Probabilistic Assessment of Voltage Control Zones and Visualization Using Choropleth Map

Voltage control zones are commonly used within power systems, for applications like Secondary Voltage Control and localized reactive power markets. The idea is to partition a power system into zones that are weakly coupled in terms of voltage control. Conventionally, these control zones are defined with a deterministic approach and are fixed. However, recent research has demonstrated that they may be altered due to variation of the network structure and therefore suggested on-line reconfiguration of the zones. This paper goes a further step to probabilistically asses how the zoning could be affected by the uncertainties of operating condition (i.e., how the zones vary within a certain amount of time). Forced network outage, as the uncertain factor that affects the electrical distance between buses, is modeled in a realistic manner. Choropleth map is used to visualize the results. The 39-bus New England Test System (NETS) is used for demonstration.