IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO.
6, NOVEMBER 2014
Analytical Method for Short-Term Voltage Stability
Using the Stability Boundary in the P-V Plane
K. Kawabe, Member, IEEE, and K. Tanaka
AbstractShort-term voltage stability is one of the issues of con-
cern for power system operations. As dispersed power generation
is connected to middle- and low-voltage transmission networks, the
development of analytical methods will become more important.
This paper describes a stability boundary line in the P-V plane
of the load bus for the analysis of short-term voltage stability. By
comparing the operating point of the load with the boundary line,
we can visually determine the acceleration or deceleration state
of the induction motor, thereby clearly explaining the short-term
voltage instability phenomena. In addition, the idea of the stability
boundary is applied to voltage stability assessment and emergency
controls such as reactive power compensation. Numerical simula-
tions are carried out for a single-load infinite-bus system to explain
the basic theory of the proposed method and to provide examples
of its application.
Index TermsInduction motors, reactive power control, short-
term voltage stability, stability analysis.
NOMENCLATURE
Differential operator with respect to time.
Terminal voltage of the induction motor.
Stator current of the induction motor.
Rotor current of the induction motor.
Stator flux linkage of the induction motor.
Rotor flux linkage of the induction motor.
Stator resistance of the induction motor.
Rotor resistance of the induction motor.
Stator leakage reactance of the induction motor.
Rotor leakage reactance of the induction motor.
Exciting reactance of the induction motor.
Standard frequency.
Rotor speed of the induction motor.
Manuscript received November 17, 2013; revised February 02, 2014; ac-
cepted March 17, 2014. Date of publication April 04, 2014; date of current
version October 16, 2014. This work was supported in part by CREST pro-
gram, Creation of Fundamental Theory and Technology to Establish a Coop-
erative Distributed Energy Management System and Integration of Technolo-
gies across Broad Disciplines toward Social Application, of Japan Science and
Technology Agency (JST). Paper no. TPWRS-01381-2013.
The authors are with the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Uni-
versity of Toyama, Gofuku 3190, Japan.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2014.2313152
0885-8950 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
3041
Slip of the induction motor.
Inertia constant of the induction motor.
Load factor of the induction motor.
Electromagnetic torque of the induction motor.
Mechanical torque of the induction motor.
Positive constant.
Conductance of the constant impedance load.
Conductance of the induction motor load.
I. INTRODUCTION
S HORT-TERM voltage stability is one of the issues of con-
cern during the transient region after a large disturbance
in a power system [1]. Short-term voltage stability is less well-
known than rotor angle stability, also known as transient sta-
bility, owing to its lower frequency of occurrence. Difficulties in
modeling the dynamic load, which can significantly contribute
to voltage collapse, and setting parameters have also deterred
power system operators from analyzing the short-term voltage
stability in practical power systems. On the other hand, the basic
mechanism of short-term voltage stability caused by the dy-
namic characteristics of induction motor loads is discussed in
[2] and [3]. Several papers have investigated analytical methods
for short-term voltage stability [4][6]. It is also pointed out that
short term voltage stability is closely related to rotor angle sta-
bility [7], [8].
As dispersed power generation such as photovoltaic power
generation is connected to middle- and low-voltage transmis-
sion networks, short-term voltage stability may deteriorate be-
cause renewable power generation is connected via converters
and is prone to stop operation after a voltage sag. Therefore, the
development of an analytical method for short-term voltage sta-
bility will become more important to comprehend the impact of
dispersed power generation on short-term voltage stability and
to develop countermeasures.
This paper describes a novel analytical method for short-
term voltage stability that is motivated by [3] and [4], in which
the authors propose an analytical method using the transient
P-V curves of the targeted load bus. Although the transient P-V
curves present the transmission characteristics of the system to
the load bus during the transient period, they do not show the
state of the induction motor load because the stability boundary
is not located at the nose point of the transient P-V curve, unlike
the static P-V curve. The authors in [3] pointed out that the sta-
bility boundary is not located at the nose point of the transient
3042
P-V curve. However, its precise position in the P-V plane has
not been demonstrated at present. In this paper, we describe a
stability boundary in the P-V plane. The analytical method de-
veloped using the stability boundary and transient P-V curves
enables us to clearly explain the short-term voltage stability. In
addition, the idea of a stability boundary is applied to short-term
voltage stability assessment and emergency controls such as re-
active power compensation. Numerical simulations are carried
out for a single-load infinite-bus system to explain the basic
theory of the proposed method and to provide examples of the
application of this method.
II. DYNAMIC LOAD MODEL
A. Dynamic Load Model
The dynamic load model at a load center is assumed to be
composed of an induction motor load and a constant impedance
load that are connected in parallel. The ratio of the induction
motor load at a load center has a large impact on the short-term
voltage stability. In this study, this ratio is set at 60%, even
though the composition of the loads varies with the load cen-
ters, the season, and the time of the day.
Fig. 1 shows the equivalent circuit of the induction motor.
Table I summarizes the machine-based data for the induction
motor. The induction motor equations used in this study are ex-
pressed in (1)(8) and were derived in [9] for the transient anal-
ysis. Here, the electrical and magnetic variables are shown for
- axes rotating at the standard frequency :
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
In this study, the induction motor load is modeled as a first-order
model that neglects the transient term of the magnetic flux in
(1)(4) to focus on the fundamental characteristic of the load for
the development of the new analytical method. Therefore, the
swing equation in (9) is considered to represent the dynamics of
the load:
(9)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2014
Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit for the induction motor load.
TABLE I
DATA FOR THE INDUCTION MOTOR LOAD
The electromagnetic torque is derived from (1)(8) by ne-
glecting the time-derivative terms as shown in (10) at the bottom
of the page.
The mechanical torque is assumed to be a quadratic function
of the rotor speed, as expressed in (11), considering that a large
part of induction motor loads in Japan are composed of pumps,
compressors, and blower fans in the industrial sectors:
(11)
B. Load Characteristics in the P-V Plane
In the analysis of the voltage stability in the P-V plane, where
P and V represent the active power consumption and the mag-
nitude of the terminal voltage of the load, respectively, the op-
erating point of the load lies at the intersection of the P-V curve
and the load characteristic curve. The change in the load charac-
teristic curve with respect to the change in the induction motor
speed is briefly explained in the following discussion.
The load characteristic curve of the dynamic load model is
given by (12):
(12)
Fig. 2 shows the change in with respect to the change in
for the dynamic load model with an induction motor ratio
of 60%. For increases as is decreased from
to . For decreases as is decreased
from to . Here, the rotor speed that achieves the
maximum value of the conductance is defined as . Therefore,
the graph of the load characteristic curve changes as deceler-
ates, as shown in Fig. 3. In this study, deceleration is assumed to
be caused by a large disturbance such as a three-line-to-ground
(3LG) fault.
(10)
KAWABE AND TANAKA: ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR SHORT-TERM VOLTAGE STABILITY
Fig. 2. Relationship between the rotor speed and the conductance of the induc-
tion motor.
Fig. 3. Change in the load characteristics for the deceleration of an induction
motor. (a) . (b) .
Fig. 4. Single-load infinite-bus system.
III. TRANSIENT P-V CURVE
A. Numerical Example of a Voltage Collapse
A numerical simulation for a single-load infinite-bus system
(Fig. 4) is carried out to show the short-term voltage insta-
bility phenomena and to explain the transient P-V curve. In
Fig. 4, the extra-high-voltage (EHV) network is represented by
the infinite bus, and the dynamic characteristics of the genera-
tors are neglected to focus on the short-term voltage stability.
The short-term voltage stability depends on the dynamic char-
acteristics of the induction motor load and the power transfer
characteristics of the transmission system to the load. The ag-
gregated load center is modeled by the dynamic load that is
connected through the aggregated transmission and subtrans-
mission lines. The total power consumption at the load center
is shown in Fig. 4. The bus voltages in the normal state are con-
trolled within the appropriate range by the on-load tap-changing
transformers and the shunt capacitors at buses 2, 4, and 6.
A 3LG fault in the EHV network is represented by specifying
the voltage of the infinite bus from 1.01 to 0.50. The voltage re-
covers to 1.01 after the fault is cleared. Fig. 5 shows the results
of the load bus voltage for faults with different fault clearing
times . If the fault clearing time increases from 0.07 s to
0.10 s, the result is a voltage collapse. Here, we neglect pro-
tection systems such as a load-shedding control system to focus
3043
Fig. 5. Change in the voltage at the load bus. (a) s. (b) s.
Fig. 6. Analysis via the transient P-V curves.
on the basic mechanism of the voltage instability phenomena
and the basic concept of the transient P-V curve.
B. Transient P-V Curve Analysis
Fig. 6 illustrates the changes in the operating point of the load
in the P-V plane and also shows the transient P-V curves for the
load bus in the normal and emergency states. The P-V curve in
the normal state represents to the P-V curve before and after the
voltage sag.
The transient P-V curve proposed in [4] can be depicted for
given time steps during the transient period by changing the slip
of the induction motor load over the entire operating range. The
transient P-V curve represents the power transfer capability to
the load at a given time and visually indicates the short-term
voltage stability at each time. Therefore, it is helpful to explain
the change of the operating point of the load during the transient
period. This is because the bus voltage is prone to lose stability
when the operating point lies in the lower region of the curve.
When a fault occurs in the EHV network, the transient P-V
curve shrinks to the lower left, as seen in Fig. 6. The induction
motor is decelerating during the fault, and the operating point
shifts downward as the graph of the load characteristic curve
changes, as shown in Fig. 3(a). The operating point recovers
upward by clearing the fault at 0.07 s, while it continues to shift
downward by clearing the fault at 0.10 s.
C. Weak Point of the Transient P-V Curve
It is observed in Fig. 6 that the voltage can recover, even
though the operating point enters the lower-half part of the P-V
3044 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2014

Fig. 7. Torque-speed characteristics of the induction motor load.

Fig. 8. Change in the rotor speed for each region of the load characteristic
curve.

curve. In other words, the stability boundary is not located at the

nose point of the transient P-V curve, as it is for the static P-V
curve. Therefore, the analysis using the transient P-V curve does
not provide any information about the state of the dynamic load,
which determines the direction of change of the operating point
at each time. In the numerical examples, Fig. 6 cannot explain
why the operating points of the load in the two cases move in
different directions owing to the slight difference in the fault
clearing time.

IV. STABILITY BOUNDARY IN THE P-V PLANE

A. Physical Explanation
The change of the operating point of the dynamic load is dom-
inated by the acceleration of the induction motor. The operating
point moves downward along the P-V curve when the acceler-
ation is negative because the load characteristic curve changes,
as shown in Fig. 3. The acceleration is determined by the bal-
ance of the torques in (9).
Fig. 7 represents the torquespeed characteristics of the in-
duction motor loads. The motor accelerates in the region where
the remainder of the torque is positive, while it decelerates in
the other regions. The characteristic curve changes depending
on the terminal voltage because the electromagnetic torque is a Fig. 9. Stability boundary of the dynamical load in the P-V plane. (a)
function of and , as defined in (10). For a given speed of the . (b) .
induction motor load, there exists a terminal voltage at which
the remainder of the torque is zero. Here, we define an induc-
tion motor speed, , for which the remainder of the torque is for each operating range in Fig. 9 for the sake of explanation,
zero at a terminal voltage of 0.4 p.u. although the two stability boundaries are continuous.
Fig. 8 represents the load characteristic curve for . The stability boundary in Fig. 9(a) divides the region above
The terminal voltage of 0.4 p.u. determines the boundary point the load characteristic curve at into two areas. The left
on the load characteristic curve. For the range where the voltage side of the region represents the unstable region where the in-
is above 0.4 p.u., the induction motor accelerates because the re- duction motor decelerates, while the other side represents the
mainder of the torque is positive, as seen in Fig. 7. The induction stable region. The stability boundary for the operating range of
motor decelerates in the range below the boundary point. also defines the stable and unstable regions, as
By plotting the boundary points for the operating range of shown in Fig. 9(b). Here, the region below the load character-
the induction motor , we obtain the proposed istic curve for does not need to be considered because
stability boundary that enables us to distinguish the sign of the the operating point cannot lie in this region, as shown in Fig. 3.
time derivative of the induction motor speed in the P-V plane.
Fig. 9 shows the stability boundary for the dynamic load. As B. Mathematical Procedure
shown in Fig. 3, the load characteristic curve shifts downwards The stability boundary is the locus of the boundary points
as the induction motor decelerates within the range of on the load characteristic curve for the operating range of the
and then shifts upwards as it continues to decelerate within induction motor . The boundary point for
the range of . The stability boundary is depicted is obtained as follows:
KAWABE AND TANAKA: ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR SHORT-TERM VOLTAGE STABILITY
Fig. 10. Stability boundary analysis and transient P-V curves for the stable case
( s).
1) Calculate the terminal voltage at which by
(13) derived from (9)(11). Although it is assumed the
industrial motor has speed-squared mechanical torque
characteristics, the proposed method can also be applied to
other types of motors, such as air-conditioner compressor
motors, with near-constant torque-speed characteristics
[10] by modifying (11) and therefore (13), shown at the
bottom of the page.
2) Calculate the active power consumption from (12)
using and .
As described above, the stability boundary is calculated
using only the parameters of the loads. Thus, the computational
burden is independent of the sizes of the transmission and
subtransmission systems.
C. Stability Boundary and Transient PV Curve Analysis
The proposed stability boundary is applied to the numerical
examples in Fig. 6. Fig. 10 shows the results for the stable case.
The operating point in the normal state lies at the in-
tersection of the stability boundary with the transient P-V curve.
This intersection is the stable equilibrium point. The operating
point jumps to the lower left owing to the 3LG fault at s.
The operating point during the fault is in the unstable region at
the left side of the stability boundary. Therefore, the induction
motor decelerates, and the operating point shifts to the lower
left. After the fault clearing at s, the operating point
jumps to the upper right. Then, the operating point moves up-
ward along the P-V curve because the operating point lies in the
stable region at the right side of the boundary. Note that only
the stability boundary for the range of is shown
in Fig. 10 because the induction motor load operates within this
range in the numerical example.
Fig. 11 shows the results for the unstable case. Unlike
the stable case, the operating point after the fault clearing at
s lies in the unstable region at the left side of the
3045
Fig. 11. Stability boundary analysis and transient P-V curves for the unstable
case ( s). The tangent point of the transient P-V curve to the load
characteristic curve is the operating point at .
boundary. Therefore, the induction motor continues to decel-
erate even after fault clearing, and the operating point of the
load shifts downwards along the P-V curve.
As shown in the numerical examples, the proposed stability
boundary enables us to clearly explain the short-term voltage
behavior because it visually shows the state of the induction
motor load at each operating point.
The stability boundary also enables us to know the unstable
equilibrium point (UEP) on the transient P-V curve, as shown
in Figs. 10 and 11. By substituting the power consumption and
voltage at the UEP into (12), it is possible to derive the crit-
ical induction motor speed corresponding to the UEP. For a
single aggregated motor load, the voltage stability of the system
is determined by .
V. APPLICATION OF THE STABILITY BOUNDARY
A. Short-Term Voltage Stability Assessment
Fig. 12 describes the stability boundary, transient P-V curve,
and load characteristic curve at for short-term voltage
stability assessment of the test system in Fig. 4 with different
induction motor ratios to the total load. Note that the arrows
on the P-V curve represent the gradient at each operating point
and are determined by comparing each operating point and the
corresponding stability boundary.
In Fig. 12(a), there are two stable equilibrium points (SEPs)
and a UEP that are the intersection points of the stability
boundary and the transient P-V curve. The load operates at SEP
1 in the normal state. For system conditions with a high induc-
tion motor ratio, a voltage collapse can occur if the operating
point of the load enters the part of the P-V curve lower than the
UEP. In the unstable case, the operating point moves towards
SEP 2.
On the other hand, there is only one SEP for system condi-
tions with a low induction motor ratio, as shown in Fig. 12(b).
The results indicate that a voltage collapse does not occur, even
(13)
3046 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2014

Fig. 13. Voltage instability phenomena caused by a disconnection of a trans-

mission route.

Fig. 12. Stability boundary and transient P-V curve for induction motor ratios
of (a) 60% and (b) 20%. The tangent point of the transient P-V curve to the load
characteristic curve is the operating point at . (a) Induction motor ratio: Fig. 14. Prevention of the voltage instability phenomena by reactive power
60%. (b) Induction motor ratio: 20% compensation.

2) Calculate the critical voltage under which the induc-

though the induction motor load significantly decelerates owing
tion motor decelerates and leads to the voltage collapse by
to a voltage sag.
substituting in (13).
As shown in the numerical examples, the positional relation-
3) Execute the power flow calculation where the bus speci-
ship between the stability boundary and the transient P-V curve
fication of the load bus is and . Here, the
can help us understand the short-term voltage stability of the
induction motor speed is set at , and the load is consid-
load center without performing a time-domain numerical sim-
ered as a constant impedance. The calculation obtains the
ulation. This positional relationship can also be useful for the
reactive power flow into the load bus. is the min-
short-term voltage stability assessment of each load center.
imum required value of the reactive power compensation.
Assuming that the reactive power compensation triggers at
B. Reactive Power Compensation
s in the numerical example, is calculated as
The idea of the stability boundary can be applied to calculate 0.157 p.u. by the previously described method.
the critical value of an emergency control action such as reactive Fig. 14 shows the results in the P-V plane when a reactive
power compensation to avoid a short-term voltage collapse. power of 0.16 p.u. is injected at s. Owing to the
Assuming a disconnection of a transmission route in the EHV control action at , the operating point jumps to the
network in Fig. 3 by doubling the impedance between buses 1 upper right. The voltage recovers to the new equilibrium point
and 2 at , a short-term voltage collapse occurs without any because it is located at the right side of the stability boundary.
emergency control action. Fig. 13 shows the voltage instability Here, in the proposed method corresponds to the voltage
phenomenon caused by the fault. The P-V curve shrinks to the of the intersection point between the stability boundary and the
left of the stability boundary owing to the fault, and thus, the load characteristic curve at .
operating point of the load shifts to the lower left. Note that can be regarded as the critical delay time for
Given that reactive power compensation at bus 6 is triggered the reactive power injection of to avoid the voltage collapse.
at , the minimum required value of the reactive power In other words, the critical delay time can also be calculated
is calculated as follows. from the given amount of reactive power compensation by the
1) Obtain the induction motor speed at by a same idea. The critical values can be useful for a fast stability
time-domain numerical simulation in advance or an online estimation to trigger other emergency control actions such as
state estimation. load shedding.
KAWABE AND TANAKA: ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR SHORT-TERM VOLTAGE STABILITY
VI. CONCLUSION
We propose a stability boundary line in the P-V plane of the
load bus for the analysis of short-term voltage stability. By com-
paring the operating point of the load with the boundary line, we
can visually determine the acceleration or deceleration state of
the induction motor. On the other hand, the transient P-V curve
can indicate the transfer characteristics of the transmission net-
work to the load. The proposed analytical method using both
of them enables us to clearly explain the short-term voltage be-
havior. The idea of the stability boundary can also be useful
for other applications such as voltage stability assessment and
emergency control.
In our future work, the proposed analytical method should
be developed for more practical power systems considering
generators and a more detailed model of induction motor loads.
In addition, the proposed method will be applied to investigate
the undesirable impact of dispersed power generation on the
short-term voltage stability and to develop countermeasures.
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K. Kawabe (M12) was born in Tokyo, Japan, in
1984. He received the B.S. degree from Waseda
University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2007, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo,
Japan, in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
He has been with the Graduate School of Science
and Engineering, University of Toyama, Gofuku,
Japan, since 2012 as a visiting assistant professor in
charge of power system engineering.
K. Tanaka was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1951. He
received the B.S., M.S., and Dr.Eng. degrees from
the graduate school of Kyushu University, Fukuoka,
Japan, in 1974, 1976, and 1996, respectively.
He joined the Central Research Institute of Electric
Power Industry (CRIEPI) in 1976 and served as vis-
iting researcher at the University of Texas, Arlington,
TX, USA, from 1981 to 1982. He served as a visiting
professor at Tohoku University from 2006 to 2009.
He has been with the Graduate School of Science and
Engineering, University of Toyama, Gofuku, Japan,
since 2012 as a visiting professor in charge of power system engineering.
Dr. Tanaka was given the Outstanding Paper Award of IEE of Japan in 1993.