EFFECTS OF UNDER-LOAD TAP CHANGER (LTC) ON

POWER SYSTEM VOLTAGE STABILITY

James A. Momoh Yi Zhang Gordon J. Young

Senior Member, IEEE Member, IEEE

Department of Electrical Engineering

Howard University
Washington, D.C. 20059

ABSRACT I I. STATIC ANALYSIS OF VOLTAGE COLLAPSE

The effect of load tap changer (LTC) action on a The static-based approach for VC utilizes the algebraic
transformer's adjusted side voltage (usually the secondary side of representation of power flow equation which solves for the state
step-down transformers) is evaluated when the tap position on variables (voltage magnitude and angles) and flows. The given
LTC is raised (lowered) to increase (decrease) the adjusted side system topology includes generation condition, load demands, load
voltage. The effects of other measures such as series and shunt types, and controls.
compensation and iheii combination with LTCs are also evaluated
in this paper. A static representation model of 2 power system When the tap ratios are considered separately from the
model on a large populated industrial center such as the Puget admittances, the power flow equations become:
Sound area of Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the
Boston area of New England Power Service are evaluated. The
characterization of reactive power voltage (a-V) relation and real
power voltage (P-V) relation curves during a voltage degradation
Pi = Vi2 ( G i i - c
J Ei
t2ijGij) + Vi c
jc i
V j t i j ( G i j c o s q j + B i j s i n 9ij)

process is studied. The results and experience gained from system jti
specific applications are enumerated. (1)

I. INTRODUCTION Qi = VF(-Gii -c
jei
t2ijBij) + Vi
j e i
Vjtij(Gijsin$j-Bijcos qj)

The secondary voltage of a transformer is monitored at a j#i

higher or lower voltage value during a given contingency. (2)
Automatic controls such as load tap changers, capacitors, static h h A

voltage regulators are included to handle the voltage instability where Y i j = G i i + j B1. 1. IS
' the driving point admittance at bus
problem. The effects of load dynamics and loss of critical lines i exclusive of contributions from any controllable transformers
may affect key generator buses and thus weaken overall system with their tappers at bus i, tij is the tap ratio with the adjustable
integrity. Several measures are being studied by utility side al bus i.
companies to control the imminence of voltage collapse (VC) and
instability. The economic justification and technical feasibilities The load model usually plays a very important role in
are the basis for applied research suggested in this paper. Thus, voltage collapse studies. The static voltage dependent load model is
the paper evaluates the action of LTC, series and shunt capacitors as shown in equation (3) and (4)
as means to Control voltage collapse phenomena. Although several
methods have been proposed for voltage collapse analysis [ I , 2, P = Po(apV2 + bpV +cp) (3)
31, these methods are very limited for practical application, thus
a scheme that handles the details of a given power system such as
exciters. load dynamics, static Vars, combustion turbines (CTs) Q = Qo(aqV2+ bqV+cq) (4)
and DC lines is desirable over methods reported in literature [4].
The study reported in this paper evaluates the location of LTC by where Po and Qo are the real and reactive power of load at the per
studying system conditions. unit voltage conditions and the coefficients ap, bp, bq and cq as,
9,
have the following property:
This paper is organized in six sections. Section 11
describes the static analysis of VC and controls modelling; Section aP + b p + c p = 1
111 deals with procedure for evaluation of VC in general; Section IV and
deals with the practical system model description. Section V deals
with numerical examples of dynamic simulation of PV and QV aq + bq + cq = 1 (6)
Cuwes and the interpretation of LTC effectiveness for VC study are
given. Section VI is the conclusion. When we use the load model described by equations (3) and (4),
the left side of equations (1) and (2) will be modified from
constant power to the combination of constant power (cp and cq
part), constant current (bp and bq part) and constant impedances
( ap and aq part ) for the load.

The static analysis method of voltage collapse and

instability is based on driving specified quantities to obtain the
P-V, or 0 - V curves of buses being monitorerd, and then by
detecting the knee point !c d,-termine the critical voltage value an:!
the corresponding real and Iedctive power values.

TH0343490/0000/0298$O1 .OO 0 1990 IEEE 298

 To obtain P-V and Q-V curves of the monitorerd buses,
several different methods of simulating the system's behavior may
be used. Regardless of the physical meaning of the quantities. we
can describe the implementation method for P-V and 0 - V relation
as: Calculation of initial
condition of power
Xi+' = Xi + A X (7)
system
With X as one of the system parameters to be driven, i is the
driving steps number and A X is the driving amount on X with the
user's specification. In practical simulation, X can be the voltage Specify:
on P-V bus, P and Q on a generation or load bus. Experiences of
the BPA staff have shown that using bus voltage as a driving - Weak buses
quantity can achieve better convergence property for the power - Critical line outage
flow so that the simulation of even the lower part of the 0 - V
curves is feasible 16).
t
Calculate system condition
following a disturbance
I II. PROCEDURE FOR VOLTAGE COLLAPSE EVALUATION
such as - LOSS of critical line
- Operation of
In this paper, the VC phenomena is studied using an
industrial grid power flow program. The role of LTCs and series
and shunt capacitors with respect to different transmission line
outages is studied. The major concern of studies using LTC along
+
Schedule LTC with
LTC

with series and shunt capacitors is in the placement of LTCs at

compensation tools
+
different voltage levels of the transmission system. In view of
this, a planning criteria has been developed to asses the effects of
LTC installation for the prevention of VC and voltage instability of
interconnected system. Procedure for evaluation of VC is as
follows. Call system behavior for
the controls
For the steady state condition, the electric power is
evaluated using the power flow study. The results enable i
identification of weak buses, selection of major critical lines and A
recognition of weak system conditions based on their ability to Yes
withstand additional load demands and seasonal changes. The
simulation study concentrates on location of LTCs, series and shunt
capacitors for different power flow runs. The special feature of
the BPA power flow includes:

a Selection of critical lines for outage studies.

b. Identification of weak buses which are load buses and are
considered as ficticious P-V buses with unlimited shunt
compensation. The weak buses are usually the buses
which need a large amount of reactive shunt compensation
for maintaining the voltages.
c. A closed loop feedback for adjusting generation and load
d Automatic feedback loop for selecting critical contingency.

The flow chart of the procedure for evaluating VC with LTC End of simulation
installations is depicted in Figure 1. For each combination of the
weak bus and line outage simulation, one or several P-V or Q-V
curves are obtained for assessing the voltage collapse knee point. Figure 1: Simulation Procedure Flowchart for Effects
of LTCs and Compensation Tools

IV. PRACTICAL MODEL SYSTEM DESCRIPTION transformer taps to alleviate the voltage problem is investigated.
For our study, a summary of location of LTC between 115kV and
higher order transmission voltage ratings are given in Table 1.
Practical power systems are used for implementing the
simulation procedure for the LTC control scheme in Figure 1. The Table 1. Summary of Major Transformer in
system data and conditions representing the Pacific West Puget Puget Sound Area
Sound system area of the BPA system and the Boston area of the
New England Power Services are studied. The contractual
agreements with the organizations prevent us from discussing the
I All 230kV 115kV

1 1
system in elaborate detail.

The Puget Sound area serves an industrialized area with

total transmission grid ranging from 115kV to 230kV and 500kV.
There are 2881 buses in the system. In the last several winters,
the voltage-dependent problem has caused planning concerns
directed at preventing potential voltage collapse. The base case
Total

WithLTC :: ::
Notes: "All" means all of the major transformers in the Puget
results and histbrical records show that the Puget Sound area Sound area; "230 kV" means the transformers with
carries a total load of 12.167MW and other importing areas from connection to 230 kV and higher voltage levels, and "115
northwest and northeast of Puget Sound such as Grand Coulee, and kV" means the transformers with connection to 115 kV and
Chief Joseph are on the order of 8,464 MW. The location of higher voltage levels.
 The system model for the Boston area voltage collapse study
is a 1498 bus system with 2990.6 MW load in this area. The
generation capacity in this area is 874 MW. The Sandy 345kV
transmission line is the key intertie for this area. The LTCs are
located on the transformers which have linkage with 115kV
voltage level and above.
ImDlementation Procedure of Simulation Scheme for Puaet Sound
Brea
The simulation procedure for the Puget Sound area is
described as follows:
Based on a solved power flow for Puget Sound system, the
weak buses and interconnected major transmission
systems are identified. The buses which are selected
include 500kV buses at Raver, Maple Valley, Monroe and
Paul.
- OV analysis is done around these buses using ficticious P-V
bus method.
Identification of major import transmission lines for
Puget Sound. Three 500 kV lines are selected for
simulating outages which are Chief Joseph connected to
Monroe, Grand Coulee connected to Raver and Naneum
connected to Raver. The power flow results enable us to
identify weak buses and determine appropriate LTC
location on transformers of different voltage levels.
The transformers connecting 230kV to higher voltage
levels are classified as Class A, and the transformers
connecting 115kV and b‘gher voltage levels as Class B.
Several combinations af transformers with or without LTC
are then studied. The LTC simulation study used is
suggested in Table 2.
Table 2. LTCs Simulation
Study Number Class A Class B Without LTC
Ib YeS Ib
4 YeS YeS hb
The effect of series and shunt capacitors coordinated with
LTC is studied. The benefits and detrimental impacts are
evaluated. With one of the major line outage simulated,
series compensation is placed at the midpoint of the rest of
the other major lines corresponding to 25 percent of the
total line reactance. The shunt compensation is provided
automatically by monitoring the specified bus as a PV bus
in the program.
Enumerated list of other control parameters, line outage.
generation adjustments are done by using the experience of
planners with the Puget Sound area.
The system conditions for the Boston area simulation are as
follows:
Sandy line is in service.
Reduce the real generation from 874 MW to 0 MW
in the Boston area.
Assumed that the generation units still
maintain the terminal voltage for the generation
buses inside this area.
300
The monitoring quantities in the Boston area are the bus
voltages of Sandy 345kV, Tewk 345kV, Brayton 345kV, Millbury
115kV. Mystic 115kV and N. Woburn 140kV and the reactive
power generation in Boston area, the power flow on Sandy line and
the Boston area losses.
The LTC effects of the Boston area is simulated by the
following locations and combinations:
Whole Boston area without LTCs denoted as class 1.
All transformers in Boston area with LTCs denoted
as class 2.
Transformers with linkage to 115kV voltage levels
with LTCs denoted as class 3.
Transformers with linkage to 230kV voltage level
but not including those in class 3 with LTCs are
denoted as class 4.
Transformers with linkage to 345kV voltage level
but not including those in classes 3 and 4 with LTCs
V.
denoted as class 5.
NUMERICAL EXAMPLES OF STATIC SIMULATION OF
VOLTAGE COLLAPSE STUDIES WITH LTCs
In this section, the results are given for each of the
practical systems.
-1 sound Area Simulation Results and Analvsis
According to the simulation procedure which is given in
Section IV, a series of experiments of LTC effectiveness in the
Puget Sound area were performed. Table 3 gives the summary of
the simulations.
The second part is the simulation name which is given as a
mark for identification. Bus 0 - V monitoring corresponding to
different line outages is presented in columns. For example,
column 2 in Table 3 describes the Raver 500kV bus 0 - V
monitoring with different LTC locations and outages. The symbols
in each parenthesis is used for describing the case name and the
LTC location situations. For example, (O,CASE21) in the second
column and third row means that when the monitoring bus is
Raver 500kV. the line outage is Chief Joseph 500kV to Monroe
500kV. there is no LTC active in Puget Sound area and the
simulation name is CASE 21.
Table 4 shows the experiments of LTC and series
compensation combinations. The monitoring bus is Raver 500kV
for all of the experiments.
Tables 5 - 8 list the results of simulation for the 0 - V relation
with respect to line outages. In these tables. the severity of
outages are represented in digital numbers. In descending order
where 1 means the most severe situation. and 4 means the least
severe situation. The CJ - M , C - R and N - R in the tables
present the Chief Joseph to Monroe, Grand Coulee to Raver and
Naneun to Raver, respectively. The ” ” means that the solution
of power flow is not reached. The failed solution of Paul
monitoring with the Grand Coulee to Raver line outage seems to be
caused by the Centralia generation facility reaching its reactive
limits.
From T. des 5 and 6, it is observed that the Raver 500kV
is the weakest bus in the monitored buses, Monroe 500kV is the
second weakest bus. and Maple Valley 500kV and Paul 500kV are
the least severe buses to the specified major transmission line
outage. These results are not changed regardless of any LTC
locations and combinations. From Table 7, it is observed that the
outage of Grand Coulee is the most severe outage in the system,
and the severity of outages on other lines is bus-location
dependent.
 I

Table 3. Experiments of LTC effectiveness In Puget Sound Area

-COIEE YDW
. WVER 500KV IOCLSE s + , ( i , c f i ~I ) ) , O C - E ~ ~ ) , J , c M1E
4 ) O.C*SE ZI).((.C*SE 151 "'- 2*""S*y'0

W E W XQKV OC-E I91.11.CME ITI(O.CfiE Y)itI.CISE 111 O,CASE ,ll,,l,cAsE 19, ,o.c*21 17I,,9.c*ym1
wvEn SWKV
0 . ?10LTCi.(I.CISE 4
-&E > CASE 11.13 CAS 3)

SEXES CCA!FENSATM.(
(25% ATMIDDLE POiNTS) LTC LCCXTCN
CUTAGES LASESAMES
U l J Z WNUJ CHIEFX) :O CTC
TO ?AVEA TO RAVER TOr.mFEE LTC AL:Q
I 3

ChlEF 10 X C A
I X c M 5
PAVER X X ] X M I
t
X X Ix W E 2

CQlE
! X cM8

I
l x us 0 J
PAVER X X X USE I

X X X us 4

Table 5. Sensitivity of Bus Q-V to Line Outages Witout LTC

Table 7. Sensitivity of 500kV Weak Buses Q-V to Different Line

I Line
outages
Raver
500kV
MapleVL
500kV
Monroe
500kV
Paul
500 kV I Outages Without LTCs At All

CJ - M 1 4 2 C-R N-R

l 3
i
C-R '1 3 2 Raver 500kV 1 2
N-R 1 3 2 Maple VL 500kV 1 2

Table 6. Sensitivity of Bus Q-V to Line Outages With All LTCs On

Line
Outages
Raver
500kV
MapleVL
5OOkV
~

Monroe
500kV
~~

Paul
500 kV
1 Table 8. Sensitivity of Bus Raver Q-V to Different LTC Locations

Outages No LTCs Class A Class B Class C

No Outage

301

7 -
 The observation of Table 8 which gives the Q-V relations of Table 9. Sensitivity of Bus Raver Q-V to Series
Raver 500kV show that under the condition of no major line Compensation and LTC locations
outages on line Chief Joseph to Monroe: Class B LTC location can
improve the reactivelvoltage relations, but Class A LTC location
can achieve more benefits,and all transformer with LTCs can only
achieve the same benefits to Puget Sound area voltage stability Outages CJ -M C-R
problem as the Class A LTC locations.
No LTCs and No SC 1 1
The 25 percent series compensation at the mid point of the
lines without outages helps to reduce the amount of shunt reactive Class A LTCs 3 3
compensation requirements at bus Raver, but the benefits to the andNosc
system voltage stability are as good as the Class A LTC locations
under the Chief Joseph to Monroe of Grand Coulee to Raver system No LTCs and 25%
outages. The 25 percent series compensation at lines without SC at Mid-points of 2 2
outages at the mid-points with LTC Class A location can achieve the C-R and N-R, or
best shunt compensation reduction at Raver. This observaiion can
N-R for C-R Outage
be seen in Table 9.

From the above observation, the LTCs of Class A in the
Puget Sound area should be active when there are major
transmission line outages on the major inlets of the Puget Sound
area. The series compensation on the major transmission lines is
also a effective measure to alleviate system operational conditions
with respect to the voltage stability.
. .
rea S i m W Results and A n a m
While the Q-V analysis was performed in the Puget Sound
area, the P-V analysis was performed in the Boston area. From
Table 10, the following observations can be made.
1. LTCs do not change the real power flow mode in the Boston
area. This conclusion can be verified by the real power
flow on Sandy line, the real power losses in Boston area
and the bus angles on the monitoring buses.
2. More reactive power is generaled in the Boston area with
the LTCs on than without LTCs.
Class A LTCs and 25%
SC at Mid-points of C-R 4 4
and N-R or N-R for C-R
LTCs linked to 345kV outage level are beneficial before the
real generation in the Boston area is reduced from 480
MW lo 450 MW; after 450 MW, they are classified as
detrimental.
Indicate all transformers with linkage to 115 kV voltage
levels and above with LTCs as beneficial before real power
is reduced in the range of 650 MW to 600 MW. Below
this range, the LTCs are detrimental.
LTCs linked with 230 kV voltage level are detrimental in
the Boston area.

I able 10: Simulation Summary of Boston Area

Reactive
losses in
Boston
(MVAR)

-144
922

Effectiveness Are N
6. LTCs linked with the 115 kV vollage level in the Boslon
area are not affected by the vollage behaviors due to
decrease of real generation in this area.
7. The LTCs in the entire Boston area that are connected to
115 kV voltage level and above will cause a large increase
in reactive losses in the whole New England system after
real generation in Boston is reduced to between 400 MW
and 450 MW.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this research, the static analysis method is used in the
studies of effectiveness of LTCs on the voltage stability and voltage
collapse phenomena. A procedure for performing the studies is
developed, and a strategy of locating LTCs in the systems is
presented. The combined studies of series and shunt capacitors
with coordination of LTCs provides a more sophisticated approach
to voltage stability studies. Practical systems such as the Puget
Sound area of BPA and the Boston area of New England are
simulated in the procedure suggested by this paper. Some
suggestions for operation and planning is given from the results,
observations and analysis.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors of this paper are grateful to the Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI) which funded this project under
project grant # RP-2473-36. Special thanks also goes to
Carson W. Taylor and Jim Ray of Bonneville Power Administration
for their critiques and suggestions.
REFERENCES
Progress Report of EPRl RP 2473-36, " Voltage Collapse
Detection and Prevention." October 1989.
Progress Report of EPRl RP 2473-36 ,"Voltage Collapse
Detection and Prevention," May 1990.
BPA Internal Memorandum of Pugel Sound Area Voltage
Study, October 1989.
Carson W. Taylor, Seminar Series on Voltage Stability,
April 1989.
R.A. Schlueter a
al ., " Voltage Slability and Security
Assessment" EPRl Final Report RPl999-8,(February
1987).
C. Barbier, J.P. Barrel, "An Analysis of Phenomena on
Voltage Collapse on Transmission System," Revue Generale
de I'Electricite, vol. 89, pp. 672-690 (October 1980).
[71 H. Tamura a ., " Relationship Between Voltage
Instability and Multiple Load Flow Solution in Electric
Power Systems," IEEE Trans. on PAS, vol. PAS-102, no. 5,
pp 1115-1125, (May 1983).
181 C.W. Taylor, " Discussion of 89 SM 77-7, Voltage
Stability Condition in a Power System Transmission
System Calculation by Sensitivity Methods."