Paper accepted for presentation at the 2011 IEEE Trondheim PowerTech
Research on Nodal Power Injection Mode in ATC
Determination
Ming Zhou, IEEE Member, Zhongjie Chen and Gengyin Li, IEEE Member
AbstractAvailable Transfer Capability (ATC) is an
operating index that plays an important role in guiding intra-
area electricity trade for interconnected systems. Continuation
power flow (CPF) is the main calculation approach used to
determine ATC. But in the conventional CPF method, a specific
proportional linear nodal power injection mode is widely adopted,
accordingly, ATC achieved by this kind of the CPF approach is a
specific value corresponding to certain an operation state, but not
a reliable and economic ATC from the viewpoint of practical
operation. In this paper, we focus on the selection of nodal power
injection mode for ATC determination, and making comparison
studies for different nodal power injection modes. Modal analysis
is used to search for a load increase mode that mostly affect ATC,
economic dispatch (ED) is incorporated into the CPF in a
piecewise linear way. A master-slave iterative CPF method is
proposed to calculate ATC. The IEEE-30 bus test system is used
to testify the proposed approach, the simulation results show that
the proposed approach can provide a more reliable and economic
ATC.
Index Terms-- ATC determination, continuation power flow,
economic dispatch, modal analysis,
I. INTRODUCTION
A VAILABLE transfer capability (ATC) plays an
important role in guiding intra-area electricity trade for
interconnected systems. North America Electric
Reliability Council (NERC) defines ATC as a measure of the
transfer capability remaining in the physical transmission
network for further commercial activity use [1]. ATC shows
the distance between the base operating point and the ultimate
point which is constrained by power system security
constraints [2].
ATC determination is a complicated task due to its
nonlinearility and multiple constraints. Nowadays,
Continuation Power Flow (CPF) and Optimal Power Flow
(OPF) are two main approaches for ATC calculation [3].
Essentially, OPF searches the ideal operating point by global
optimization, but in which static voltage stability constraint is
hard to take into account, while the CPF approach is to find
ATC value through large amount of power flow calculation by
continuously increasing load demands in receiving area, and
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(50877007)
The authors are with the Key Laboratory of Power System Protection and
Dynamic Security Monitoring and Control under Ministry of Education, North
China Electric Power University, Changping 102206, Beijing, P.R.China (e-
mail: zhouming@ncepu.edu.cn; 757111370@qq.com;
ligy@ncepu.edu.cn).
978-1-4244-8417-1/11/$26.00 2011
generator outputs in sending area until certain a constraint
violates, which can trace the system operation during
determining ATC, and provide a more direct result compared
to the OPF approach, so the CPF approach is more widely
adopted in ATC determination.
The selection of nodal power injection mode is a key
technique in the CPF calculation which has large impact on
the result. The conventional CPF approach adopts a specific
nodal power injection mode, e.g. widely-used proportional
increasing mode [4]. That is in sink area demand powers are
increasing in proportional to their basic powers, and in source
area generator outputs follow the same proportional dispatch
on the base of their operating outputs. This kind of linear
increase mode for nodal power injection is simple for
calculation purpose, not in accordance of real nodal power
variation, even practical operation. So, ATC achieved by this
kind of CPF approach is a specific value corresponding to
such an operation state, not a reliable and economic ATC from
the viewpoint of practical operation. According to the
guidance of ATC determination by NERC, static voltage
stability should be considered in ATC determination. Since
different nodal power injection modes have different impacts
on voltage stability margin, then on ATC [5], so how to select
nodal power injection mode is the key to ATC determination.
This paper aims at research on the selection of nodal power
injection mode for ATC determination, and making
comparison studies for different nodal power injection modes.
From the standpoint of CPF modeling, the impact of the nodal
injection variation mode on ATC is analyzed firstly. In order
to find a more reliable ATC, for nodal power injection mode
in the sink area, we try to use modal analysis to search a load
power variation mode that may most affect ATC, and give
related demonstration for this searching process. Modal
analysis is an important method in power system stability
analysis which can be used to obtain voltage stability margin
and transfer capacity [6]. For nodal power injection mode in
the sending area, economic dispatch mode is adopted to
dispatch generator outputs instead of proportional allocation
method. Based on such a set of nodal injection modes, a
master-slave iterative CPF method is proposed to calculate
ATC. The IEEE-30 bus test system is used to testify the
proposed approach, and some comparison studies are made
with conventional proportional increase mode for nodal
powers.
 2

II. MODAL ANALYSIS BASED NODAL POWER INJECTION MODE illustrated in Fig. 1. The change can affect the direction of the
SELECTION prediction and correction, and finally the iterative process will
reach a different critical point (xt, t*) compared to the linear
injection mode. So the ATC value determined by conventional
A. Calculation Model proportional linear injection mode may not be reliable from
The objective of ATC calaulation is to maximize the power the standpoint of the whole load level, e.g. the situation where
transfer between the source area and the sink area, which is the load is increasing in some worse direction. Potential risk
modeled as the following optimization problem: may be existed in practical operation if ATC is determined
0
using this proportional linear load injection mode.
J = max (1 t ) Pij Pij
i A , j E i A , j E (1)

s.t. g ( X ) = 0
h h( X ) h
min max

where J is the objective function; Pij is exchange power on the
specific interface; the superscript 0 represents the basic state.
t represents the margin reserved for TRM (Transimssion
Reliability Margin) and CBM (Capacity Benefit Margin),
Fig.1 The direction variations of the tangent vector
which are defined in detail in [1]. The equality constraints
stand for node power balance. The inequality constraints are So when the nodal injection variations are considered, the
consisted of all required security constraints. A, E represents system power flow equation containing the load parameter
the source area and the sink area, respectively. X is the nodal can be rewritten as follows:
voltage vector. g ( X , S ) = g ( X , S0 + Sd ) = 0 (6)
When the CPF approach is chosen to solve the above where S is the nodal injection vector, Sd is the nodal injection
model (1), a load parameter is introduced to model nodal direction. According to the illustrations in Fig.1, we have
power increase mode, then the power balance equation g(X)=0 =H(Sd), H is an one-to-one mapping of Sd. Suppose that
turns to g(X, )=0. the subscript l and 0 represents the voltage stability
B. The Impact of Nodal Power Injections on ATC limiting state and the basic state, respectively.The plane M is
the set of l determined by the mapping H (shown in Fig. 2).
ATC determination using the CPF is a prediction-
correction process [7]. The core of the prediction part is to
solve the system tangential equation, which can be written as
follows:
J X J dX 0 (2)
e ' =
p 0 d 1
where JX is the system Jacobian matrix, J is the nodal
injection direction vector. The predictive value can be
obtained by [dX, d].
The correction part is to solve the corrective equation in an
iterative way.The corrective equation can be expressed as: Fig. 2 The impact of power increase direction on ATC
J X J X S ( X , ) (3)If the voltage stability constraint is first reached in ATC
e ' =
p 0 0 determination process, then the load level is l1, according to
where S(X, ) is the parameterized power unbalanced vector. the proportional linear injection direction Sd1, the
The corrective value is obtained in the form of > X , @ corresponding load margin is l1-0. But the most reliable
*
Continue this prediction-correction process until some load margin is l -0 , which is the vertical minimum
constraint violated. In the solving process of the CPF approach, distance between 0 and M, and the corresponding injection
*
the nodal injection mode is increasing in a proportional linear direction, denoted by Sd , should be vertical to the tangent
way. It means in (2) and (3), J is constant. As we know, if the plane Y. Similarly, if certain a thermal limit is first reached,
network topology is fixed, the nodal power injection mode then the corresponding load margin is 1-0 and *-0
determines load parameter . If the nodal injection direction respectively, corresponding to Sd1 and Sd*.
deviates by J from the conventional proportional linear
direction, according to (2), we get: C. Modal Analysis Based Nodal Injection Selection
J X dX + ( J X + J )d = 0 (4) The above analysis shows that the nodal power injection
variation mode is important to ATC determination. The
dX d = J X-1 J J X-1 J (5)
conventional proportional linear load variation mode may not
This means that the nodal power injection mode can provide a reliable ATC. In this paper we use modal analysis
directly affect the tangent vector. The physical meaning is technique to find a load variation mode that can most affect
 3

ATC among all load variation modes. Modal analysis is an incorporate economic dispatch (ED) into CPF in order to
important method in power system stability analysis which achieve a more practical ATC. With ED adopted for
can be used to obtain voltage stability margin and transfer generators, ATC calculation model in (1) turns to:
capability [6]. Here we adopt modal analysis to search for a
worst load increase direction, and take this direction as load max (1 t ) P P 0

ij ij
(15)
power variation mode in the CPF process, in the meanwhile
i A, jE i A, jE

static voltage stability is naturally met. Equation (6) can also min Fi ( PGi )
be written as g(X)=S, then the distance between S0 and Sl is i A
s.t. g ( x ) = 0
denoted by dS, and dS=|Sl-S0|, which can be expressed as:
(7) hmin h( x ) hmax
d S2 = ( Sl S0 )T ( Sl S0 ) S l M
where Fi(PGi) is the generator is cost function, which is
Because M is a convex smooth hypersurface, according to
commonly quadratic function. So, this double target
extreme value criterion, we have:
optimization problem with security constraints becomes more
d S2 S (8) complicated. So, for those quadratic cost functions, we use a
= 2( Sl S0 )T l = 0
X X piece-wise linearization method to handle. The method is:
where S l is tangent vector space of M, if ( S S ) S l , d S2 F(PG) (as shown in Fig. 3(a)) is approximated with a piece-
l 0
X X wise linear function (as shown in Fig. 3(b)), in each segment
reaches to its minimum value, then ( Sl S0 ) parallels the the incremental cost of the unit is constant (as shown in Fig.
normal vector S* of plane M, which can be written as: 3(c)).
S * = t ( S l S0 ) tR (9)
As a result of g ( X l ) = Sl , Eq. (10) can be obtained:
g ( X l ) Sl (10)
det
X = det X = 0

If T is the left eigenvector corresponding to the zero
eigenvalue e, then we have: Fig.3 Piecewise-linear cost curve and its incremental cost curve
S (11)
T l = eT = 0
X Then a priority list is worked out to arrange generation
T Sl (12) dispatch according to the generation cost of the units. If the

X ED problem is handled like this, the whole double target
So by aid of modal analysis technique used in static optimization problem in (15) changes to a single target
voltage stability analysis, this worst load variation direction, optimization problem in every iteration process, that is:
denoted by Z, can be obtained by solving the following min Fi ( PGi( t 1) ) + Fi ( PGi( t ) )
equations: iE iE
(16)
s.t. g( x) = 0
g( X l , S l ) = 0
T PG( t ) = PG( t 1) + PG( t )
(13)
g X ( X l , S l ) = 0
hmin < h( x ) < hmax

T T
r ( S l S 0 ) = 0 This piece-wise linear ED method can be easily
T
Z = a Wg X ( X , S ) (14) incorporated into the CPF to form the generator output
direction vector, furthermore, the nodal generation powers in
where rR is a real positive number. W is a diagonal matrix,
sending area are allocated in this way instead of conventinal
in which the element corresponding to the active and reactive
propotional dispatch at every load level in the prediction-
power of the power increase node in sink area equals to 1, the
correction process, which realizes the combination of ED
other elements equal to 0. aR is a positive real number,
with the CPF approach.
which is designed to make Z unitization in order for the sum
of load changes in the receiving area to equal the predicted B. Analysis to the Impact of ED Integration on ATC
total load increase in the prediction process. This worst load Contrast to the conventional proportional dispatch, the ED
variation direction Z will be incorporated into the CPF process method can achieve a more economic ATC. The combination
to determine a more reliable ATC. Z can be calculated in an of ED and CPF could exploit the potential economic value of
iterative way and this iterative method can be combined with ATC in market environment. But in the conventional CPF
the ATC determination process, it will be demonstrated in method, proportional generation dispatch achieves a uniform
Section IV. generation, this kind of generation dispatch puts aside the
economic quality of ATC, which leads to a more uniform
III. ECONOMIC DISPATCH AS NODAL GENERATION POWER
power flow distribution compared to ED. The ideal situation is
ALLOCATION APPROACH AND ITS IMPACT ANALYSIS
that the generation economic dispatch is consistent with the
A. Combination of ED and CPF uniformity of the electric network, but it can be hardly reached
in practical operation. Consequently, the incorporation of ED
As for generators outputs variation mode, we try to
 4

into the CPF equals to an addition of generation constraints, prediction-correction-injection direction control process. In
which means that in market environment units with better the proposed method, the ATC determination part is viewed as
economy qualities acquire more generation, meanwhile some the master iteration, the direction correction part is regarded as
units have to reduce their generation. Globally a balanced the slave iteration. The calculation process is as follows:
power system, in which the utilization of the element are (i) Initialize Z=Z(0). Theoretically Z(0) can be an arbitrary
basically uniform, can afford a higher security level, a further direction, in this paper the conventional proportional linear
transaction space and a larger capacity to resist the unexpected direction is used as Z(0). 
disturbance. Apparently, the non-uniform power flow (ii) Set k=1. 
distribution brought by ED will break this balance. (iii) Use Z(k-1) as load increase direction, and combine Z(k-1)
To illustrate the problem, the utilization rate variation index with the piece-wise linear ED method to form new power
Rfz,i is defined: injection direction vector I(k-1). 
|P P | (17) (iv) Incorporate I(k-1) into the master iteration and calculate
R = li li 0 i = 1, 2,...L
fz ,i
Plimax ATC, the iteration is ended until some constraint is
Where Pli represents the power flowed on line i in current state, violated. This step is the master iteration process. 
Pli0 represents the power flowed on line i in basic state, Pli max (v) If the voltage stability constraint is first violated, then
calculate T ( k ) according to Equ. (13). Otherwise continue
represents the transfer limit of line i, L is the branch number.
the iteration until the power system Jacobian matrix is
R fz ,i shows the deviation of the utilization ratio of the current
singular, and calculate T ( k ) . Then calculate Z(k) according
state from the basic state. If R fz ,i is sequenced in a descending
to Eq. (14). This step is the slave iteration process. 
order, then the utilization rate variation distribution in two (vi) If (the angle between Z(k) and Z(k-1)) is smaller than the
dispatch modes is plotted in Fig. 4 set value min, end the whole calculation process, otherwise
turn to(vii)
(vii) Set k=k+1, turn to (iii).
The above process has been realized in the Matlab platform.

Fig.4 Distribution of Rfz in two generation dispatch modes
V. CASE STUDIES
The IEEE 30-bus test system, shown in Fig. 5, is used to
test the presented approach. The system is divided into three
areas, the detailed data of the test system can be found in [8].
Bus 10, 21, 24, 26, 29 and 30 are selected as the sink points,
bus 2, 5, and 13 are selected as the source points, the three
units are denoted by 1#, 2#, and 3# respectively. In the paper
the ATC determination from Area 1 to Area 3 is considered.

It is shown that the variation of R fz ,i in the ED mode is

larger than one in proportional dispatch. The variation
provides a certain decision space for dispatchers: the system
with economic dispatch operates in an economic mode, but
non-uniform power flow distribution reduces the system
response space to resist the unexpected disturbance, and may
bring potential risk costs. Contrary to the ED mode, the
system with proportional dispatch contains a larger
consumption costs, but the uniform element utilization
provides a higher security level and a further transaction space.
Consequently, at the standpoint of ED, the reliability and the
economic efficiency of ATC is a game, the determination
process is a flexible mathematical optimization options based
on the combinations of the electricity rule and the market law.
The problem could be considered as a compromise of the
system consumptions, system transaction space and system Fig.5 The IEEE-30 bus test system
security level.
The load variation vectors based on the conventional
IV. MASTER-SLAVE ITERATIVE CPF METHOD proportional linear mode (Mode I) and the proposed modal
analysis mode (Mode II) are shown in Table I. It can be seen
Based on the above mode, we propose a master-slave that loads are increasing in different ratio in two modes. For
iterative CPF algorithm to determine ATC. The method
extends the conventional prediction-correction into a
 5

example, the increase ratio of load at node 29 is 4.95% in

Mode I, but 33.89% in Mode II.
TABLE
CONTRAST OF THE LOAD VARIATION BY TWO MODES

P10 P21 P24 P26 P29 P30

Mode I 0.1196 0.3608 0.1794 0.0722 0.0495 0.2186
Mode 0.0123 0.0948 0.0201 0.0827 0.3389 0.4512
II

TTC and ATC calculation results based on four different

power injection combinations are listed in Table II. Where PD
refers to the conventional proportional dispatch for the
sending generators and ED refers to economic dispatch. The
results of the units output and the total generation costs are
listed in Table III. The exchange powers on the tie lines
through the boundary of Area I are shown in Table IV. The
Fig.6 Contrast of Rfz in two generation dispatch modes
distribution of R fz ,i of six tie-lines in Case III and Case IV are
shown in Fig. 6. those points that mostly affect ATC can be obtained according
TABLE II to the corresponding values in the load variation vector, which
TTC AND ATC IN FOUR DIFFERENT CASES could be viewed as the weak area from the security point of
Load Increase Unit Dispatch
view. In the study case, node 29 and 30 taking larger share
Case TTC(MW) ATC(MW) ratios are the weak points, which indicates that heavy load
Mode Mode
Case I Mode I PD 115.24 56.01 should not be allocated on these nodes, and large load
Case II Mode I ED 108.34 49.81 disturbance should be avoided on these nodes in practical
Case III Mode II PD 65.34 10.29
operation.
Case IV Mode II ED 65.18 10.17
(2) Contrast to the proportional dispatch principle, the
TABLE III economic dispatch patterns can achieves a more economic
GENERATIONS AND COSTS IN FOUR DIFFERENT CASES ATC. The generation economic dispatch can be simply
Load Unit
incorporated into CPF by using the piece-wise linear method.
Unit Output (MW) Costs
Case Increase Dispatch The generation direction vector is easily calculated,
1# 2# 3# (p.u)
Mode Mode furthermore, the generation costs are optimized at every load
Case I Mode I PD 53.37 26.68 26.68 5.364 level in the prediction-correction process, which makes the
Case II Mode I ED 49.84 40 10 4.781
Case III Mode II PD 28.15 14.07 14.07 1.308
combination of ED and CPF more practical.
Case IV Mode II ED 20 26.38 10 1.297 (3) Compare Case I with Case II in Table III, it can be
concluded that generation dispatch patterns has impact on
TABLE IV ATC. The generation proportion of the three units in the PD
EXCHANGE POWER OF THE SIX TIE LINES
mode keeps 2:1:1 all along in the whole iteration process. But
Line From Bus Basic Case Case in the ED mode, unit 2 gets more generation share and has full
Case I Case II
No. To Bus State III IV load output because of its lower incremental cost. Unit 3 keeps
1 2-6 55.21 72.88 72.90 60.17 59.19 output at its initial state all along due to its higher incremental
2 4-6 70.61 83.99 77.98 74.71 71.73 cost. The economic dispatch directly leads to a non-uniform
3 7-6 -35.09 -19.10 -12.74 -30.83 -25.29
4 12-14 8.24 12.07 11.07 9.41 9.24 power flow distribution. In Case I line 2-6 reaches to its limit
5 12-15 14.96 33.13 29.23 23.39 22.68 after 46 iterations. But in Case II, the power flow of branch 2-
6 16-17 5.41 14.93 11.19 7.17 6.36 5 and 5-7 grows fast because unit 2 is continuously increasing
total 119.34 197.90 189.62 144.03 143.91 its output, which leads to a fast power flow increase in link
line 2-6 and 7-6. Line 2-6 reaches its limit after 41 iterations
The following conclusions can be summarized from the
comparatively. This is the reason whyt ATC calculated in
case studies:
Case II is smaller than in Case I. Though the ATC value
(1) From Table II it can be seen that contrast to the
decreases, the total generation cost is 5.364 p.u in Case I,
proportional load increase mode, modal analysis based load
while 4.781 p.u in Case II, so the incorporation of ED in ATC
variations gives a smaller TTC and ATC. It shows that ATC
determination process can achieve a more economic ATC. The
determined by the proportional linear mode may be insecure,
same conclusion can also be obtained by comparing Case III
and if it is used to guide system operation, potential risk may
and Case IV in Table III.
be existed and the security of the system may not be met.
(4) From Table IV and Fig. 6 it can be seen that in the PD
Comparatively, modal analysis based ATC can naturally meet
mode, the distribution of Rfz of the six link lines are generally
the system security requirement in different operation modes
and provides a higher security level. Meanwhile in Mode II, uniform, but in the ED mode, R fz ,3 increases largely due to
continuously increasing of unit 2 output, meanwhile the
 6

utilizations of the other five tie lines all decrease. This non-
uniform tie line utilization may bring potential risk to system
operation. So, from the standpoint of ED, the reliability and
the economy of ATC is a game, the compromise depends on
the transaction costs that the market participator can accept
and the expected security level of the power system.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Electricity Power University (NCEPU) in 1989, 1992, and 2006, respectively.
Since 1992, Dr. Zhou has been with the School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering at NCEPU, where she is currently a professor. Her areas of
interest include power systems economics, power system analysis and
reliability, and power quality analysis.
Zhongjie Chen was born in Jiangxi Province, China. He received the B.S.
degree in Electrical Engineering from North China Electricity Power
University (NCEPU) in 2008. Currently, he is perusing a M.S. degree in
NCEPU and his research interest is power system analysis and control.

The paper analyzes the impact of nodal power injections on Gengyin Li (M03) was born in Hebei Province, China. He received the B.S.,
ATC, and proposes that modal analysis is applied to search for M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, all in Electrical Engineering from North China
a load variation mode that can affect ATC mostly, and Electricity Power University (NCEPU) in 1984, 1987, and 1996, respectively.
Since 1987, Dr. Li has been with the School of Electrical and Electronic
economic dispatch is used to allocate generation among Engineering at NCEPU, where he is currently a professor and vice dean of the
sending generators which is incorporated into the CPF in a School. His areas of interest include power quality analysis and control,
piece-wise linear way. A master-slave iterative CPF method is HVDC and VSC-HVDC transmission technology, power system analysis and
presented to achieve a reliable and economic ATC. The IEEE- reliability, and power systems economics.
30 bus test system is used to verify the presented approach.
The case studies indicate that the ATC value determined by
the proposed approach can naturally meet system reliability
requirement and ensures a higher security level. Piece-wise
linear ED method is easily incorporated into the CPF to
achieve a more economic ATC. At the standpoint of economic
operation, the nature of reliability and economy of ATC is a
game, the compromise depends on the transaction costs that
the market participator can accept and the expected security
level of the power system.

VII. REFERENCES
[1] Transmission Transfer Capability Task Force, "Available transfer
capability definitions and determination," North American Electric
Reliability Council, Princeton, NJ, June 1996.
[2] P. Ding, X. X. Zhou, J. F. Yan, et al. "Calculation of online total transfer
capability in bulk interconnected grid integrating rationality and security
principle". Proceedings of CSEE, vol. 30, no. 22, pp. 1-6, 2010.
[3] Patel, M and Girgis, A.A. "Review of available transmission capability
(ATC) calculation methods". in Proc. 2009 IEEE Power Systems
Conference, pp. 587-593.
[4] Ning Ji, Yajing Gao, Ming Zhou and Gengyin Li. "The AC-DC hybrid
transmission system ATC calculation based on continuation power flow".
in Proc. 2009 IEEE Sustainable Power Generation and Supply
Conference, pp. 587-593.
[5] D. Z. Chen, B. M. Zhang and X. Fang. "Effect of nodal injection power
mode on voltage stability margin". Power System Technology, vol. 33,
no. 2, pp. 62-67, 2009.
[6] Gao B, Morison G K and Kundur P. "Voltage stability evaluation using
modal analysis". IEEE Trans. On Power Systems, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 1529-
1542, 1992.
[7] W. Jiang and C. S. Wang. "PV curve tracing in power system transfer
capability analysis". Automation of Electric Power Systems, vol. 2, pp.
9-12, 2001.
[8] U. De Martinis, F. Gagliardi, A. Losi, V. Mangoni and F. Rossi, "
Optimal load flow for electrical power systems with multiterminal
HVDC links," in Proc. 1990 Generation, Transmission and Distribution,
pp. 139-145

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Ming Zhou (M06) was born in Hubei Province, China. She received the B.S.,
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from North China