On The Computation of The Locally Closest Bifurcation Point Considering Loading Uncertainties and Reactive Power Limits

Voltage stability assessment on a deterministic direction of loading variation may provide misleadingly high values of voltage stability margin due to uncertainties in load forecast. On the other hand, by disregarding loading forecast information and computing the worst case scenario, we may obtain unrealistic and very conservative margin values. This paper proposes a new voltage stability index that takes place between these two approaches. In this proposal, a set of credible loading variation directions is considered and the closest bifurcation point is determined within this set. A fast method for computation of this index is also proposed. The method is able to detect both saddle-node and limit-induced bifurcations. The efficiency of the proposed method is confirmed by means of numerical simulation on different power systems. (AU)