Dynamic Vulnerability Assessment and Intelligent Control

Chapter 2Steady-State Security

Evelyn Heylen¹, Steven De Boeck¹, Marten Ovaere², Hakan Ergun¹ and Dirk Van Hertem¹

¹Research group ELECTA, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Leuven, Belgium

²Department of Economics, University of Leuven, Belgium

The power system can be seen today as one of the most critical infrastructures. The reliability of the power system influences the economics and social well-being of a modern society and has a direct impact on the quality of life. A one day blackout could lead to costs that are about 0.5% of the GDP of a country, which have to be added to possible social consequences of longer interruptions, such as diseases, deaths and injuries [1]. Also short term interruptions cause loss of production, frozen foods gone bad, traffic accidents, and so on. Moreover, the reliability of local energy provisions might be key to the selection of an industrial site, which is important for particular industries such as foundries and large IT providers.

Power system reliability is managed in order to minimize the impact to society. Ideally, the achieved power system reliability represents the optimal balance between the value of reliability and its cost. In practice, an “adequate level of reliability” is aimed for [2]. In order to obtain an adequate reliability level, appropriate actions can be taken throughout the lifetime of the power system, from years ahead (i.e., system development) up to real time (i.e., operation). These actions are ...