Voltage Stability Enhancement through Optimization Techniques

B. Mallaiah & P. Ramana Reddy

SVEC, TIRUPATI
E-mail : mallaiahbella@gmail.com & punurreddy@yahoo.com

profile and minimizing power loss of transmission line

are taken into consideration. The Flexible AC
Transmission System (FACTS) have been considered to
maximize the use of existing transmission facilities.
SVC (shunt compensating type) and TCSC (series
compensating type) have been used in this paper.

Abstract - Voltage stability plays an important role in

the operation of power system. Now a days voltage
instability problems in a power system have become
one of the most important concerns in the power
industries. The introduction of emerging Flexible
AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) technology
improves the stability, reduces the losses. FACTS
devices are used to control the voltage, current,
impedance, phase angle and to damp the oscillations.
To place these FACTS devices at optimal location
with optimal rating in the electrical networks, some
optimization techniques are proposed. In this paper
Genetic algorithm optimization technique is
proposed. The load flow analysis (Newton Raphson
technique) is done for an IEEE-14 bus test system to
verify the losses. MATLAB coding is developed for
simulation.

Since last twenty years, new techniques have been

developed, such as Tabu Search method (TS), Simulated
Annealing (SA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
and Genetic Algorithm (GA) etc, for finding operating
range of different FACTS devices. Minimization of
transmission loss is solved by using the optimization
techniques.
The SVC is related to reactive power control at load
buses and the TCSC is related to real power
transmission increase through impedance control in line.
The IEEE standard tested power system has been
considered as test system to investigate the effect of
considering TCSC and SVC on power loss minimization
and voltage stability. This paper deals with the optimal
location and operating range of SVC and TCSC devices
with the consideration of stability improvement and
active power loss reduction of electrical network. The
operating range of FACTS devices are obtained by
performing optimization technique name as Genetic
Algorithm (GA) [4].

Keywords: FACTS devices, Stability indices, Genetic

Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, Optimal
location and optimal value.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Most of the large power system blackouts are

caused by heavily stressed system with large amount of
real and reactive power demand and low voltage
condition. When the voltages at power system buses are
low, the losses of test system are increased. This study is
devoted to develop a technique for improving the
voltage stability and minimizing the losses and hence
eliminate voltage instability in a power system [1], [2].
Application of FACTS devices are currently pursued
very intensively to achieve better control over the
transmission lines for manipulating power flows. There
are several kinds of FACTS devices [3]. ThyristorControlled Series Capacitors (TCSC) and Static Var
Compensator (SVC) can exert a voltage in series with
the line and they can control the active power through a
transmission line. The optimal operation of the power
system networks have been based on economic
criterion. Now other criterion such as improving voltage

II. ABOUT FACTS DEVICES

The proper utilization of FACTS devices gives the
following benefits [3].
1)

Improved voltage stability

2)

Enhanced power transfer

transmission network

3)

Reduced transmission losses

4)

Improved controllability and system security

capacity

of

the

In this paper two typical FACTS devices have been

considered: SVC (Static Var Compensator) and TCSC
(Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor)
ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013

ITSI Transactions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ITSI-TEEE)

Schlueters stability indicator, and Kassels bus stability

index, Voltage Stability Index (VSI) [7] and Line
Stability Index (LSI) [8] are the various types of
stability indices used in power system to monitor the
system stability. In this paper VSI and LSI are proposed
to find the stability levels of all bus and lines
simultaneously.

A. Static VAR Compensator (SVC):

SVC is shunt connected type FACTS device whose
output is adjusted to exchange capacitive or inductive
and is used to control reactive power in network. The
SVC consist thyristor controlled or switched reactor
(TSR) and thyristor switched capacitor (TSC). TSR is
used to absorbing reactive power and TSC is used to
supply the reactive power under abnormal conditions of
network. The Fig.1 shows the schematic diagram of
SVC connected to an electrical network. The operating
range of SVC is -100Mvar to 100Mvar.

A.

Line Stability Index (LSI):

A.Y. Goharriz, R. Asghari [8] formulated a line

stability index based on the power transmission concept
in a single line. The line stability index, for this model,
can be defined as:
(1)

Where, Vs is the sending end voltage

Q is the reactive power at receiving end
X is the reactance at receiving end
is the impedance angle
is the angle difference between the
voltage and the receiving end voltage.

Fig 1: Schematic diagram of SVC

supply

L calls the stability index of that line. It is used

to find the stability index for each line connected
between two bus bars in an interconnected network.
Based on the stability indices of lines, voltage collapse
can be predicted. When the stability index Lmn less than
1, the system is stable and when this index exceeds the
value 1, the whole system loses its stability and voltage
collapse occurs.

Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC):

The following figure2 represents the modeling of TCSC.
TCSC is series connected type FACTS device.

B. Voltage Stability Index (VSI):

Voltage Stability Index is used to calculate the
stability indices for all the load buses connected in an
IEEE 14 bus network [8]. For a given system operating
condition, by using the load flow results obtained from
Newton Raphson Technique, the Voltage Stability index
(L index) for load buses is to be computed as

Fig 2: Modeling of TCSC

The TCSC consist of a capacitor bank and a thyristor
controlled inductive branch connected in parallel and
connected in series to the transmission line. Its aims to
directly control the overall series line impedance of the
transmission line to improves power transfer capacity of
the line., The operating range of TCSC is given by 0.7Xl to 0.2Xl.

(2)

Where n is the total number of buses.

g is the no of generators connected in the system. And
j=g+1.n.
The values of can be obtained from Y bus matrix.

III. STABILITY INDICES

(3)

In power system, the stability level of all buses and

the weakest bus among them are identified with the help
of the stability indices [6]. Lees stability margin,

ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013

ITSI Transactions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ITSI-TEEE)

Loss reduction = Before Ploss After Ploss (6)

Where YLL and YLG are corresponding partitioned

portions of the Y-bus matrix. The L-indices for a given
load condition are computed for all load buses. The L
index gives a scalar number to each load bus. If the
index value (L index) is moving towards zero, then the
system is considered as stable and also improves system
security. When this index value moves away from zero,
the stability of system is relatively decreases then the
system is considered as unstable. The L indices are
calculated for all the load buses and the maximum of the
L indices gives the proximity to the system to voltage
collapse.

Selection: In this technique the values of TCSC and

SVC are generated randomly within a given specified
limits. These values are called as chromosomes. For
each chromosome fitness (loss reduction) is calculated.
According to the fitness function the individual
chromosomes are sorted out (descending order)
Crossover: From the sorted values top two ratings of
SVC and TCSC are selected as parental chromosomes to
produce new off springs.

IV. OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES

In this paper Genetic algorithm and Particle swarm
Optimization techniques are used for obtaining the
optimal location and operating range of FACTS devices.
A. Genetic Algorithm (GA):
Genetic Algorithm (GAs) is efficient search methods
based on principles of natural selection and genetics [9].
They are being applied successfully to find acceptable
solutions to problems in business, engineering, and
science. GAs are generally able to find good solutions in
reasonable amounts of time, but as they are applied to
harder and bigger problems there is an increase in the
time required to find adequate solutions. There are
several types of GAs are present in the nature. In this
paper real coded genetic algorithm is considered. The
Fig.4 shows the flow chart of GA.
Objective function: In this paper the main objective
is to find the optimal location and operating range of
different FACTS devices within the equality and
inequality constraints. The Objective function is coded
mathematically as,
f (x) = max (Lj) + min (Losses)

Fig 3: Flow chart for GA

(4)

Off spring1 = X*parent1+ (1-X)*parent2

Off spring2 = X*parent2+ (1-X)*parent1

Where, Lj is the Stability index for the loads

connected in the IEEE 14 bus network.
Losses represent total losses in the IEEE 14 bus
system.

Where
X is the Crossover operating point. It is
having range 0 to 1. X is selected randomly.
Mutation: It is a background operator which
produces spontaneous random changes in
various chromosomes. Mutation is used to
random alteration of chromosomes string
positions.

Fitness function: Fitness is a measure of quality

which is used to compare different solutions. For
maximization problems fitness function is same as
objective function. For minimization problems the
fitness function is expressed as below.
F(x)=

(7)

(5)

New off springs = M*off springs

In this paper loss reduction is the fitness function.

This is obtained from following equation

(8)

ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013

ITSI Transactions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ITSI-TEEE)

Where

At the maximum of VSI the SVC is placed.

Table 2: LSI results for 140% load condition

M is the probability of mutation is selected

randomly. It is having range 0 to 1.
The process is repeated up to max no of iterations are
up to convergence.

Line no

LSI

Line no

LSI

0.0031

11

0.0097

V. SIMULATION RESULTS

0.0105

12

0.0185

A. EEE 14 bus system:

0.0454

13

0.0090

The IEEE 14 bus system includes 5 generator buses,

9 load buses and 20 transmission lines. The
representation of IEEE 14 bus test system is shown in
bellow figure.

0.0133

14

0.0670

0.0052

15

0.0124

0.0126

16

0.0022

Base case results: The load flow is performed for an

IEEE-14 bus test system. By substituting the
corresponding load flow results in the equations (3) and
(4) we obtain the LSI and VSI. These are shown in
bellow tables (2) and (3). All of these results are for
140% load condition.

0.0001

17

0.0676

0.0000

18

0.0084

1.5993

19

0.0576

10

0.1879

20

0.1465

From the above table LSI is maximum at 9th line. At that

location TCSC is placed.
B. Voltage Profile:
After finding the location, by placing the
corresponding FACTS devices at suitable location the
GA is performed their operation for getting the
operating range of TCSC and SVC [10]. The
corresponding results are shown in bellow

Fig 4: IEEE 14 bus test system

Table1: VSI results for 140% load condition

Before placing FACTS

devices

After placing FACTS

devices

1.0600

1.0600

1.0150

1.0250

0.9600

0.9800

0.9870

0.9974

Load bus

VSI

0.9746

1.0000

0.724

1.0300

1.0700

0.723

0.9986

1.0656

0.695

1.0500

1.0900

1.000

0.9742

1.0764

10

1.000

0.9729

1.0650

11

0.497

0.9958

1.0627

12

0.465

1.0054

1.0510

13

0.439

0.9957

1.0461

14

1.000

0.9562

1.0380

ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013

ITSI Transactions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ITSI-TEEE)

VII. FUTURE WORK

The following figure5 shows the graph

representation of voltage profile for before and after
placing the FACTS devices.

For the same test system and for same loading

condition of this paper, PSO technique is applied and
then results of GA and PSO are compared. From the
results of both GA and PSO the best one is suggested for
placing FACTS devices. Cost function also taken into
consideration to obtain the optimum cost of FACTS
devices.

1.1
before placement of TCSC & SVC
after placement of TCSC & SVC

1.08
1.06

voltages

1.04
1.02

VIII. REFERENCES

1
0.98

[1]

V.A Preethi, Dr.S.Muralidharan, Mr.S.rajasekar,

Application of Genetic Algorithm to Power
System Voltage Stability Enhancement Using
Facts Devices, IEEE International Conference
on Recent Advancements in Electrical,
Electronics and Control Engineering, 15-17 Dec
2011.

[2]

D. Thukaram, K. Parthasarathy, H.P. Khincha,

Narendranath Udupa, A. Bansilal Voltage
stability improvement: case studies of Indian
powernetworks Department of Electrical
Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560 012, India

[3]

N.G. Hingorani and L. Gyugyi, "Understanding

FACTS: concepts and technology of flexible AC
transmission systems," Wiley-IEEE Press, 1999.

[4]

Stephane Gerbex, Rachid Cherkaoui, and Alain J.

Germond, OptimalLocation of Multi-Type
FACTS Devices in a Power System by Means of
Genetic Algorithms, IEEE Trans. Power
Systems, vol. 16, pp. 537 544, August 2001.

[5]

G.I.Rashed, H.I.Shaheen, and S.J.Cheng,

Optimal Location and Parameter Setting of
TCSC by Both Genetic Algorithm and
ParticleSwarm Optimization, 2007 Second IEEE
Conference
on
IndustrialElectronics
and
Applications , pp. 11411147.

[6]

A.Mohamed and G.B.Jasmon, Determining the

Weak Segment of aPower System with Voltage
Stability Considerations, Electric Machines and
Power Systems-24:555-568, 1996.

[7]

P.Kessel and H.Glavitsh, Estimating the Voltage

Stability of a PowerSystem, IEEE Transaction
on Power Delivery, vol. 3, PWRD-1,July 1986.

[8]

A.Y. Goharrizi, R. asghari, A Novel Line

Stability Index (NLSI) for Voltage Stability
Assessment of Power Systems 7th WSEAS
International conference on power systems,
Beijing, chaina, sept. 15-17, 2007.

0.96
0.94

6
8
number of buses

10

12

14

Fig 5: Voltage profile

The following results are represents the real and
reactive power losses before and after placing the
FACTS devices by performing the GA technique.
Table 4: before placing FACTS devices
P

Normal case

13.393

28.023

140% load condition

30.3052

97.705

Table 5: After placing the FACTS devices

Location

Line

Bus

Normal

Fault

Normal

Fault

13.391

29.665

28.228

93.402

10

13.364

29.650

27.802

93.796

14

13.341

29.303

27.791

92.148

From these results at 9th-14th location we get maximum

benefits.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper GA technique is proposed for obtaining
the operating values of TCSC and SVC, locations are
found based on stability indices. From results it is
observed that for overloads i.e., 140% of normal
loading, the voltage profile of the system is increased
and maintained within the specified limits, and the real
power losses are also reduced.

ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013

ITSI Transactions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ITSI-TEEE)

[9]

S. Durairaj, P.S. Kannan and D. Devaraj,

Application of Genetic Algorithm to Optimal
Reactive Power Dispatch including Voltage
Stability Constraint, Journal of Energy &
Environment, vol. 4, April2005.

[10]

Kiran kumar kuthadi, N. Suresh Enhancement

of Voltage Stability through Optimal Placement
of Facts Controllers in Power Systems American
Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society Issue 1
vol 1 July 2012

ISSN (PRINT) : 2320 8945, Volume -1, Issue -3, 2013