Electric Power Systems Research, 26 (1993) 231-236 231

Improvements on the line outage distribution factor for power

system security analysis

Y u n g - C h u n g Chang, Wei-Tzen Y a ng and C h u n - C h a n g L i u

Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, P.O. Box 2-54, Yung Ho, Taipei (Taiwan)

(Received November 17, 1992)

Abstract

This paper presents two sensitivity factors in terms of the generation shift distribution factor (GSDF) to
improve some defects of the conventional formula for the line outage distribution factor (ODF). The
sensitivity factors are established by using the concepts of generation change and power injection to
simulate the outaged line flow and one of them is then applied to the case of line addition. A transfer factor
is derived to calculate the power flow of the added line very quickly from the relationship between the ODF
and the GSDF. The proposed method has been tested by means of a standard system. Compared with the
conventional ODF in the line outage case and with DC load flow in the line addition case, the proposed
method has good accuracy and a fast execution time. This method is very suitable for real-time security
assessment and contingency analysis of power systems.

Keywords: security assessment, contingency analysis, generation shift distribution factor, line outage
distribution factor, sensitivity method.

1. I n t r o d u c t i o n t i o n model. T he f o r m e r t r e a t s t he pow er flow of

T h e use of th e s e n s i t i v i t y m e t h o d to c o m p u t e
line flows in system s e c u r i t y a nd c o n t i n g e n c y
a n a l y s is r e m a i n s v e r y p o p u l a r [1-3]. T h e inher-
e n t p r o p e r t i e s of simplicity, l i near i t y, a c c u r a c y
a n d r a p i d i t y of c o m p u t a t i o n m a k e it widely ac-
c e p t a b l e in real-time a p p l i c a t i o n . T h e g e n e r a t i o n
shift d i s t r i b u t i o n f a c t o r (GSDF) a n d the line out-
age d i s t r i b u t i o n f a c t o r (ODF) ar e two of the most
i m p o r t a n t s e n s i t i v i t y f a c t or s in t he c o n v e n t i o n a l
a p p r o a c h e s . T h e f o r m e r c a n reflect t he genera-
t i o n c h a n g e to line flows, while t he l a t t e r s hares
t h e flows of an o u t a g e d line b e t w e e n t he un-
f a u l t e d lines. T h e c o m p u t a t i o n of t he ODF is
u s u a l l y p e r f o r m e d off-line a n d NL x NL el em ent s
of t h e ODF a r r a y are needed. T h e s t o r a g e re-
q u i r e m e n t is excessive a n d t he c o m p u t a t i o n per-
fo rm ed off-line is time c o n s u m i n g for a large
system [4]. T h e r e f o r e , if we c a n find t he ODF
from th e GSDF, t hes e s h o r t c o m i n g s will be
avoided.
In this p a p e r we der i ve t h e s e n s i t i v i t y f a c t ors
by m e a n s of s i m u l a t i n g t h e line o u t a g e from t he
g e n e r a t i o n c h a n g e model a n d t he p o w e r injec-
t h e line to be r e m o v e d as a s i m u l a t e d g e n e r a t i o n
flowing into e a c h end of this line. T he s i m u l a t e d
g e n e r a t i o n s r e d u c e to zero aft er o u t a g e a n d
t h e s e g e n e r a t i o n c h a n g e s can be reflected to un-
f a u l t e d line flows by use of t h e GSDF. A l t h o u g h
t he G S D F in this m e t h o d m u s t be modified, it
does n o t h a v e to be in t he case of line addition.
T h e r e f o r e , t he ODF d e r i v e d by this m e t h o d is
v e r y useful aft er line addition. In t he p o w e r in-
j e c t i o n m e t h o d t he r a t i o of t h e c h a n g e in ph a se
angle to t he ori gi nal p o w e r flowing over th e
o u t a g e d line is used to find t he ODF by utilizing
t he GSDF. Here, t he G S D F is t h e p r e o u t a g e
v a l u e and need n o t be modified. So it is conve-
n i e n t for s e c u r i t y assessm ent in the case of line
outage.
F r o m t he r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n t he G S D F a n d
t he ODF, a t r a n s f e r f a c t o r is deri ved to calcu-
late t he pow er flow of t he added line in t he line
a d d i t i o n case. T h e n t he ODF found p r e v i o u s l y is
applied to find o t h e r line flows. B e c a u s e o n ly
two G S D F s are modified, t he p r o p o s e d m e t h o d
has a r a p i d c o m p u t a t i o n time and is v e r y suit-
able for real-time a p p l i c a t i o n s in p o w e r systems.

0378-7796/93/$6.00 1993 ElsevierSequoia. All rights reserved

232

2. G S D F 08 Oe

B e c a u s e it can reflect the change of bus gener-

ation to each transmission line, the G S D F can be
used to calculate line flows after generation (a) ~,
rescheduling. Using the definition of the reac-
t a n c e matrix and the DC approximation, we can
calculate the G S D F by 9s Oe

0Pm
A,n, i - Pai
Xl~ - X ~

- m = 1,... ,NL (1) (b) P G s = - P / PG~ = P I
Xm

where l and k are the initial and terminal bus,

respectively, of line m. The new line flows after a
generation rescheduling can be expressed in an
incremental form as
NG

P r o = P + ~ Am,~APa~ m=l,...,N L (2)

i=1 (c) PG, = 0 PGe = 0

Fig. 1. Line outage simulation using generations: (a) line f

Since all the generation changes are absorbed by before outage; (b) outaged line flow simulation with generations
the reference bus, the total system generation at bus s and bus e; (c) system after outage.
remains unchanged. If not, b e c a u s e the initial
line flows are k n o w n quantities, a new load flow
must be executed to reestablish the initial val- NG
ues. That is, the solution a c c u r a c y of the G S D F P " = P m + ~ A'm.i APGi
is g u a r a n t e e d only when the total system genera- i--1

tion remains u n c h a n g e d [1]. NG

=Pro+ ~ A=,~APGi+A'sAPGs
i=l

+ A'r n , e APGe m = 1, , NL (3)

3. L i n e outage
In the c o n v e n t i o n a l method a line outage is
modeled by adding two power injections to a
system, one at each end of the line to be removed
[2]. On the other hand, it can be modeled by
adding generations to these buses, the changes of
line flows due to the generation changes being
computed by the GSDF. The derivation proce-
dure is illustrated as follows.
Suppose line f from bus s to e is the line to
be outaged. The p o w e r flow of line f before
outage is denoted by Pr, as shown in Fig. l(a),
and can be modeled by simulated generations
PGs ( = - P r) and PGe ( = P r ) , as shown in Fig.
l(b). After outage, the simulated generations
are changed to zero, t h a t is, APG~ =Pr and
APGe = - P r , as shown in Fig. l(c). From the
definition of the G S D F stated above, since the
total generation remains u n c h a n g e d the line
flows after a generation change can be expressed
as
where the prime refers to the condition w h e r e
the line f is removed from the system. Assuming
t h a t the generations are u n c h a n g e d when the
line outage happens, the s u m m a t i o n term in eqn.
(3) is zero and the line flow is
P~ =Pm + d,,,,f(l)Pr m -- 1, . . . , N L (4)
where d,n,f(1) is the ODF by the generation
change m e t h o d and is expressed as
din, f(1) ~---A : s - A" e m = 1 . . . . . NL (5)
The GSDFs of eqn. (5) are the values after o u t a g e
and the original values must be modified (see
Appendix), b u t new values are not n e c e s s a r y
when applied to the case of line addition. This
specific property is very useful, as will be seen in
the following section.
It is i n c o n v e n i e n t that the GSDFs in eqn. (5)
need to be modified in line outage. This can be
improved by a n o t h e r method. In the simulation,
by using the p o w e r injection model implemented
 233

in ref. 2, the c h a n g e of voltage angle on bus i due 08

to the outage of line f is

__IT- -r ._
AOi = 6i, f P r (6) (a)
where 5i, r is a sensitivity factor w h i c h can be
expressed as el o~

6i, r = xf(Xi~ - Xi~) (7)

Xf -- (Xss 7t- X e e -- 2Xse)
S u b s t i t u t i n g eqn. (1), the definition of the GSDF, (b)
into eqn. (7), the factor can be found from the Fig. 2. (a) Original system. (b) After line addition.
GSDFs:
xfAf, i (8) a n d Pa is the power flow of the added line. From
6~'t = 1 - (Af, ~ - Af.~) the DC model,
Next, from the DC model, the power flow of line o;' - Oe'
m after o u t a g e is Po-
Xa
p - _ ol
_ -_ o ; o,-o~ 6" -6"
- ". . . . . P. (13)
Xm Xa Xa
O1 - - Ok AOI -- AOk Applying r e l a t i o n (8) to (13) and r e a r r a n g i n g :
Xm Xm
~a 8 ----a e
Pa - Os--OeXa 1 + 1 -(Aa.8-A~,~)"
- -,- - -,- " (14)
= P m + 6l, f - 6~,f p f (9)
Xm
where the GSDFs in eqn. (14) are the values after
S u b s t i t u t i n g eqn. (8) into (9): addition, which c a n n o t be found by the modifica-
P " = P ~ + d m , f(z)Pt m = 1. . . . , N i (10) tion m e t h o d because line a is a new one. The
term A " , 8 - A " ~ , e , however, can be o b t a i n e d from
where din. t(2) is the ODF by the power injection the relationship between the ODF and the GSDF
m e t h o d and is expressed as (see Appendix), as follows.
In the o u t a g e case,
x t ( A r , , -- A/, k) (11)
din. f(z) - x~[1 - (At, 8 - Af,~)]
Ar,8_Ar, ~ A',~-A~,~ A'~,~-A~,~
The GSDFs in eqn. (11) are original values, so - dm.f din,/ (15)
the line flows can be c a l c u l a t e d directly from the S u b s t i t u t i n g eqn. (5) into (15) a n d r e a r r a n g i n g :
original GSDFs after line o u t a g e and the ele-
ments of the r e a c t a n c e m a t r i x are not necessary. Am, s - A m , e
Af.s - Af,~ = l A'm s - A ' (16)
, m, e

For the line a d d i t i o n case, eqn. (16) is r e w r i t t e n

4. L i n e a d d i t i o n as

In the line a d d i t i o n case the power flow of the A"a , 8 -A~e = 1 -g (17)
added line is u n k n o w n , so the m e t h o d coming where K is a t r a n s f e r factor expressed as
from the concept of g e n e r a t i o n c h a n g e is un-
available; however, it can be derived from the K _ A ~ , 8 - A " m,~ m eNL (18)
results which are developed in the line o u t a g e
case. If to the original system, shown in Fig. 2(a), It is n o t e d t h a t the K s of all lines are the same in
is added a line a between bus s and bus e, as a system. S u b s t i t u t i n g eqn. (17) into (14), the flow
shown in Fig. 2(b), t h e n Fig. 2(a) can be seen as of the added line is
the o u t a g e case of Fig. 2(b). So, eqn. (6) can be
r e w r i t t e n as Pa = g P a ( f ) (19)
O'it = Oi - 6 ~',aP,, (12) and

where the double prime refers to the condition es-0e

P.(~) - (20)
where the line a is added to the original system Xa
 234

Pa(r) can be regarded as a fictitious flow of line a. 5.1. O u t a g e case

So, the power flow of the added line can be
obtained directly from its fictitious flow multi-
plied by a t r a n s f e r factor.
In a similar manner, the flow of line m can be
expressed, after r e a r r a n g i n g eqn. (4), as
P'~ = P m - d,n,f(1)Pa m = 1. . . .
where din, r(1) is computed from the original
GSDFs (i.e. A , n , s - n.~,e ) and need not be modi-
fled. E q u a t i o n (10) is not considered, as its
GSDFs are not the original ones in the addition
case. Finally, the line flows in the addition case
can be c a l c u l a t e d very quickly by eqns. (18), (19),
and (21), and only two GSDFs (i.e. Am,~ " - A "m,e )
have to be modified.
5. N u m e r i c a l r e s u l t s
In order to illustrate the advantage and effec-
tiveness of the proposed approach, the IEEE 14-
bus system was tested on an IBM/AT personal
computer. In the outage case, the ODFs in terms
of the GSDFs were computed and compared with
the conventional ODF. In the addition case, the
line flows were evaluated and compared with
those by the DC load flow (DCLF) method based
on the exact solution by the fast decoupled load
flow (FDLF) method [5].
The outage of line 6 (3-4) was considered in
this case and the test results are revealed in
Table 1. The results by the g e n e r a t i o n change
m e t h o d are listed in columns 4 6. The GSDFs
after outage are in columns 4 and 5, a n d the ODF
din, f(1) is in column 6. The original GSDFs and the
, NL (21)
corresponding ODF din,r(2) by the power injection
m e t h o d are in columns 7-9. The last column is
the ODF by the c o n v e n t i o n a l method. It is obvi-
ous t h a t the ODFs computed by these three meth-
ods are almost the same. However, the second
one is more practical t h a n the others because
modification, extra storage and off-line computa-
tion are not required.
5.2. A d d i t i o n case
In this case we assumed line 21 (zm --0.1229 +
j0.2558) to be added between bus 6 and bus 14.
The test results are shown in Table 2. The exact
results by the F D L F m e t h o d are shown in column
2, the results by the D C L F m e t h o d are in column
3, and those by the proposed m e t h o d in column 4.
The last two columns show the deviations from
the exact solution. The m a x i m u m and average
deviations are also listed in the Table. A l t h o u g h
the deviation of the added line flow (0.0138) by
the proposed m e t h o d is larger t h a n t h a t by the
DCLF m e t h o d (0.0013), the m a x i m u m and aver-
age deviations of the former are less t h a n those

T A B L E 1. O u t a g e d i s t r i b u t i o n f a c t o r s w i t h l i n e 6 off

Line From To Generation change method Power injection method Conventional

no. l k ODF
A ~., ~ A ",. e ODF(1) At, i At, ~ ODF(2)

1 1 2 -0.869694 --0.653770 -0.215924 0.000000 0.028041 -0.215924 -0.215924

2 1 5 -0.161936 --0.372225 0.210289 0.000000 --0.102871 0.210289 0.210290
3 2 3 -1.027923 -0.001024 - 1.026898 0.028041 0.474070 -- 1.026898 -- 1.026899
4 2 4 0.071355 -0.391106 0.462461 0.028041 -0.150813 0.462462 0.462461
5 2 5 0.088409 --0.254761 0.343170 0.028041 -0.102871 0.343170 0.343171
6 3 4
7 4 5 0.066373 0.585486 --0.519113 -0.150813 -0.102871 --0.519115 --0.519110
8 4 7 0.002264 0.021719 -0.019455 -0.150813 -0.141889 --0.019455 --0.019455
9 4 9 0.OO1297 0.012461 --0.011163 --0.150813 --0.137193 --0.011163 --0.011163
10 5 6 -0.003556 --0.034182 0.030625 --0.102871 --0.119801 0.030626 0.030625
11 6 11 -0.002499 --0.019011 0.016513 -0.119801 --0.127006 0.016513 0.016512
12 6 12 -0.000335 --0.002795 0.002460 -0.119801 -0.121181 0.002459 0.002460
13 6 13 -0.001306 --0.009818 0.008512 --0.119801 --0.122234 0.008512 0.008511
14 7 8 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 --0.141889 -0.141889 0.000000 0.000000
15 7 9 0.002256 0.021717 -0.019461 -0.141889 -0.137193 --0.019461 --0.019461
16 9 10 0.002430 0.019372 -0.016941 --0.137193 -0.134053 --0.016940 -0.016941
17 9 14 0.001624 0.012677 -0.011053 --0.137193 -0.130637 -0.011053 -0.011052
18 10 11 0.002468 0.019190 -0.016722 -0.134053 --0.127006 --0.016723 --0.016722
19 12 13 -0.000423 -0.002823 0.002401 -0.121181 -0.122234 0.002401 0.002400
20 13 14 -0.001630 -0.012637 0.011007 -0.122234 -0.130637 0.011007 0.011008
 235

T A B L E 2. L i n e flow s o l u t i o n s ( i n p.u.) for a d d i t i o n case ( K = 0.5129, Pa(f) = 0.1979)

Line FDLF DCLF Proposed Dev. (p.u.) Dev. (p.u.)

no. method, A method, B method, C IA - B] IA - C]

1 1.0438 1.0036 1.0472 0.0403 0.0033

2 0.5805 0.5607 0.5816 0.0198 0,0010
3 0.7098 0.6894 0.7106 0.0204 0,0009
4 0.5128 0.5116 0.5140 0.0012 0.0011
5 0.3764 0.3774 0.3771 0.0010 0.0008
6 --0.2559 --0.2708 --0.2551 0.0149 0.0007
7 -0.5776 --0.5836 --0.5792 0.0060 0.0016
8 0.2167 0.2152 0.2176 0.0016 0.0009
9 0.1198 0.1234 0.1200 0.0036 0.0002
10 0.2714 0.2634 0.2732 0.0080 0.0018
11 0.0940 0.0929 0.0977 0.0010 0.0038
12 0.0714 0.0701 0.0731 0.0013 0.0017
13 0.1537 0.1526 0.1606 0.0012 0.0069
14 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
15 0.2167 0.2152 0.2176 0.0015 0.0009
16 0.0325 0.0323 0.0293 0.0001 0.0031
17 0.0091 0.0085 0.0161 0.0006 0.0070
18 --0.0576 -0.0578 --0.0605 0.0002 0.0029
19 0.0097 0.0098 0.0098 0.0001 0.0000
20 0.0266 0.0266 0.0335 0.0000 0.0069
21 0.1153 0.1140 0.1015 0.0013 0.0138

Maximum deviation 0.0403 0.0138

Average deviation 0.0059 0.0028

T A B L E 3. C o m p u t a t i o n t i m e s (iii) updating the ODF to reflect line addition

is not possible.
Method FDLF DCLF Proposed A transfer factor is also derived to calculate
C P U t i m e (s) 1.05 0.11 0.01 the added line flow from the fictitious flow very
quickly. The proposed method has been tested on
an example system. Test results show that the
of the latter. The computation times are summed new ODFs have the same accuracy as the con-
up in Table 3. Because the number of modified ventional method. In the case of line addition,
elements in the DCLF method is ( N B - - 1 ) the solution accuracy and execution time have
(NB--1) (elements of the reactance matrix), been compared with those of the DCLF method
while there are only two (GSDFs) in the pro- and are found to be superior.
posed method, the execution time of the proposed
method is much less (only 0.01 s). The larger a
system, the greater the difference in computation Nomenclature
time.
Am, i GSDF for line m due to generation
change of ith unit
6. C o n c l u s i o n A'm , i Am, i after line outage
a" Am, i after line addition
m,i
This paper has proposed two sensitivity fac- d.~,f ODF for line m due to outage of line f
tors, din,re1) and din,f c2), to calculate line flows K transfer factor
after line addition and line outage, respectively. NG total number of generation units
They improve the following deficiencies of the NL total number of transmission lines
conventional formula [4]: P. power flow of added line
(i) the computation of the ODF is time con- Pa(r) fictitious flow of Pa
suming and has to be performed off-line; Pr power flow of line to be dropped
(-ii) the storage requirement for large systems Pm power flow of line m
is excessive; PGi generation of ith unit
236

aPo, g e n e r a t i o n c h a n g e of i t h u n i t m due to the power injection change in bus i [6].

X i, X,, i m a g i n a r y parts of impedance m a t r i x From the a p p r o x i m a t i o n of near u n i t y bus
Xrn r e a c t a n c e of line m voltage, it is expressed as
Z., elements of impedance m a t r i x
Zm impedance of line m =(Z,i-zki'~* (A-I)

(~i,f sensitivity factor, angle c h a n g e of bus i

due to power flow of o u t a g e d line f The PTDFs in the line o u t a g e and line a d d i t i o n
voltage angle of bus i cases can be modified by
Pro, i PTDF of line m due to power injection
change in bus i z 7 (Pr, t - Pr, DPr,
fl'm,i = Pm, i (A-2)
Pro, i after line outage Z*m(pf, s - - PLe - - l )
P',i
P'~, i Pro, i after line a d d i t i o n and
Tin, i ODF of complex power
complex c o n j u g a t e (P~,s -- pro,e)(Zi~ - Zie)* (A-3)
P",~ =Pm, i - (Zs~ - 2 Z s e + Zee ~- Za) ~

where l and k are the initial bus and t e r m i n a l

References
bus, respectively, of line m; s and e are those of
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power system security evaluation, I E E E Trans., P A S - I O 0 distribution factor of complex power is denoted
(1981) 1001-1005. by ~m,r, t h e n the r e l a t i o n between Tm,r and Pro,
2 A. J. Wood and B. F. Wollenberg, Power Generation, Operation can be expressed as
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the retained portion of a n equivalent network using distribu- ~m,r - p ' ' " - P'~'~ (A-4)
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P A S - 9 3 (1974) 859-867.
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Macmillan, New York, 1986. m, i = , X,n(Ar, s -- At, e - - 1)

(Am, - A m e)(Zis -- Zie )

A" Ami ~ ' (A-6)
Appendix rn, i : , Xss__2Xse ~ _ X e e .~_Xa

The power transfer distribution factor (PTDF) dm, r - A " ~ - Am,~ (A-7)
is defined as the change of complex power on line Am,