Importance of Load Flow Analysis in Voltage Stability Studies

Power or electricity is one of the most critical components of infrastructure affecting economic growth and well-being of nations. India is one of the world's major producers and consumer of electricity. Of our entire infrastructure, the electrical power grid is the most fragile. On 30th and 31st July, 2012, twenty one Indian states plunged into darkness as the northern, north-eastern and eastern grids collapsed15. The problem is that the Indian Electrical Grid was designed for a 50 years life span. For the "Make in India" policy to be successful, a stable power network is very essential. And to achieve that, situations like grid collapse, voltage collapse etc., have to be eliminated. Voltage collapses usually occur on power systems which are heavily loaded or faulted or have shortage of reactive power. Power flow analysis is one of the necessary tools used worldwide to study the voltage profile of a transmission network. This paper aims to study the various power flow methods used to obtain the line flows and enhancement of voltage profile using FACTS devices.