The future in on-line security assessment and wide-area stability control

Today's electric power industry faces many challenges. Generation, transmission, and distribution are often under separate ownership, but coordination and system engineering are still required. There is intense competition where millions of dollars are at risk every day. in North America, Regional Transmission Organizations and Security Centers are being formed to help ensure power system reliability. But new transmission lines to serve growing loads and serve new power flow patterns are difficult to build for both environmental and financial reasons. Financial difficulties are because of uncertainty in realizing return on investment. Financial problems also cause delays in other power system reinforcement, modernization, and maintenance. Engineers must use technology to meet these challenges. Information can be exploited, at relatively low cost, with new computer and communication capabilities. In this paper the author surveys the possibilities to use advanced technology to improve power system reliability. In particular he discusses the future of online security assessment and wide-area stability control at Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA. To make the survey broad, the author deviates from theme of transient stability assessment and also includes voltage security assessment, which is often a first step towards comprehensive security.