Application of Neural Network in Voltage Stability
Assessment in Real-Time Power Market
Tran Phuong Nam Dinh Thanh Viet
Hue Industrial College Danang University of Technology
70 Nguyen Hue, Hue, Vietnam 54 Nguyen Luong Bang, Danang, Vietnam
tpnam@hueic.edu.vn dtviet@dut.udn.vn
Abstract—In recent decades, the operation of the power system
under the power market mechanism has been researched and
applied by many countries. Voltage stability assessment in real-
time power market (spot market) not only ensures safety of the
power system but also improves efficiency of power market. The
larger power system and the more plants join in the power
market, the more research and analysis on voltage stability
assessment should be done. This paper proposes a new algorithm
of Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network application into
fast voltage stability assessment in the power market (FVSA-
PM). This paper also put forward FVSA-PM model in real-time
power market through the SCADA/EMS. PowerWorld simulator
and Matlab software are chosen to build up the calculation
program. The test model is based on data of 39-bus IEEE power
system.
Keywords-Power market, voltage stability, voltage sensitivity,
neural network, SCADA/EMS.
I. INTRODUCTION
Voltage stability has become an increasingly important
factor in the operation and planning of power system. Voltage
stability is a fundamental component of dynamic security
assessment and it has been emerged as a major concern for
power system security and a main limit for loading and power
transfer. Voltage stability is usually expressed in term of
stability margin, which is defined as the difference between
load ability limit and the current operating load level [13, 14].
Voltage stability in real-time power market not only
ensures safety of the power system but also improves
efficiency of power market [1, 2]. In real-time power market,
due to the ever-changing operating conditions and various
unforeseen factors associated with large power systems, off-
line stability studies can no longer ensure a secure operation of
the power system. Online stability assessment is based on real-
time direct measurements and gives better estimates of the
security of the power system. Online voltage stability
monitoring is becoming an integral part of modern day Energy
Management Systems (EMS) [4-6]. In this paper, a new
algorithm based on voltages sensitivity and neural network
application is proposed for fast voltage stability assessment in
the power market (FVSA-PM).
978-1-4673-4584-2/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 196
La Van Ut
Hanoi University of Science and Technology
01 Dai Co Viet, Hanoi, Vietnam
utlavan@yahoo.com
II. OPTIMAL POWER FLOW AND VOLTAGE STABILITY IN
POWER MARKET
A. Bid and auction in power market
In the day-ahead or hour-ahead markets, the Generation
Companies (GenCos) and the Distribution Companies
(DisCos) must submit the quotations for Market Operation
(MO). The quotation, which is expressed by the electricity
capacity levels and electricity pricing, will show the supply
and demand curves of GenCos and DisCos.
Figure 1. Bid and auction of a case.
Auction in the power market is operated by MO, which is
based on the quotations of the buyer and the seller. The
auction is arranged according to the capacity ranges from low
to high price for supply curves and vice versa for demand
curves. If quotations of the demand curve are not requested, it
will be perpendicular to the MW-axis with a value is the total
of demand capacity [11, 12].
B. Optimal power flow
After the System Operation (SO) get the quotations from
the GenCos as described above, these quotations can be
approximated to the quadratic function or higher degree
function of capacity. Simulator software of the power market
such as PowerWorld simulator also has this feature. This is the
basis for calculating the cost of each GenCo at transaction
cycles when the payment is made [10, 11, 16]:
C Gi = a i + b i PGi + c i PGi2 (1)
IPEC 2012
 The objective function in the distributed optimal power
flow of electricity market is a minimum objective function of
operating cost in total:

¦ (a )
Ng
C = F (PG ) = i + b i PGi + c i PGi2 (1)
i =1

At the same time, satisfying the balanced condition of the

real power in the power system:

¦ (2)
Ng
i =1
PGi = Pl + Δ P Figure 2. Q-V characteristic curve of a case.

With limits: A sensitivity which given the variation of bus i voltage

magnitude due to a unit reactive power injection to bus j is
called the reactive power voltage sensitivity. The linearized
PGi (min) ≤ PGi ≤ PGi (max) (3) steady state system power voltage equations are given by [10]:

Q Gi (min) ≤ Q Gi ≤ Q Gi (max) (4) ª Δ P º ª J Pθ J PV º ª Δ θ º

«ΔQ » = « J
(6)
¬ ¼ ¬ Qθ J QV »¼ «¬ Δ V »¼
V i (min) ≤ V i ≤ V i (max) (5)
The Jacobian matrix in (6) is that used when the power
Where: flow equations are solved by the Newton-Raphson technique.
Although system voltages are affected by both P and Q, P can
Ng: Number of generators in the system. be kept constant at each specified operating point and the
voltage variations can be evaluated by considering the
Pl: Total real power of demand. incremental relationship between Q and V. As a consequence,
making null the incremental changes in P in (6), and the
P: Total loss of real power in transmission. following relation Q − V results:

ai, bi, ci: Factors of cost curve of GenCoi. Δ V = J R−1 Δ Q (7)

PGi(min), PGi(max), QGi(min), QGi(max): Real power with upper Finally, the matrix JR-1, which is associated to all the PQ
bound and lower bound of GenCos. buses of the system, can be obtained from this last system,

QGi(min), QGi(max): Reactive power with upper bound and ΔV

J R−1 = (8)
lower bound of GenCos. ΔQ
Vi(min), Vi(max): Voltage with upper bound and lower bound From (8), element i on principal diagonal of the matrix JR-1
of bus i. is the sensitivity of the voltage for reactive power at bus i.
C. Voltage stability
In recent years, power transmission systems become III. APLICATION OF MLP NEURAL NETWORK TO ASSESS
heavily loaded and more stressed due to increased loads and VOLTAGE STABILITY IN POWER MARKET
large inter-utility power transfers. Efficient system operation is
becoming increasingly threatened because of problems of A. MLP neural network structure
voltage instability and voltage collapse. The P-V curve-based input layer hidden layer output layer
and Q-V curve-based margins are the two most widely-used
static methods for voltage security assessment [13, 14]. Many
studies show that the voltage stability is often heavily p1 . . .
. . . .
influenced by reactive power [3, 7, 14]. . . . .
.
Figure 2 shows a typical Q-V curve, which is usually p2
generated by a series of load-flow solutions. Figure 2 shows a .
voltage stability limit at the point where the derivative dQ/dV . . . .
. . . .
is zero. This point also defines the minimum reactive power pn . . .
requirement for a stable operation [13]. An increase in Q will
result an increase in voltage during normal operating
conditions. Hence, if the operating point is on the right side of
the curve, the system is said to be stable. Conversely, Figure 3. MLP neural network structure.
operating points in the left side of the graph are deemed to be
unstable.

197
 For the commonly used artificial neural networks such as
Multi-layer Perceptrons (MLP), the design of the network
involves all the layers of the network simultaneously. The
hidden layer applies non-linear transformation from the input
space to the hidden space. The output layer is a linear
combination of the activations in the hidden layer. The weights
in the output layer are found by using linear optimization
techniques [15].
B. MLP neural network design
Normally, the process of designing a neural network
consists following steps:
- Step 1: Determine problems
- Step 2: Determine input and output variables
- Step 3: Collect data
- Step 4: Pre-process data
- Step 5: Select the neural network model
- Step 6: Network training
- Step 7: Network test
- Step 8: Adjust network
C. Back-propagation neural network
Back-propagation neural network learning algorithm
consists of two phases. First, a training input pattern is
presented to the network input layer. Then, the network will
propagate the input pattern from layer to layer until the output
pattern is generated at the end output layer. If the output
pattern doesn't match the desired output, the error will be
calculated and then propagated backwards from the output
layer to the input layer. The weight will be corrected as it
propagates to reduce the error until the actual output matches
the desired output.
D. Aplication of MLP neural network for fast voltage
stability assessment in the power market (FVSA-PM)
Artificial neural networks have gained widespread attention
from researchers in recent years as a tool for online voltage
stability assessment. Due to the non-linear nature of the voltage
stability assessment problem, neural networks are better used
over conventional analytical methods of voltage stability
analysis [15]. Neural networks can learn complex non-linear
relationships through a set of input/output examples. In other
words, neural networks can approximate the functional
relationship among the power system parameters of interest.
There are many works reported on online voltage stability
monitoring in the literature, exploring the capability of the
neural network to approximate functional relationship between
a voltage stability indicator and the measurable power system
parameters that affect the chosen voltage stability index [5-9].
Before the system can assess the voltage stability, first it
has to have knowledge by learning. In order to achieve this,
MLP neural network must be trained with a set of training data
to get the acceptable stabilized data. To ensure MLP neural
network is not over trained or under trained, a suitable set of
198
weights is very important. The weights specify the strength of
influence.
Start
Create input vectors
Create learning matrix
Initial Epochs=0
Initial neural network
Epochs=epochs+1
Neural network training
F
Stop condition
T
F
Network test
T
Result of voltage stability assessment
End
Figure 4. Flow chart of MLP neural network trainning to assess voltage
stability in power market.
A MLP neural network can be used to assess voltage
stability at the buses. Equations (1) and (8) show that voltage
sensitivity dV/dQ depends not only on basic parameters of real
power (P), reactive power (Q), and voltage magnitude (V) at
buses but also on quotations of GenCos (a, b, c factor). These
quantities are selected as input variables in the assessment of
dV/dQ using the MLP neural network. The MLP neural
network consists of six neurons in the input layer, 50 neurons
in the hidden layer and a single neuron in the output layer.
Database for the input vector in the following form [PgT, QgT,
PlT, QlT, VT, CgT] where PgT, QgT, PlT, and QlT are the real and
reactive power in generator as well as load buses respectively,
VT is vector of bus voltages and CgT is vector of bid price levels
of GenCos in real-time power market. The output of the MLP
neural network is the voltage stability assessment dV/dQ at the
load bus. Activation functions in the input and hidden layers
are tansig activation functions while the output layer uses
purelin activation functions [15].
IV. CASE STUDIES
A. Test model
To assess revenues, expenses and profits of distributed
generation, participating in the power market, the paper
proposed calculation model with 39-bus IEEE power system
(New England) [16].
 Figure 6. Real output dV/dQ in PowerWorld.

Figure 5. 39-bus IEEE power system.
The calculation has been run by computer configured CPU
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0 GHz 6GB RAM with PowerWorld
simulator 13 [17] and Matlab software 2009 [18]. Parameters
of GenCos have been showed in Table I. At the time of
calculation it would be suggested that the GenCos has offer
price, corresponding to the marginal cost of each power plant.
Findings from Figure 7 show that the application of MLP
neural network in FVSA-PM is feasible by Matlab software.
Sensitivity error between the real value and the value assessed
by MLP neural network is very small and within tolerable limit
(under 1%). Additionally, the sensitivity value dV/dQ of bus 12
and bus 28 is the highest. MLP neural network has reliable
calculation results.

TABLE I. DATA OF GENCOS

GenCo b ($/MW) c ($/MW2) Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW)
G30 6.9 0.019 100 350
G31 3.7 0.011 100 1150
G32 2.8 0.01 100 750
G33 4.7 0.009 100 732
G34 2.8 0.013 100 608
G35 3.7 0.009 100 750
G36 4.8 0.01 100 660
G37 3.6 0.011 100 640
G38 3.7 0.007 100 930
G39 3.9 0.006 100 1100

B. Caculation results and discussion

When optimal power flow in the power market is applied,
voltage of load buses should be much changed. Therefore, Figure 7. Comparison between MLP output dV/dQ and real output dV/dQ.

voltage stability assessment should be focused in the load From Figure 8, similar surveys with different load values
buses. For that reason, this paper concentrates on analyzing 17 such as 90%, 100%, 110%, and 120% also show positive
load buses in 39-bus IEEE power system. results. Error of sensitivity value dV/dQ is small and within
From analysis for the case of 80% loads by PowerWorld tolerable limit.
simulator (Figure 6), the real output sensitivity value dV/dQ at
the buses has been showed on color levels. It is clear to see that
bus 12 and bus 28 have the highest sensitivity dV/dQ value so
voltage of these buses is least stable.

199
 will be used to assess voltage stability in real-time power
market.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper analyzes application of MLP neural networks
for fast voltage stability assessment in the power market
(FVSA-PM). In the optimal power flow of power market,
change of voltage sensitivity depends not only on basic
parameters at buses but also on quotations of GenCos.
Calculated and analyzed results are very satisfactory.
Therefore, the proposal of MLP neural network with input
Figure 8. Error dV/dQ for the load cases. vector containing the bid price levels vector of GenCos is
proper and important.
Also, from Table II, the average error of sensitivity indicates
Concurrently, voltage stability assessment model in real-
the positive results conducted from different load cases. time power market through the SCADA/EMS is an important
proposal. This contributes considerably to power system
TABLE II. SENSITIVITY ERROR ASSESSMENT FOR THE LOAD CASES
dispatch. This proposal is even more significant when the
Error (%) power system is getting wider and a number of GenCos
participating in the power market is increasing.
Min Max Average

80% Loads 0.0150 0.8416 0.24075 REFERENCES

90% Loads 0.0001 1.0814 0.28954 [1] W. Rosehart, C. Canizares, and V. Quintana, “Optimal power flow
incorporating voltage collapse constraints,” vol. 2, July 1999, pp. 820–
100% Loads 0.0005 0.0778 0.02442 825.
110% Loads 0.0055 0.4027 0.13151 [2] F. Milano, C. A. Canizares, and M. Invernizzi, “Voltage stability
constrained OPF market models considering N-1 contingency criteria,”
120% Loads 0.0092 0.9273 0.1625 Electric Power System Research, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 27–36, March 2005.
[3] Wenjuan Zhang, Fangxing Li, “Review of reactive power planning:
C. Proposed FVSA-PM model in real-time power market Objectives, contraints, and algorithms”, IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, Vol. 22, No. 4, November 2007, pp. 2177-2186.
Signals from Bid price levels [4] N. Balu et al., “ On-line Power system Security Analysis”, Proceedings
of the IEEE, Vol. 80, No. 2, February 1992, pp262-280.
RTU/IED from GenCos
[5] D. J. Sobajic, Neural Network Computing for the Electric Power
Industry, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1993.
[6] A. A. El-Keib, X. Ma, “Application of Artificial Neural Networks in
Off-line dV/dQ Telecommunication Voltage Stability Assessment”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems,
calculation system Vol. 10, No. 4, November 1995, pp. 1890-1896.
[7] L. Chen, K. Tomsovic, A. Bose, R. Stuart, “Estimating Reactive
Marginfor Determining Transfer Limits”, IEEE Power Engineering
Society Summer Meeting, Seatle, USA, July 2000.
MLP neural network [8] J. A. Refaee, M. Mohandes, H. Mghrabi, “Radial Basis Function
MLP training for On-line dV/dQ Networks for Contingency Analysis of Bulk Power Systems”, IEEE
data assessment Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 14, No. 2, May 1999, pp. 772-778.
[9] T. Jain, L. Srivastava, S. N. Singh, “Fast Voltage Contingency Screening
Using Radial Basis Function Neural Network”, IEEE Transactions on
Voltage stability Power Systems, Vol. 18, No. 4, November 2003, pp. 1359-1366.
assessment [10] Hadi Saadat, Power system analysis, McGraw Hill, New York, 1999.
[11] Daniel Kirschen, Goran Strbac, Fundamentals of Power System
Figure 9. FVSA-PM model in real-time power market. Economics, John Wiley & Sons, England, 2004.
[12] Mohammad Shahidehpour, Hatim Yamin, Zuyi Li, Market Operations in
SCADA/EMS is an important part of the SMART GRID. Electric Power Systems, John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
Voltage stability assessment model of real-time power market [13] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control, McGraw Hill, New
is proposed in Figure 9. In this proposed model, the quotations York, 1994.
of day-ahead or hour-ahead markets are sent from GenCos; [14] Taylor C. W., Power System Voltage Stability, McGraw-Hill Inc., New
York 1994.
signals from RTU and IED via telecommunication system.
[15] T. S. Dillon, D. Neibur, Neural Networks Applications in Power
MLP neural network is applied in the voltage stability Systems, CRS, 1996.
assessment software from SCADA/EMS program as proposed [16] M. A. Pai, Energy Function Analysis for Power System Stability,
above. In off-line, power market analysis software creates Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1989.
database for MLP neural network training. After the neural [17] PowerWorld Simulator, Version 13.0 SCOPF, PVQV, PowerWorld
network is trained, on-line software of MLP neural network Corporation, 1816 South Oak St., Champaign, IL, 61820, 2005.
[18] Matlab. [Online]. Available: http://www.mathworks.com/.

200