Novel Data-Driven Indices for Early Detection and Quantification of Short-Term Voltage Instability from Voltage Trajectories

Abstract

This paper presents a novel Short-Term Voltage Stability Index (STVSI), which leverages Lyapunov Exponent-based detection to assess and quantify short-term stability triggered by Over Excitation Limiters (OELs) or undamped oscillations in voltage. The proposed method is measurement-based and decomposes the voltage trajectory into two key components using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD): a residual part, which indicates delayed voltage recovery, and an oscillatory part, which captures oscillations. The residual component is critical, as it can detect activation of OELs in synchronous generators or Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT) relays in inverter-based resources, potentially leading to instability within the quasisteady-state time frame. Meanwhile, the oscillatory component may indicate either a stable or unstable state in the short term. To accurately assess stability, STVSI employs an entropy-based metric to measure the proximity of the system to instability, with specific indices for short-term voltage stability based on oscillations and recovery. Simulations on the Nordic power system demonstrate that STVSI effectively identifies and categorizes voltage stability issues. Moreover, STVSI not only detects voltage stability conditions but also qualitatively assesses the extent of stability, providing a nuanced measure of stability.