On Information Transfer-Based Characterization of Power System Stability

In this paper, we present a novel approach to identify the generators and states responsible for the small-signal stability of power networks. To this end, the newly developed notion of information transfer between the states of a dynamical system is used. In particular, using the concept of information transfer, which characterizes influence between the various states of a dynamical system, we identify the generators and states which are responsible for causing instability of the power network. While characterizing influence from state to state, information transfer can also describe influence from state to modes thereby generalizing the well known notion of participation factor while at the same time overcoming some of the limitations of the participation factor. The developed framework is applied to reproduce known results for the three bus system, identifying the various causes of instabilities, and is extended to IEEE 39 bus system.