A Fast Computational Method for the Available

Transfer Capability Assessment

1

Stendley Busan, 2,*Muhammad Murtadha Othman, Member, IEEE, 1Ismail Musirin, Member, IEEE, 3Azah
Mohamed, Senior Member, IEEE and 3A. Hussain, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a fast and accurate method to

determine the available transfer capability. The Ralstons method
is used to predict the two trajectory points of voltage magnitude,
power flow and maximum generator rotor angle difference. Then,
the cubic-spline interpolation technique is used to accurately
trace the P-V, P-S or P- curves between two points of
trajectory. The P-V, P-S and P- curves represent as the
variations of voltage magnitude, power flow and maximum
generator rotor angle difference due to the increase of power
transfer. The actual available transfer capability value is
determined at the intersection point between the curve and the
constraints limit. The effectiveness of the proposed method is
verified utilizes 39-New England bus system. The proposed
method gives satisfactorily accurate and fast computation of ATC
compared to recursive AC power flow method.
KeywordsAvailable transfer capability; Ralstons method;
cubic-spline interpolation technique; recursive AC power flow.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Transferring an electric power from one place to another is an

alternative way to provide effective electric power required by
the demand. This may assist towards reduction in system
operational cost. Nowadays, the power trade activity which
involved in the wholesale power market requires accurate
information of power transfer between areas. Such vital
information can help power marketers, sellers and buyers in
planning, operation and reserving transmission services [1].
There are two significant indices in the transfer capability
assessment, namely, the total transfer capability (TTC) and the
available transfer capability (ATC). TTC represents as the
maximum amount of power that can be transferred over the
interconnected transmission network in a reliable manner
while meeting all of a specific set of defined pre- and postcontingency system conditions [2]. On the other hand, ATC is
a measure of the additional amount of power that flow across
the interface, over and above the base case flows without
jeopardizing power system security [3].
The determination of ATC for a large and complex power
system usually utilizes excessive amount of computational
time. This instigates to a new development of fast and accurate
---------------------------------------------------1
S. Busan 1I. Musirin, are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia.
2,*
M.M.Othman is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti
Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia. He can be reached at
mamat505my@yahoo.com.
3
A. Mohamed and 3A. Hussain are with the Dept. of Electrical, Electronics
and System Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi,
Selangor, Malaysia

method in determining the ATC value. Various approaches

have been proposed to determine ATC such as using the
methods of DC power flow [1], AC power flow [4], optimal
power flow [5], sensitivity [6] and curve fitting based cubicspline interpolation technique [7]. The method based on linear
DC power flow considering distribution factors is considered
fast but less accurate for transfer capability analysis because
the DC network model does not require the voltage magnitude
and reactive power component in the power flow calculation.
Therefore the computation based on the linear DC power flow
resulting to an inaccurate ATC value especially for the heavily
stressed system that caused by critical contingency. The AC
power flow method gives an accurate solution in ATC
determination. However, transfer capability evaluation using
repetitive AC power flows is time-consuming because it
requires a load flow solution at every transfer step size. To
avoid many repetitive AC power flow solutions, thus curve
fitting technique such as the cubic-spline interpolation
technique has been used [7].
This paper proposes a new approach to determine fast and
accurate value of ATC by using the Ralstons method
incorporating with cubic-spline interpolation technique. The
Ralstons method is used to determine the two trajectory points
of voltage magnitude, power flow or maximum generator rotor
angle difference. Then, the cubic-spline interpolation
technique is used to accurately trace the P-V, P-S or P-
curves between the two trajectory points of voltage magnitude
(V), power flow (S) or maximum generator rotor angle
difference (), respectively. The P-V, P-S and P- curves
are representing the variations of voltage magnitude, power
flow and maximum generator rotor angle difference due to the
increment in power transfer, respectively. The ATC is
determined at a point when the limit of the constraints
intersects the respective curve. The transfer capability of a
system is analyzed under two different sets of power transfer
i.e. area-to-area ATC and point-to-point ATC. The
effectiveness of the proposed method in estimating fast and
accurate computation of ATC is verified utilizes 39-New
England bus system [8].
II.

PROBLEM FORMULATION

The first section describes on the problem definition of

ATC. This is followed by the explanation of Ralston's method
that used to determine the two trajectory points of voltage
magnitude, power flow and maximum generator rotor angle
difference. The implementation of the cubic-spline
interpolation technique, the formulation of transient stability
1

limits and as well as the parameters that used in the transient

analysis are also elaborately explained in this section.
A. ATC problem definition
ATC is defined as the TTC less the transmission reliability
margin (TRM), less the sum of existing transmission
commitments (ETC) and capacity benefit margin (CBM)
[2,9,10]. ATC must satisfy certain principles balancing both
technical and commercial issues, so that the interconnected
transmission network is performed based on the commercial
requirements associated with transmission service requests.
The following principles identify the requirements for the
calculation and application of ATC.
a) Electricity demand and supply cannot be treated
independently of one another. All system conditions must
be considered to accurately access the capabilities of the
transmission network.
b) Electric power flows resulting from each power transfer
use the entire network and are not governed by the
commercial terms of the transfer.
c) ATC calculations must use a regional or wide-area
approach to capture the interactions of electric power
flows among individual, regional, sub-regional and
multiregional systems.
d) The determination of ATC must accommodate reasonable
uncertainties in system conditions and provide operating
flexibility to ensure a secure operation of the
interconnected network.
In the determination of ATC, the transmission lines flow and
voltage magnitudes limits have to be taken into account in the
calculation. Limits due to transient or oscillations are not often
addressed in the ATC determination because these limits are
crudely approximated by flow limits [11]. However, the large
disturbance such as system faults, loss of generator, or
equipment outages could lead to undesirable behavior that
affects the stability of a system. The undesirable behavioral is
associated with the transient stability which could lead to great
losses and costly to the utilities. Therefore, it is necessary to
consider the transient stability constraints within the ATC
calculation.
B. Formulation of Ralstons method
The ATC is determined by referring to the increment in the
amount of power transfer that could lead to the violation of a
system constraint. In the ATC computation using the recursive
AC power flow solution, the variations of voltage magnitude
(V), MVA power flow (S) and the maximum generator rotor
angle difference () due the increased of MW power transfers
(P) can be described in terms of P-V, P-S and P- curves,
respectively. By considering the P-V, P-S and P- curves as
the quadratic polynomial form therefore, the Ralstons method
can be used to approximate the two trajectory points of voltage
magnitude, power flow and maximum generator rotor angle
difference [12] and this is derived from a basic extrapolation
equation that is given by (1).
(1)
yn+1 = yn + h
The second order of (1) gives,

yn+1 = yn + (a1s1 + a2 s2 )h

(1a)

where,
s1 = f ( xn , yn )

(1b)
(1c)

s2 = f ( xn + ph, y n + qs1h )

The a1, a2, p and q are the unknown constants. It is used to

satisfy the three conditions which are,
a1 + a 2 = 1

(1d)

a2 p = 1 2

(1e)

a2 q = 1 2

(1f)

By referring to (1a), the value of a2 is assumed to be 2/3

thus resulting to the values of a1= 1/3 and p = q =3/4. This
yields to a Ralstons method given by (2).

y n +1 = y n + ( 1 s1 + 2 s 2 ) h
3
3
where,
s1 = f ( xn , yn )

(2)

(2a)

3
s2 = f ( xn + 3 h, yn + s1h )
4
4

(2b)

Noted that, x, is equivalent to the power transfer, P. It is worth

mentioning that the Ralstons method given in (2) is used to
extrapolate the second order polynomial curvature. The second
order polynomial is represented by,

y = + P + P2

(3)

The first order of (3) yields to (3a) and it is representing as s1.

s1 =

dy
= + 2 Pn
dx

(3a)

By applying (3a) into (2b) therefore,

s2 = + 2 ( Pn +

3
h)
4

(3b)

The value of constants and can be determined by using the

least square method [12]. The step size, h, of power transfer is
determined as below.
P + P1
(3c)
h = look
n

where,

n
P1
Plook

: number of incremental steps

: initial power transfer specified at 1 MW
: look-ahead power transfer

The next power transfer, Pn+1, is determined by using (3e).

Pn +1 = Pn + h

(3d)

The values obtained from (3a), (3b), (3c) and (3d) are used in
(2). The value of y that is obtained from (2) represents the
voltage magnitude, power flow or maximum generator rotor
angle difference. Pn is increased at each nth incremental step by
using (3d) until the Ralstons method in (2) gives y value that
violates the system constraint. The last two points of y value
representing the two trajectory points of the constraints. It is
2

then used in the cubic-spline interpolation technique in order

to accurately trace the P-V, P-S or P- curves.

C. Cubic-spline interpolation technique

The cubic-spline interpolation technique is used to
accurately trace the P-V, P-S or P- curve between the two
points of trajectory which are obtained by using the Ralstons
method. The detailed formulation and application of cubicspline that used to trace the two trajectory points is available in
[7].
D. Transient stability constraint
In this study, the transient stability is obtained by analyzing
the first swing of each generator. A classical model of
synchronous generator is adopted and the detail is available in
[13].The transient stability based on rotor angle is measured by
referring to the difference between relative rotor angle with
respect to the center of inertia (COI) [14]. The transient
stability limit should be less or equal to 180o and
mathematically, it is given by,
G

COI =

M g g

g =1
G

methods that used to approximate the amount of power

transfer, P, corresponds to each bus, transmission line and
generator. Then, the sensitive line, bus or generator is
selected based on the minimum amount of power transfer.
P3 P1
VL Vi ,1
Vi ,3 Vi ,1

(8)

(9)

where,

VL and VU

Sijlimit

:
:

Generally, the main steps involve in the transfer capability

computation are the definition of a base case, determination of
network response and finding the maximum transfer or ATC.
The procedure of ATC evaluation using Ralstons method
incorporating cubic-spline interpolation technique can be
described as the following
a) Establish a solved base case AC power flow solution.
b) Specify the area or point of transfers.
c) Simultaneously, increase the power generation (PGn) and
load (PDn) at the selected buses or areas. Then, the
sensitivity method is used to identify the sensitive bus,
transmission line or generator that has the highest potential
to be violated due to the increase amount of power transfer
[15]. Equations (6), (7), (8) and (9) are the sensitivity

(5)

TECHNIQUE

(7)

P3 P1
lim it g ,1
g ,3 g ,1

(4)

III. PROCEDURE OF ATC EVALUATION USING RALSTONS

METHOD INCORPORATING CUBIC-SPLINE INTERPOLATION

Pg , = P1 +

g
: rotor angle of g-th generator

: maximum rotor angle difference

M
: generator inertia constant in seconds
G
: total number of generator buses
The maximum rotor angle difference for unstable condition
is taken at the end of the time simulation. This is due to the
fact that the relative rotor angle is monotonically increasing if
the generator is losing its synchronism. On the other hand, in a
stable condition, the maximum relative rotor angle is taken
within the simulation time interval. This is because the relative
rotor angle is returning back to its steady state of synchronism
after the fault is cleared.

P3 P1
lim it
Sij ,1
S ij
Sij ,3 Sij ,1

Pij , S = P1 +

Pi,VL, Pi,VU,
Pij,S and Pg,

where,

(6)

P3 P1
VU Vi ,1
Vi ,3 Vi ,1

Pi ,VU = P1 +

M g

g =1

=
180
g
COI
g

Pi ,VL = P1 +

limit

Pn

n
Vi,n, Sij,n and
g,n

:
:

the linear estimation of power

transfer based on the violations of
lower voltage limit, upper voltage
limit, thermal limit and generator
rotor angle difference limit,
respectively.
the lower and upper voltage limits
which are 0.9 p.u. and 1.1 p.u.,
respectively.
the transmission line limit.
the generator rotor angle difference
limit which is 180o.
the power transfer for every nth
incremental step.
incremental steps.
the voltage magnitude at each bus,
i, power flow at each transmission
line, ij, and maximum rotor angle
difference at each generator bus, g,
respectively.

The sensitive bus, i, transmission line, ij, or generator,

g, is selected based on the minimum value of approximated
power transfer, Pend given by (10).

Pend = min Pi ,VL , Pi ,VU , Pij ,S , Pg ,

(10)

d) Determine the look-ahead power transfer based on the

sensitive bus, transmission line or generator. The lookahead power transfer is derived from the formulation of
second order polynomial that is given in [16]. Further
derivation of the first order quadratic formulation in (3a)
yields to,

dy

x = dx
2

(11)

Equation (12) is obtained by substituting (11) into (3).

y = +

dy

dx
2

dy

dx
2

(12)

Expanding (12) and derived it to become (13).

dy

y = y o + dx
2

2
1

1
n

(13)

where,
(14)

e)

f)

g)
h)

= x=

(15)

Initially, the AC power flow solution is performed at n

incremental steps. The value of , and is calculated by
using the least square method [12] utilizes the variations of
Vn, Sn or n of the sensitive bus, transmission line or
generator obtained from procedure c).
Set the incremental power at n step, Pn equal to Plook. Then,
AC power flow is performed again for n incremental steps
as to obtain new variations of Vn, Sn or n. The new
variations of Vn, Sn or n and Pn are then used in the least
square method [12] to determine a new value of , , and .
Use (2) to determine the two trajectory points of voltage
magnitude, power flow or maximum generator rotor angle
difference of the sensitive bus, transmission line or
generator obtained from procedure c) by using the values
of , , and obtained in e).
Trace the P-V, P-S or P- curve between the two points of
trajectory calculated in procedure f) using the cubic-spline
interpolation technique.
The actual area-to-area or point-to-point ATCs is due to the
intersection point between the constraints limits and the
curve traced in g).
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The performance of the proposed technique is verified in terms

of accuracy and computation speed. The CPU timing for the
analysis was obtained using 2.4 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo with
1GB of memory. A 39-New England bus system is consisting
10 generation units, 29 load units and 46 transmission lines.
The thermal limit of the system is provided in [17]. The
system is comprised into three areas namely area 1, area 2 and
area 3 as illustrated in Fig. 1.

TABLE I. RESULTS OF AREA-TO-AREA ATC

Area of
Transfers

1
1
2
2
3
3

2
3
1
3
1
2

ATC (MW)
Limiting
line

12-13
12-13
14-15
14-15
3-4
12-13

64
79
182
350
323
277

CPU Time (minute)

64
78
182
349
323
277

0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03

Recursive
AC Power
Flow

lo o k

A. Results of area-to-area ATC and point-to-point ATC

Table I and Table II present the result of area-to-area ATCs
and point-to-point ATCs in the system. In this case study, it is
assumed that three phase fault happened at bus 10. The
computation of ATCs based transient stability limit is
performed by considering the tripping of line 10-13 for
clearing the fault. The fault critical clearing time is specified at
t = 0.15 second and the response is monitored for 1.5 seconds.
A single contingency consists of three phase fault is
considered in the case study. A small time step size of 0.03
second is used in the time-domain simulation of rotor angle.
In Table I, the minimum interarea ATC of 64 MW is obtained
for the transfer case from area 1 to area 2 and the transaction
between area 2 and area 3 yields to a maximum interarea ATC
value of 350 MW. In Table II, the minimum point-to-point
ATC of 41 MW is obtained when power is transferred from
bus 32 to bus 24 while the maximum transfer case is obtained
from transaction of bus 34 to bus 26. For both cases of power
transfer, the ATCs are obtained based on the violation of
transmission line limit. In terms of computational time, it is
obvious that the proposed technique gives a fast ATC
calculation compared to the recursive AC power flow method.

Recursive
AC Power
Flow
Ralstons
with
CubicSpline

dy

dx

Figure 1. 39-New England bus system

Ralstons
with
CubicSpline

where y is the system parameter constraint. The look-ahead

power transfer, Plook, is then can be determined by using
(15).

Buying
Area

2
4

Selling
Area

yo =

0.17
0.20
0.45
0.84
0.80
0.67

TABLE II. RESULTS OF POINT-TO-POINT ATC

TABLE III. RESULTS OF AREA-TO-AREA DUE TO TRANSIENT STABILITY

LIMIT

B.

Results of area-to-area ATC due to transient stability

limit
Table III represents the results of ATC obtained only by
considering the violation of generator rotor angle difference
limit. This is to prove that the proposed method is also robust
in determining the ATC based on the violation of transient
stability limit. The same assumptions and parameters as in the
previous case study are applied. The proposed method gives
the ATC value of 448 MW for the interarea transfer from area
1 to area 2 and this is due to the violation of the rotor angle
difference limit of generator G3 which is located at bus 32.
This value is relatively similar to the ATC determined by the
recursive AC power flow method. By comparing between the
ATC values obtained in Table I and Table III, it can be
concluded that the ATCs are actually obtained due to the
violation of transmission line limit. It shows that the violation
of generator rotor angle difference limit gives higher value of
ATC compared to the violation of transmission line limit. In a
real system operating condition, the first violation may occur
at the transmission line limit as the power transfer is increased.
The results of point-to-point ATC are not shown because of
any further increase of power transfer between buses does not
violate the limit of generator rotor angle difference. This is due
to the fact that any increase of power transfer from a particular
generator does not adversely affect the synchronism of
generating system.

1
1
2
2
3
3

2
3
1
3
1
2

32
32
34
34
38
38

G3
G3
G5
G5
G9
G9

V.

448
449
858
870
660
723

449
449
857
870
660
722

Recursive
AC Power
Flow

0.60
0.58
0.12
0.10
0.32
0.73
0.33
0.85
0.36
0.65
0.29
0.80
0.60
0.60
0.44
0.44
0.26
0.35

CPU Time
(minute)
Ralstons
with
CubicSpline

0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03

Ralstons
with
CubicSpline
Recursive
AC Power
Flow

235
233
47
40
128
291
130
352
145
267
117
329
241
243
176
176
102
102

ATC (MW)

Generator
Unit

236
233
48
41
128
291
131
353
145
268
117
329
241
243
176
176
103
103

Limiting
Generator
Bus

2-30
2-30
12-13
12-13
3-18
16-24
14-15
17-27
15-16
16-21
14-15
16-21
12-13
25-26
29-38
29-38
12-13
12-13

Area of
Transfers
Buying
Area

16
3
3
24
3
24
4
26
15
27
12
28
24
26
8
24
21
24

Limiting
line

CPU Time (minute)

Selling
Area

Buying
Bus

30
30
32
32
33
33
34
34
35
35
36
36
37
37
38
38
39
39

ATC (MW)

Ralstons
with
CubicSpline
Recursiv
e AC
Power
Flow
Ralstons
with
CubicSpline
Recursiv
e AC
Power
Flow

Selling
Bus

Point of
Transfers

0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.08
0.03

1.37
1.20
1.81
2.20
1.62
1.90

CONCLUSION

This paper presents a new approach that used to evaluate

the area-to-area and point-to-point ATCs based on the Ralston
method incorporating with cubic-spline interpolation
technique. Ralstons method is used to determine the two
trajectory points of voltage magnitude, power flow and
maximum generator rotor angle difference. Then, the cubicspline interpolation technique is used to trace the P-V, P-S or
P- curves between the two trajectory points. The curve
fitting procedure is performed so as to reduce the time in ATC
computation. The ATC is determined at the intersecting point
of voltage, MVA power flow or generator rotor angle
difference limits with their respective curve. The effectiveness
of the proposed method in ATC computation is verified on a
case study of 39 New England bus power systems. It is proven
that that the Ralstons method incorporating with cubic-spline
interpolation technique is a fast and accurate method for ATC
evaluation as compared to the ATC method using recursive
AC power flow method. The advantage of the Ralston's
method is that it is provides a minimum bound of truncation
error in extrapolation which is an important characteristic to
estimate the two points of trajectory and thus; the proposed
method is applicable to the wider system. It also useful for the
utilities in a deregulated electricity market in which the ATCs
are required to be posted in a real time market signal so that all
transmission users have the same chance to access
transmission information.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]

[4]

[5]

G. Hamoud, Assessment of available transfer capability of

transmission systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems,
vol. 15, no. 1, 2000, pp. 27-32.
North America Electric Reliability Council (NERC), Available
transfer capability definitions and determination, June 1996.
Available at http://www.nerc.com/docs/docs/pubs/atcfinal.pdf.
P. W. Sauer, Technical challenges of computing available
transfer capability (ATC) in electric power system,
Proceedings 30th Annual Hawaii International Conference
System Sciences, Jan. 1997.
M. Shaaban, Y. Ni, H. Dai, and F. F. Wu, Considerations in
calculating total transfer capability, International Conference
Power System Technology (POWERCON), vol. 2, 1998, pp.
1356-1360.
M. Shaaban, Y. Ni, and F. F. Wu, Transfer capability
computations in deregulated power systems, Proc. 33rd Annual

[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]
[13]
[14]

[15]

[16]
[17]

Hawaii International Conference System Sciences, 2000, pp. 15

R. D. Christie, B. F. Wollenberg, and I. Wangensteen,
Transmission management in the deregulated environment,
Proceedings IEEE, vol. 88, no. 2, 2000 pp. 170-195.
M. M. Othman, A. Mohamed, and A. Hussain, Fast evaluation
of available transfer capability using cubic-spline interpolation
technique, Int. Journal of Electrical Power System Research,
vol. 73, 2005, pp. 335-342.
39-New
England
Bus
system,
available
at
http://psdyn.ece.wisc.edu/IEEE_benchmarks/IEEE39/main.htm
M. M. Othman, A. Mohamed, and A. Hussain, Available
transfer capability assessment using evolutionary programming
based capacity benefit margin, International Journal of
Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 28, 2006, pp.166176.
M. M. Othman, A. Mohamed, and A. Hussain, Determination
of transmission reliability margin using parametric bootstrap
technique, IEEE Trans. Power System, vol. 23, Nov. 2008, pp.
1689-1700.
I. Dobson, S. Greene, R. Rajaraman, C. L. DeMarco, F. L.
Alvarado, M. Glavic, J. Zhang, and R. D. Zimmerman,
Electric power transfer capability: concepts, applications,
sensitivity
and
uncertainty,
available
at
http://www.pserc.cornall.edu/tcc/info.html.
S. C. Chapra, and R. P. Canale, Numerical methods for
engineers: with software and programming application,
McGraw-Hill, 4th ed, 2003.
H. Saadat, Power system analysis, McGraw-Hill, 2nd ed,
2004.
M. H. Hague, Novel method of finding the first swing stability
margin of a power system from time domain simulation, IEE
Proc. Generation, Transmission and Distribution, vol. 143, no.
5, Sept. 1996, pp. 413-419.
Y. K. Wu, A novel algorithm for ATC calculations and
applications in deregulated electricity markets, International
Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 29, 2007,
pp. 810-821.
M. El-Hawary, Electrical power systems: Design and Analysis,
Wiley-Interscience, IEEE Press: Power Systems Engineering
Series, 1995.
C. K. Babulal and P. S. Kannan: A novel approach for ATC
computation in deregulated environment, Journal of Electrical
Systems2-3, 2006, pp. 146-161.