A new continuation power flow tool for investigating the nonlinear effects of transmission branch parameter variations

This paper presents a new computational tool for investigating the nonlinear effects of varying multiple branch parameters. This is a new continuation power flow tool since this is the first time continuation has been applied to branch parameters, not bus junctions. The applications for the new tool include: (i) contingency analysis due to the loss of any transmission facilities, (ii) investigation of the existence of a power flow solution under severe contingencies that might not "converge" using standard power flow solvers, and (iii) examination of the nonlinear effects of various control devices (e.g., unified power flow controllers) on the state of a power system. Simulation results are presented for a large-scale system with 3493 buses and 6689 branches.