Toward Online Bus-Bar Splitting for Increasing Load Margins to Static Stability Limit

The effect of bus-bar splitting on the static stability limit is studied in this paper. A novel online bus-bar splitting methodology is developed to increase the static stability limit of a look-ahead (i.e., short term, say, 30 minutes ahead) power system. The proposed methodology, designed for online application, is based on a strategy consisting of screening, ranking, and decision stages. A tailored model of bus-bar splitting is developed to accurately model bus-bar splitting scenarios. The effectiveness of the proposed online bus-bar splitting methodology is evaluated on the IEEE 118-bus, 1648-bus, and 3120-bus power systems. Results indicate that significant load margin increases can be achieved by bus-bar splitting.