Conic programming approach for static voltage stability analysis in radial networks

That the problem of computing the capacity limit of a radial distribution system can be formulated as a second-order cone program is shown. The implications of the conic programming formulation are 2-fold. First, the load capability of the radial system can be obtained using existing efficient implementations of polynomial time interior-point algorithms, thus avoiding the need for running a sequence of load flow solutions. Secondly, the conic objective function yields a voltage stability indicator (SI). This indicator quantifies the maximum percentage by which the current load profile can be uniformly increased before voltage collapse occurs. The proposed method is validated by computing the load capability and voltage SIs of 11 different distribution systems. Comparisons are carried out with five previously published voltage SIs.