of the look-ahead system.
where Λ is the generalized eigenvalue set, Re(Λ) determines
the maximum real part of Λ, and n(•) denotes the difference
in network topology in the number of line switches needed to
alter the network topology Nbase to N .
The problem of determining line switching for the SSSM
in an online environment is challenging because the required
computational effort can be extraordinary. Hence, computa-
tional speed and solution quality are key metrics for solving
the online line switching problem of increasing the SSSM. We
propose a 3-stage methodology to solve the online line
switching problem for the SSSM.
III. A RCHITECTURE OF THE O NLINE
L INE S WITCHING M ETHODOLOGY
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 9, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018
Fig. 3. Critical mode moves after line switching.
The major data inputs required for the proposed methodol-
ogy are (1) the current network topology and current system
state, say, from the state estimator, (2) predictive data that
include the look-ahead (say, 30 minutes) forecasting load and
generation reschedule, and (3) the list of candidate lines to be
switched out.
Stage 1 (Screening): In this stage, the increment of the
critical mode λ = λN − λ, where λ is the critical mode
on the Hopf bifurcation point by switching out each candi-
date line, will be estimated using a linear sensitivity-based
method for fast implementation. All candidate lines will be
sorted in this stage so that lines with minimum Re(λ) will
be arranged at the top of the list. For the ranked candidate
lines, it satisfies that
  
 
For the look-ahead base case, it satisfies Re(Λ (J, T)) = 0 Re λ1 ≤ · · · ≤ Re λq < 0 ≤ Re λq+1 · · ·
when μ increases to μH . Generally, a pair of conju-  
gate eigenvalues will lie on the imaginary axis, as with ≤ Re λk . (8)
λ1 in Fig. 3. If the network topology is altered so that
Re(Λ (J, T)) < 0, then the SSSM of the look-ahead base The superscript λ denotes the ranked number of the line.
case will be increased. Obviously, the imaginary eigenval- The top-ranked q1 (q1 < q) lines will be sent to the next stage
ues need to be enhanced first. However, topology change for ranking.
may cause other modes to become critical or highly sen- Stage 2 (Ranking): For each post-switching system, the most
sitive, as with λ2 in Fig. 3. In lieu of these problems, sensitive modes as well as its sensitivity to μ will be computed.
a three-stage methodology for solving online line switching The SSSM of the post-switching system, μH , will be estimated
problem (7) is proposed. The three stages are composed of (1) using a linear sensitivity-based method, and all selected lines
a screening stage, (2) a ranking stage, and (3) an evaluating will be ranked in this stage so that
stage.
Given a list of candidate lines that can be switched off, a lin- N (1) N (p) N (p+1) N (q1 )
ear sensitivity-based method is applied in the screening stage μH ≥ · · · ≥ μH ≥ μH ≥ μH ≥ · · · ≥ μH . (9)
to quickly estimate the critical mode deviation after switch-
ing out each candidate line. The ranking stage selects the top The top-ranked p1 (p1 < p) lines will be sent to the next stage
effective lines according to the result obtained by the screen- for identification.
ing stage. The evaluating stage performs a detailed calculation Stage 3 (Evaluating): Perform the exact numerical com-
for each top-ranked line to identify high-quality line switching putation to obtain the SSSMs of post-switching systems for
solutions. each top-ranked line and identify the top few line switching
It is usually very difficult to show that a solution is glob- solutions.
ally optimal. Likewise, we cannot prove that the network The key outputs of the proposed 3-stage methodology
topologies determined by the proposed online methodology are (1) the top line switching solutions for the look-ahead
are globally optimal and hence, we term them high-quality power system and (2) the corresponding SSSM of the
solutions. each (top) post-switching system.
LI et al.: ONLINE LINE SWITCHING METHOD FOR ENHANCING SSSM OF POWER SYSTEMS 4429

A scheme based on equation (15) will be applied in (8) for

fast implementation. We next explain how to solve eigenvalue
sensitivity in (15).
The sensitivity of λ with respect to parameter ai can be
solved using the following, proposed in [6]:
∂J
∂λ vH ∂a u
= H i . (16)
Fig. 4. Equivalent modeling of line switching. ∂ai v Tu
Since the elements of J are functions of x0 , it follows that
IV. N UMERICAL M ETHODS OF D IFFERENT S TAGES ∂J  ∂J ∂xk
= (17)
The line switching model as well as numerical schemes for ∂ai ∂xk ∂ai
k
implementing the screening, ranking, and evaluating stages are
presented in this section. where xk represents the k-th element of x0 and J denotes the
element of J. From (12), the sensitivity of x0 with respect to
A. Model of a Pre-Switching and Post-Switching System parameter ai becomes
Suppose line l between nodes i and j is one of the candidate  −1
dx0 ∂f N ∂Il
lines that will be switched off. The currents on l, with line = (18)
admittance GL + jBL and shunt susceptance BC , are ai + jbi dai ∂x0 ∂ai
and aj + jbj at nodes i and j, respectively. As shown in Fig. 4, ∂λ ∂λ ∂λ
for equilibrium equation (6), switching out line l from the The sensitivity of ∂b i
, ∂a j
and ∂b j
can be solved in the
system is equivalent to adding injection currents −ai − jbi and same way.
−aj − jbj to nodes i and j. Since changes in GL , BL , and BC directly affect the admit-
∂J
The network equation in (6) can be equivalently written as tance matrix in J, it is easy to obtain ∂G , ∂J , and ∂B
L ∂BL
∂J
. ∂λ ,
C ∂GL
∂λ ∂λ
∂BL , and ∂BC can be computed similar to (16).
0 = I − Y N V + Ĩl (10)
where Y N is the admittance matrix of the post-switching C. Numerical Scheme for the Ranking Stage
system, I is the injection current, and Ĩl is represented as Suppose the post-switching system is stable and the eigen-
 T value sensitivities have a positive real part. As μ incrementally
Ĩl = · · · 0 −ai −bi 0 · · · 0 −aj −bj 0 · · · . increases, the eigenvalue with minimum −σk /σ̇k may be the
(11) first one to cross the imaginary axis, where σ denotes the real
part of an eigenvalue.
The equilibrium equation (6) can be rewritten as
As shown in Fig. 5, the SSSM of a post-switching system
f N (x0 , μ) + Il = 0 (12) can be approximated using
 
where Il is a vector with Ĩl as its sub-vector and 0 as other N σk
μH ≈ μH + min − (19)
elements. Since the target line is removed from the system, k σ̇k
the network function f N is different from f .
where σ̇k is positive. Equation (19) will be adopted in (9)
The nonlinear model of the post-switching power system is
to compute post-switching system SSSMs. In (19), σ̇ will be
T ẋ = f N (x, μ) (13) obtained using
 
and the equilibrium point xN
0 satisfies σ̇ =
dσ
= Re
dλ
. (20)
  dμ dμ
f N xN0 , μ = 0. (14)
Equation (20) can be handled according to (16) and (17)
where, for a post-switching system, the sensitivity of xN
0 can
B. Numerical Scheme for the Screening Stage be computed using
The difference between JN and J is caused by two factors:  −1 ∂f N
dxN
the topology change, which can be measured using GL , BL , 0
= JN . (21)
and BC , and the alteration of equilibrium point x0 , which can dμ ∂μ
be estimated using ai , bi , aj , and bj . Assuming that λ of system
(J, T) is disturbed to λN of (JN , T), λ = λN − λ can be
D. Numerical Scheme for the Evaluating Stage
approximated as follows:
In the evaluating stage, for each post-switching system
N ∂λ ∂λ ∂λ ∂λ of a high-ranked line, an exact calculation of the critical
λ = λ − λ ≈ ai + bi + aj + bj
∂ai ∂bi ∂aj ∂bj mode is performed as μ increases until the Hopf bifurcation
∂λ ∂λ ∂λ occurs. The required calculation in each iteration includes (1)
+ GL + BL + BC (15)
∂GL ∂BL ∂BC computing xN0 at a given power injection level, (2) forming
4430 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 9, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018

Fig. 5. SSSM estimation of a post-switching system.

the system Jacobian JN , and (3) calculating the critical mode

of (JN , T).
Fig. 6. Eigenvalue loci of a 10-machine system due to increases in load and
generation.
V. O NLINE L INE S WITCHING M ETHODOLOGY
A step-by-step description of the proposed line switching
methodology for online applications is presented below. We model, are equipped with static self-shunt excitation systems
first consider the situation where only one line is allowed to as well as 4-order PSSs. The reference voltages of the exci-
be switched out. tation systems are considered constant. All loads adopt the
Step 1: Input the current operating point (say, from a state classical static model.
estimator), the look-ahead load forecasting, and the genera-
tion scheduling, and input a list of candidate lines that can be A. 10-Machine Power System
switched out.
For the 10-machine system, the generators on Bus-30 and
Step 2: Compute the (i) look-ahead operating point and (ii)
Bus-39 adopt the classic model and the others use the two-axis
the SSSM of the base-case system to the SSSL along the look-
model. The number of state variables is 92 and the unre-
ahead load and generation variation. In addition, compute the
duced Jacobian matrix is on the order of 375. The active and
critical eigen-triplet (λ, u, v) on the SSSL point (i.e., at the cor-
reactive load power is 6149.5 MW and 1408.9 MVar, respec-
responding Hopf bifurcation point). (For methods to compute
tively. The damping ratio of the original system is 4.65%.
the SSSMs, refer to [19] and [20].)
All load demands and the scheduled real power generation
Step 3: (Screening stage) For each candidate line, (i) com-
of look-ahead forecasting points are increased by the same
pute the sensitivity of x0 to ai , bi , aj , and bj ; (ii) obtain
percentage.
the sensitivity of the unreduced Jacobian matrix to ai , bi ,
Suppose the near-term load demands and the real power
aj , bj , GL , BL , and BC ; and (iii) calculate a linearized esti-
of each generator, except for the slack machine, are 120% of
mation of λ by (15). Sort all candidate lines according to
the current operating point. As the load demands and gener-
(8). The lines with minimum σ will be sent to the ranking
ator power increase, the system tends toward its small-signal
stage.
stability boundary. The critical equilibrium point, with criti-
Step 5: (Ranking stage) For each selected line obtained in
cal mode ±j3.2428, which is an inter-area mode, is obtained
the screening stage, (i) compute the post-switching system
as the load increases to 8647.3 MW and 1981.2 MVar with
equilibrium point xN 0 at μH , (ii) form the unreduced Jacobian μH = 2.031. The eigenvalues of current and critical operating
matrix JN and its sensitivity to μ, and (iii) estimate the post-
points are shown in Fig. 6.
switching system SSSM using (19). Sort the selected lines
All 34 transmission lines are considered to be candidate
according to (9). The lines with maximum μN H will be sent to lines. The structures of the original Jacobian matrix and sen-
the next stage for identification.
sitivity matrix are shown in Fig. 7. The number of nonzero
Step 6: (Evaluating stage) For each selected line obtained
elements of each matrix is 1421 and 428, respectively, showing
in the ranking stage, compute the exact SSSM of the post-
that it can be obtained quickly by sparse techniques.
switching system. Identify the best topology solutions.
At the screening stage, the eigenvalue variations λ
Step 7: Output the top line-switching schemes and their
of 11 candidate lines have negative real parts. The first
corresponding SSSMs.
10 candidates are sent to the ranking stage and the results
are shown in Table I, where i and j denote node numbers con-
VI. N UMERICAL R ESULTS nected by the lth line. λ is obtained using (15). The exact
The proposed three-stage method has been evaluated on value λN − λ as well as the approximate μN H are obtained at
the 10-machine New-England power system, the 19-machine the ranking stage.
IEEE 118-bus system, and the 57-machine IEEE 300-bus Numerical results show that the linear estimation in the
system. The generators, except those adopting the classical screening stage can be inaccurate for certain line-switching
LI et al.: ONLINE LINE SWITCHING METHOD FOR ENHANCING SSSM OF POWER SYSTEMS 4431

Fig. 7. The structure of an original Jacobian matrix and the sensitivity matrix
of the New-England system.

TABLE I
T HE F IRST 10 L INES W ITH E STIMATED AND ACTUAL E IGENVALUE
D EVIATION OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM

Fig. 8. Eigenvalues of the critical forecasting point and the post-switching

system for the 10-machine system.

TABLE II
SSSM S OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM

Fig. 9. Eigenvalue loci of a 10-machine post-switching system due to load

increases.
cases, such as switching out line 3. This is one key reason
why the ranking stage is necessary. The Newton method with
the initial value failed to find the equilibrium point of the post-
system are shown in Fig. 9. Observe that the mode arriv-
switching system of 1st line. Switching out any other line listed
ing first to the imaginary axis has been changed after line
in Table I does increase the SSSM of the system. For instance,
switching. Line switching not only changes the eigenvalue
switching out the line between Bus-2 and Bus-3 increases the
locations of the current operating point but may also alter
SSSM of the system from 2.031 to 3.217. The top 3 lines
the most sensitive mode due to variations in load and power
obtained in the ranking stage are sent to the evaluating stage to
generation.
compute the SSSMs, as shown in Table II. We note that switch-
An explicit method is adopted to verify the result obtained
ing out line 2 is the best solution while switching out other
by the proposed method. In the explicit method, the exact
lines increases the SSSM of the corresponding post-switching
SSSMs for all candidate lines are computed. The five top-
system.
ranked lines are listed in Table III.
The modes of the original system and the post-switching
In Table III, l, i, and j have the same meaning as that in
system at μ = μH are shown in Fig. 8 where the optimal
Table I; k denotes the actual ranked order of the lth line. It can
line is chosen as the target line. It is obvious that switch-
be observed that the proposed method obtains the best 3 lines
ing out the line between Bus-2 and Bus-3 will stabilize the
to be switched.
critical mode. In this case, switching out the line also ben-
efits the other modes with a damping ratio of less than 5%.
The damping ratio of the post-switching system at μ = μH B. 19-Machine Power System
has been increased to 5.44%. Hence, a proper line switching The 19-machine system contains 19 generators and 99 loads.
can improve the damping ratio of the critical mode of the The number of transmission lines is 177. Generators on Buses
look-ahead system. The eigenvalue loci of the post-switching 12, 31, 46, 87, 103, and 111 use a 3-order model and the
4432 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 9, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018

TABLE III TABLE IV

SSSM S OF THE T OP -R ANKED P OST-S WITCHING T HE F IRST 10 L INES W ITH E STIMATED AND ACTUAL E IGENVALUE
S YSTEMS BY THE E XPLICIT M ETHOD D EVIATION OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM

TABLE V
SSSM OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM

Fig. 10. Eigenvalue loci of a 19-machine system due to increases in load

and generation.

others adopt a two-axis model. The total active and reac-

tive load power of the current operating point is 4242MW
and 1438 MVar, respectively. Suppose that the near-term load
demands on 10 nodes from Bus-43 to Bus-52 are 120% of the
current operating point and that generators on Buses 10 and
12 are scheduled to supply the load increase.
The SSSM of the system is obtained at μH = 1.902
where the increased active load power is 265MW. As the
load increases, the mode −0.6190 ± j3.4009 first reaches to
the imaginary axis. The modes of the current and critical
forecasting points are shown in Fig. 10.
In this case, all 177 lines are assumed to be candidate lines. Fig. 11. Eigenvalues of the critical loading point and those of the
corresponding post-switching system for the 19-machine system.
At the screening stage, 114 lines are detected as being able to
stabilize the critical mode. The first 10 candidate lines are then
sent to the ranking stage with the results shown in Table IV.
the 3-order model. The total active load power of the cur-
In Table IV, the result obtained by the ranking stage is listed
rent operating point is 23 525.85MW. In the numerical test,
in the last column of Table IV. The top 3 lines ranked at the
the near-term active load power demand on 15 loads at bus
ranking stage are then sent to the evaluating stage for detailed
5 through bus 25 are supposed to be 120% of the current
evaluation.
operating point. Eight generators at bus 198 through bus 220
We observe from Table V that switching out line 6 improves
and bus 230 through 239 are scheduled to balance the load
the SSSM of the system to a satisfactory extent. The result of
demands.
switching out the 6th line is shown in Fig. 11. The critical
The SSSM of the base case is obtained at μH = 2.396
mode of the original system becomes the sub-sensitive mode
where the total increased load power is 1247.20MW. As the
of the post-switching system. The SSSM of the post-switching
load increases, the mode that arrives first at the imaginary
system is determined by another mode, −0.8538 ± j4.5758.
axis is −0.4055 ± j1.4854. The eigenvalue loci due to load
increasing are shown in Fig. 12.
C. 57-Machine Power System For this case, all lines are assumed to be candidate lines.
The IEEE 300-bus power system contains 304 transmis- In the screening stage, the eigenvalue deviations of 102 lines
sion lines, 57 generators, and 201 loads. All generators adopt have negative real parts. The top 15 lines are then sent to the
LI et al.: ONLINE LINE SWITCHING METHOD FOR ENHANCING SSSM OF POWER SYSTEMS
Fig. 12. Eigenvalue loci of a 57-machine system due to increases in load
and generation.
TABLE VI
T HE T OP -R ANKED L INES W ITH E STIMATED AND ACTUAL E IGENVALUE
D EVIATION OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM
TABLE VII
SSSM OF THE P OST-S WITCHING S YSTEM
ranking stage to estimate the post-switching system SSSMs.
In the ranking stage, the Newton method failed to compute
post-switching system equilibrium points for 2 lines, and an
additional 6 lines were verified as being unstable. The results
for the other 7 lines are shown in Table VI. The 3 top-ranked
lines obtained in the ranking stage are then sent to the eval-
uating stage for detailed evaluation. The results are shown in
Table VII.
It can be observed from Table VII that switching out
line 6 or 14 can improve the SSSM of the system by more than
20%, and switching out line 14 is the best choice. The eigen-
value loci of the post-switching system, with respect to the 14th
line, are shown in Fig. 13. For the post-switching system, the
Hopf bifurcation is determined by mode −0.5513 ± j2.2925,
which arrives first at the imaginary axis due to the increasing
load.
4433
Fig. 13. Eigenvalues of the critical loading point and those of the
corresponding post-switching system for the 57-machine system.
TABLE VIII
E LAPSED T IME OF A LL T EST S YSTEMS
D. Discussion
Evaluation work for all test systems was performed on
a desktop computer with Intel Core i5 CPU and a 64-bit
operating system. Detailed information on the elapsed time
is shown in Table VIII. Since the generalized eigenval-
ues of (J, T) are equal to the eigenvalue of the state
matrix A, in practical implementation of the method, the
calculation of generalized eigenvalues is reduced to com-
puting the eigenvalues of A by using the Matlab function
‘eig’. The order in Table VIII denotes the order of the state
matrix.
In addition, compared to an exhaustive method, the
proposed method has an obvious advantage in computing time.
Taking the 10-machine system as an example, the total elapsed
time for the exhaustive method is 5.82s. However, only 1.73s
is cost by the proposed method.
The effectiveness of line switching to enhance power system
SSSMs depends on the power system topology, operating
condition, and the forecasting load demands and generation
dispatching. It is still possible that, for some power systems
with specific operating conditions, switching any single line
will lead to a decrease in the SSSM. Although the effect
of the line switching method will differ for different cases,
the proposed method can be applied to identify high quality
lines.
In some cases, the action of switching out a single line may
be insufficient to increase a desired SSSM if two or more sen-
sitive modes move close to the imaginary axis as μ increases
4434
Fig. 14. Eigenvalues of the critical forecasting point and post-switching
system for a 163-machine system.
to μH , as shown in Fig. 14. For these cases, switching more
lines may stabilize all of these modes. However, computation
is the better way to determine the effectiveness.
Additionally, line switching may affect the thermal volt-
age limits and transient stability of the system. Considering
all of these aspects, the optimal topology result may change.
Further study is needed to consider all of these static as well
as dynamic constraints.
VII. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented a three-stage method for online
line switching to enhance the look-ahead base-case SSSMs
of power systems. A design goal of the methodology is
to balance speed (for online computation) and effective-
ness (for quality of line switching solutions). The proposed
methodology employs the strategy of screening, ranking,
and evaluating to find a set of high-quality line switching
solutions from which operators can select their preferred
choice. Detailed modeling of the method, as well as
numerical schemes for implementing the proposed method,
have been given. Numerical tests on 10-, 19-, and 57-
machine systems verified the effectiveness of the proposed
online method in enhancing power system SSSMs via line
switching.
There are several possible extensions of the present work.
One extension is a network topology optimization for increas-
ing load margins by combining switched in/out transmission
lines and controller parameter adjustments, or real power
rescheduling. Extensions of the proposed 3-stage methodology
to deal with the look-ahead base case as well as multiple possi-
ble contingencies and multiple scenarios of renewable energy
are also very much needed.
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Chongtao Li received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2005 and 2013, respectively.
He is currently a Lecturer of electrical engineering with Xi’an Jiaotong
University. His research interest includes power system small-signal stability
analysis and control.
4435
Hsiao-Dong Chiang (M’87–SM’91–F’97) received the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California at
Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. He is a Professor with the School of Electrical
and Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. He and his
research team have published over 350 papers in refereed journals and con-
ference proceedings. He holds 17 U.S. and overseas patents and several
consultant positions. He has authored two books entitled Direct Methods for
Stability Analysis of Electric Power Systems: Theoretical Foundation, BCU
Methodologies, and Applications (Wiley: New York, NY, USA, 2011) and
(with L. F. C. Alberto) Stability Regions of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems:
Theory, Estimation, and Applications (Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge,
U.K., 2015). He has served as an Associate Editor for several IEEE
T RANSACTIONS and journals.
Zhengchun Du (M’12) received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 1983, 1986, and
1993, respectively. He is currently a Professor of electrical engineering with
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. His research interest includes power
system stability analysis and control.