Impact of generator reactive reserve on structure-induced bifurcation

A structure-induced bifurcation in power system occurs due to load increases (parameter variation); causing one or more generators to reach their reactive power (also termed Q) limits which in turns changes the underlying power flow equations (i.e. the vector field is altered). The impacts of generator reactive reserve on structure-induced bifurcation are studied in this paper. It is numerically shown that the generation reactive power margins have significant impacts on the bifurcation point. With a little change on the reactive power margin of some key generator, the bifurcation can be changed from structure-induced bifurcation to saddle node bifurcation.