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Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Nov 2010

Point of Collapse Constrained ATC Enhancement

with TCSC
J.Vara Prasad1, D. Suresh Babu2
1, 2

Gyan Ganga Institute of Technology & Management/Electrical Department, Bhopal, India

1
Email: jvara234@gmail.com 2 Email: sureshbabudaram@gmail.com

Abstract Available transfer capability (ATC) is a

measure of the network capability for commercial
transactions in the recent deregulated power system network
beyond committed demand. Enhancement of dynamic
stability constraint ATC with conventional methods may not
yield to satisfactory operation. Hence, in this paper a novel
approach of incorporating Thyristor Controlled Series
Capacitor (TCSC) in the system for enhancement of ATC
under stress condition is introduced. The line which is
relatively overloaded is considered for installation of TCSC
and its impact on ATC is analyzed. The case study has been
performed on WSCC 9-bus system.
Index Terms Point of Collapse, ATC, TCSC, Convergence
method

linear incremental power flow the sensitivity factors are

simple to define and easy to calculate [3, 4]. The major
disadvantage of the linearized approach is that, it does not
take into account the non-linear effects of reactive power
and voltage [5]. Moreover, the methods based on power
transfer/outage distribution factors [6, 7] can cater only to
the scenario that are too close to the base case from which
the factors are derived. OPF and security-constrained OPF
are widely used for pool type transaction or power
corridors between the power system in determining ATC or
TTC [8-10]. However, in the case of open access power
system, transaction may occur between any two points.
CPF is first introduced for determining the maximum
loadability. However, it is adaptable for other applications
including ATC computation. The advantage of CPF is that
it will not encounter numerical difficulties of ill
conditioned power flow equations. Thus, CPF yields
solutions even at voltage collapse points [10, 11]. Earlier
use of CPF in determining ATC [12] reveals that the
complexity and computational time increases with the
introduction of contingencies.
In this paper, the Point of Collapse (is also known as
voltage collapse) constrained ATC is obtained using
repeated N-R power flow on a WSCC 9-bus system.

I. INTRODUCTION
The power system transfer capability indicates the
quantity of inter-area power transfers that can be
increased without compromising system security. Accurate
identification of this capability
provides
vital
information for both planning and operation of the
bulk power system. Repeated estimates of transfer
capabilities are needed to ensure that the combined effects
of power transfers do not cause an undue risk of system
overloads,
equipment
damage,
or
blackouts.
However, an excessive conservative
estimate
of
transfer capability unnecessarily limits the power transfer
transactions in the system. Moreover, it results in a costly
and inefficient use of the network. Power transfers are
increasing both in amount and in variety as deregulation
proceeds. Indeed such power transfers are necessary for a
competitive market for electric power. There are a very
strong economic incentive to improve the accuracy
and effectiveness of transfer capability computations
for system operators, planners and power traders.
Available transfer capability is a measure of the transfer
capability remaining in the physical transmission network
for further commercial activity over and above already
committed uses. Mathematically, ATC is defined as the
Total Transfer Capability (TTC) less the Transmission
Reliability Margin (TRM), less the sum of Existing
Transmission Commitments (ETC), which includes retail
customer service and the capacity benefit margin [1],
ATC = TTCTRMETC
In recent years, following three major approaches have
been suggested for the calculation of ATC.
(i) Sensitivity analysis
(ii) Optimal power flow (OPF)
(iii) Continuation power flow (CPF)
Sensitivity analysis is the earliest solution proposed for
the ATC approximation value calculation [1, 2]. Based on
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II. . POINT OF COLLAPSE

The term Point of Collapse is generally used to refer
to the shutdown of a power system resulting from an
inability to maintain adequate voltage levels. Under
extremes of system loading the situation may well be
different [12]. A phenomenon, which characterizes the
process of voltage collapse, may see the same automatic
control action actually reducing an already low voltage.
Voltage levels would steadily deteriorate until all control
action had ceased. The resulting low voltage may not be
sustainable. There will be some minimum level below
which one would not expect the continuity of electricity
supply to be maintained. As voltages progressively fell,
there may come a point when circuit protection systems
ceased to be suitable and operated; whether as a direct
result of the low voltage are the consequential effect of
angular instability which may well occur at low voltage.
Whichever the cause, the cascade tripping of circuits would
be likely and ultimately the system would shutdown. The
sequence of events leading to collapse may take only
minutes. The challenge facing power system control
engineers is to recognize conditions which might lead to
voltage collapse and to avoid the risk of it occurring whilst
not unduly compromising his objective of dispatch in
generation in an economic order. So, it is worthwhile to
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Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Nov 2010
investigate the voltage collapse point before permitted
bilateral transactions.

IV. STATIC MODEL OF TCSC

In this section, we look at treating enhancing the voltage
constraint available transfer capability with the help of
Flexible AC Transmission (FACTS) devices. One of them
namely Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC). The
concept of FACTS was first proposed by Hingorini [13].
FACTS devices have the ability to allow power system to
operate in a more flexible, secure, economic and
sophisticated way. Generation patterns that lead to heavy
line flow result in higher losses, and weaken security and
stability. Such patterns are economically undesirable.
Further, transmission constrains make certain combination
of generation and demand unviable due to the potential of
outages. In such situations, FACTS devices may be used to
improve system performance by controlling power flows in
the grid. The increased presence of independent Gencos in
the deregulated scenario, the operation of power system
would require more sophisticated means of power control.
FACTS devices can meet that need.
The TCSCs are connected in series with the line. The
effect of a TCSC on the network can be seen as a
controllable reactance inserted in the related transmission
line that compensates for the inductive reactance of the
line. This reduces the transfer reactance between the busses
to which the line is connected. This leads to an increase in
the maximum power that can be transferred on that line in
addition to a reduction in the effective reactive power
losses. The series capacitors also contribute to an
improvement in the voltage profiles.Fig1 shows a model of
a transmission line with a TCSC between busses p and q.

III. DETERMINATION OF POINT OF VOLTAGE COLLAPSE

The repeated power flow solutions, which repeatedly
solves power flow equations at a succession of points along
specified load, generation increment, is used in the network
for tracing the fall of voltage. For this method the NewtonRaphson method in polar co-ordinates is used.
Newton-Raphson Power Flow Solution:
The complex power at bus p is

Expanding the last two equations in Taylors series about

the initial estimate and neglecting the all higher order terms
results in the set of linear equations. In the above equations,
bus 1 is assumed to be slack bus. The Jacobian matrix gives
the linearized relationship between small changes in
"
"
voltage angle !
and voltage magnitude !
with
small changes in real and reactive power
and !

"

. Elements of Jacobian matrix are the partial

derivatives of
and
, evaluated at !
In short form it can be written as
!
# $
!

"

%
#
%'

%& !
$#
$
%( !) )

"

and !

"

The diagonal elements of % , %& + %' and %( are found using

,
,
,
,
+
+
.
,
,
,
,
Similarly for off-diagonal elements in the place of p, q is
used in the denominator terms for the above diagonal
elements. The power residuals, given by
!

"

/01

"

"

/01

"

Figure 1. Model of TCSC

The transmission line is represented by its lumped equivalent parameters connected between the two buses.
During the steady state, the TCSC can be considered as a
static reactance -jXC. This controllable reactance, XC, is
directly used as the control variable to be implemented in
the power flow equation.
Let the complex voltages at bus p and bus q be denoted
as 8
and 8
respectively. The complex power
flowing from bus p to bus q can be expressed as

The new estimates for bus voltages are

"4
"4

"

5!
"

"

5!

"

The load at receiving bus is increased gradually with

equal increments and with constant power factor, until the
Newton-Raphson is not converged. After this point
decrease the load at same bus with small steps that is less
than the previous increased steps until the NR method is
converged. This loading point (PVSCLoad) indicates the Point
of Voltage Collapse for any further increment in load.

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&

;<

5 =0 >

The active and reactive

can be calculated as

82

<
power

5 =
loss

in the

line

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Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Nov 2010
5

?
&
?

&

<

<

5
&

*
5

&

5 =0
<

These equations are used to model the TCSC in the power

flow formulations.
V. ATC CALCULATION
A. Stability constrained values:
The voltage stability constrained system transfer
capability can be evaluated as
@@A

?B

CDE?FGH

Figure 2. Single line diagram of WSCC 9 bus system

The following transactions have been considered.

1.

2.

Here CDE?FGH is maximum loading limit at sink bus

obtained as explained in section III. And
?B is the
summation of base case real power loads at all buses except
sink bus in that area.
Similarly, the stability constrained available transfer
capability can be evaluated as
I@A

@@A

Here
busses.

?JB

?JB

3.
4.
5.

6.

is the summation of real power loads at all

7.

B. Enhanced values:
Incorporation of TCSC in maximum loaded line with
certain compensation level (preferably up to 40%) can
increase ATC values. After placing TCSC on setting
compensation level, the procedure is repeatedly carried out
as described in section V (A) for different transactions.

8.

VI. RESULTS

12.

9.
10.
11.

The WSCC 9 bus system has been considered for

simulation studies. In a deregulated environment power
transfer can occur in practice between any two points.
Some typical transactions between generator bus and load
buses are considered for illustration purpose. In all the
considered transactions, both real and reactive loads are
increased with constant power factor. To verify the impact
of TCSC several transactions and contingency cases are
considered. The one line diagram of WSCC 9 bus system is
given in figure 2.

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13.

14.

15.

16.

83

Transaction T1 generator 1 alone supplies the

increase in load at bus 7
Transaction T2 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with line outage 4-9
Transaction T3 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with line outage 6-7
Transaction T4 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9
Transaction T5 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with line outage 4-9
Transaction T6 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with line outage 6-7
Transaction T7 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with TCSC in line 4-9
Transaction T8 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with TCSC in line 6-7
Transaction T9 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with TCSC in line 4-9 & 6-7
Transaction T10 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with TCSC in line 4-9
Transaction T11 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with TCSC in line 6-7
Transaction T12 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with TCSC in line 4-9 & 6-7
Transaction T13 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with TCSC in line 4-9& line
outage 6-7
Transaction T14 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 7 with TCSC in line 6-7 & line
outage 4-9
Transaction T15 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with TCSC in line 4-9& line
outage 6-7
Transaction T16 generator 1 alone supplies the
increase in load at bus 9 with TCSC in line 6-7& line
outage 4-9

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Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Nov 2010

TABLE-I.
VOLTAGE CONSTRAINED ATC VALUES.
Transaction No

Source/Sink

Line Outage

VSATC(MW)

T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6

1/7
1/7
1/7
1/9
1/9
1/9

4-9
6-7
4-9
6-7

342.00
168.10
156.50
254.50
28.60
226.20

TABLE-II.
ENHANCED ATC VALUES WITH TCSC.

Transaction No

Source/Sink

TCSC Location

T7

1/7

T8

1/7

TCSC Compensation & VSATC (MW)

10%

20%

30%

40%

4-9

344.90

347.80

350.50

353.10

6-7

348.90

354.80

359.80

363.90

T9

1/7

4-9&6-7

352.10

362.09

371.70

381.10

T10

1/9

4-9

270.10

285.60

300.00

320.10

T11

1/9

6-7

256.20

256.80

257.30

258.30

T12

1/9

4-9&6-7

271.10

276.20

295.50

316.00

TABLE-III.
ATC VALUES WITH TCSC & N-1 CONTINGENCY.
TCSC Compensation & VSATC (MW)

Transaction No

Source/Sink

TCSC / Outage

10%

20%

30%

40%

T13

1/7

4-9/6-7

160.00

161.10

162.30

163.20

T14

1/7

6-7/4-9

173.00

174.80

176.80

178.60

T15

1/9

4-9/6-7

254.00

265.60

287.40

310.00

T16

1/9

6-7/4-9

29.20

29.50

30.00

30.60

for transaction between source-1 to sink-7. Similarly, by

placement of TCSC in line 4-9, ATC value is increased to
320.00MW (T10) from 254.50MW (T4) at 40%
compensation. Similar observations are made from the
table 2.
Under normal operating condition, the ATC value for the
Transaction 1 is 342.00MW and for the transaction 4, it is
254.50MW. But these values are decreased with line
outages conditions (T2 & T3). From Table 3, it can also be
observed that increment in ATC value under line outage
cases with TCSC placement. The following bar graphs
indicate variation in ATC value for different transactions
with various operating conditions.

Table 1 presents the voltage constrained ATC values

with and without line outages, which are determined by
convergence method. The TCSC location and ATC
enhanced values without line outages are presented in
Table 2. The line outage impact on ATC value is given in
Table 3.
It is evident from Table 1, that the ATC value for the
transaction between source-1 to sink-7 is decreased to
168.10MW (T2) from 342.00MW (T1) under line outage 49 and for 6-7 line outage, it is further decreased to
156.50MW (T3). Similarly, for the transaction between
source-1 to sink-9, it is decreased to 28.60MW (T5) from
254.50MW (T4) under line outage 4-9 and for 6-7 line
outage, it can be observed that 226.20MW (T6). By these
values we can conclude that, line outage 6-7 limits the
ATC value for transaction 1 and line outage 4-9 limits the
ATC value for transaction 4 and also line outage 4-9 is
more severe than line outage 6-7.
From Table 2, by the placement of TCSC in line 4-9,
ATC value for transaction 1 is increased to 353.10MW
(T7) from 342.00MW (T1) when TCSC compensation
value is set to 40% and its value further increased to
363.90MW (T8) for the location of TCSC in line 6-7. So
we can conclude that, TCSC impact is more in second case

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Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Nov 2010
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank the Management of GGITM,
Bhopal and principal, Dr.P.S.Venkataramu for their
constant encouragement to this work.
REFERENCES
[1] Available
Transfer
Capability
Definitions
and
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[4] A. Kumar, S. C. Srivastava and S. N. Singh, Available
Transfer Capability (ATC) Determination in a Competitive
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[5] Y. H. Song, X. F. Wang (Eds.), Operation of Marketoriented Power Systems, Springer, 2003.
[6] G. C. Ejebe and J. G. Waight, Manuel Santos-Nieto, and
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[7] S. K. Chaudhary, S. C. Srivastava and A. Kumar, Available
Transfer Capability Determination using Bifurcation Criteria
and its Enhancement through SVC Placement, in: Proc. of
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[8] G. M. Huang and P. Yan, TCSC and SVC as Redispatch
Tools for Congestion Management and TTC Improvement,
in: IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting, 2002.
[9] Y. Ou and C. Singh, Improvement of Total Transfer
Capability Using TCSC and SVC, in: IEEE Power
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[10] S. H. Goh, Z. Y. Dong and T. K. Saha, SecurityConstrained Power System Transfer Capability Assessment,
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For better illustration of TCSC support for ATC

enhancement under stressed condition, the relevant PV
curves of Bus 7 are presented.

VII. CONCLUSIOIN
This paper describes a simple and an efficient method
for determining the available transfer capability between
two buses. The importance of using voltage collapse to
limit the ATC is also well demonstrated. The impact of
TCSC on enhancement of ATC is demonstrated under
various line outage contingencies. The extent of such
effects is greatly influenced by the location where the
TCSC is placed and by its compensation level. Thus
optimal placement of TCSC in transmission line improves
transfer capacity of the line and relieves the congestions in
the nearby transmission lines. In a WSCC 9 Bus system
under study, it is observed that ATC values are enhanced
significantly by placing the TCSC device in line 4-9.

2010 ACEEE
DOI: 01.IJRTET.04.03.199

J.Vara Prasad was born at Guntur (A.P), India in 1983. He

received his B.Tech in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from
JNTU, in 2004 and M.Tech degree in Power Systems Engg from
ANU, in 2009. . He is currently with Gyan Ganga Institute of
Tech & Mgmt, Dept. of Electrical & Electronics Bhopal (M.P),
India. His main interests are in power transfer capability, FACTS
devices, transmission congestion management, and optimization
techniques.
D.Suresh Babu was born at Vijayawada (A.P), India in 1985. He
received his B.Tech in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from
JNTU in 2006 and M.Tech degree in Power Systems Engg from
ANU, in 2009. He is currently with Gyan Ganga Institute of Tech
& Mgmt, Dept. of Electrical & Electronics Bhopal (M.P), India.
His research interests include energy management systems,
power system optimization, and voltage instability studies
incorporating FACTS controllers and security analysis.

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