How do you mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by large-scale contingencies or faults?

1 Pre-contingency planning

One of the best ways to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to prepare for them in advance. This means performing contingency analysis, voltage stability assessment, reactive power planning, and optimal power flow studies. These tools can help you identify the critical contingencies, the voltage and reactive power margins, the optimal locations and settings of reactive power devices, and the corrective actions to avoid or minimize the impact of contingencies or faults.

2 Post-contingency control

Another way to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to implement effective control actions after they occur. This means using automatic voltage regulators, power system stabilizers, under-frequency load shedding, special protection schemes, and emergency control centers. These devices and systems can help you maintain the voltage and frequency within acceptable limits, dampen the power oscillations, shed the excess load, isolate the faulted areas, and restore the system to a normal or secure state.

3 Distributed generation and storage

A third way to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to integrate distributed generation and storage resources into your power system. These resources can include renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, and energy storage systems, such as batteries and flywheels. These resources can help you reduce the dependence on centralized generation, increase the diversity and flexibility of supply, provide ancillary services, such as voltage and frequency support, and enhance the resilience and self-healing of your power system.

4 Smart grid technologies

A fourth way to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to adopt smart grid technologies in your power system. These technologies can include advanced metering infrastructure, demand response, microgrids, synchrophasors, and artificial intelligence. These technologies can help you monitor and measure the system conditions, manage and optimize the demand and supply, coordinate and control the distributed resources, detect and diagnose the faults, and learn and improve from the data and experience.

5 Operator training and simulation

A fifth way to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to train and simulate the operators and engineers who are responsible for the operation and planning of your power system. This means providing them with realistic and dynamic scenarios, tools, and feedback that can help them develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence to handle the contingencies or faults effectively. This can also help them understand the causes and consequences of the voltage and reactive power issues, the available and appropriate mitigation strategies and techniques, and the potential risks and benefits of their decisions and actions.

6 Standards and regulations

A sixth way to mitigate the voltage and reactive power issues caused by contingencies or faults is to follow and comply with the standards and regulations that govern the design and operation of your power system. These standards and regulations can include technical specifications, performance criteria, reliability requirements, security rules, and market mechanisms. These standards and regulations can help you ensure the adequacy and quality of your power system, prevent or reduce the occurrence and severity of contingencies or faults, coordinate and cooperate with other stakeholders, and incentivize and reward the best practices and outcomes.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?