Proceedings of ECTI-CON 2008

Sensitivity Analysis and Its Applications in Power

System Improvements
J. Chureemart, and P. Churueang

Abstract The propose of this paper is to study the application

of optimal power flow sensitivity for power system improvements.
The optimal capacitor placement for injecting reactive power into
a power system yields the highest system power factor, decrease
in total generation cost and total system losses. The optimal
power flow is used to compute the optimal system operating
point at the lowest total generation cost under the normal steady
state condition. After that,the sensitivity analysis is applied to
evaluate the change of total generation cost with respect to the
change of reactive power at any bus to determine the optimal
location of the capacitor banks. The method of optimal power
flow sensitivity is simple but powerful. This method greatly
reduces the computational work of computing optimal power
flow for several different systems in which capacitors are to be
installed. The sensitivity technique is applied to 5-bus and 9-bus
test systems. The results show that the technique gives the same
answers as the simple technique in which more calculations are
needed.
Index Terms Power system improvement, Optimal power
flow, Sensitivity analysis, VAR compensation.

I. I NTRODUCTION
In power system, load expansions are causes of the voltage
drop and the reduction of efciency. Power factor improvement
[1],[2] installed capacitor banks is needed. Capacitor banks are
used extensively in power system for power factor improvement or for compensation of reactive power demand of large
commercial and industrial load.
The optimal design of the power factor improvement in the
power system is important from a technical point of view. The
optimal capacitor placement is to determine the location of
the capacitor banks to be installed on the power system that
will maximize the system power factor, reduce total system
generation cost and reduce the total system losses, while the
power system can serve the demand of loads.
Optimal power ow is used to determine the optimal system
operating point at the lowest total generation cost while
enforcing a variety of operational constraints such as the limit
of bus voltages, line ows, real power generator and reactive
power generator of all busses. The OPF problem [3] has a
long history in power system research. A variety of numerical techniques developed for this problem are as non-linear
programming method, quadratic programming method, linear
programming method, interior point method and Lagrange
Newton method.
J. Chureemart is with the Department of Physics, Mahasarakham University,
Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand (e-mail: chureemart@hotmail.com)
P. Churueang is with the Department of Physics, Mahasarakham University,
Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand (e-mail: phanwadeec@gmail.com)

The Lagrange Newton method [4],[5] is employed in this

paper because sensitivity analysis needs the matrix of the
second order derivatives of Lagrange function from OPF
problem to determine the change of the objective function with
respect to the change of injected reactive power.
After adding the capacitor banks to the power system
being equivalent to reduce reactive loads, the optimal system
operating point is changed. The sensitivity analysis is used
to evaluate the optimal location of the capacitor banks by
determining the sensitivity of the optimal system operating
point to a change in reactive load at each bus in which the
capacitor bank is added. The objective of optimal capacitor
placement is to maximize the system power factor so that the
optimal capacitor placement is the bus where yields the highest
system power factor and reduces the total system losses while
reducing the total system generation cost.
The sensitivity method is described in details in the next
section, and applied to 5-bus and 9-bus test systems. The
results from the test systems by sensitivity analysis give the
same incremental system power factor, and thus the same
optimal locations as the ones from the differencing method.
II. M ETHODOLOGY
From OPF methods mentioned above, the Lagrange Newton
method is employed in this paper because sensitivity analysis
needs the matrix of the second order derivatives of Lagrange
function from OPF problem to determine the change of the
objective function with respect to the change of injected
reactive power.
A. Optimal Power Flow
Optimal power ow is used to obtain the optimal system
operating point while minimizing total system generation cost
subject to equality and inequality constraints. The equality
constraints are the power balance equations (real and reactive
power equations), and the inequality constraints include
voltage limits, limits on transmission line ows, generator
real power and reactive power limits and other control
devices. The optimal power ow model can be written as
followed:
Objective function: The total generation cost
M in C(PG ) =
PG

i=N
G

Ci (PGi )

(1)

i=1

2
is the cost of generWhere Ci (PGi ) =i + i PGi + i PGi
ation at generator bus i.

978-1-4244-2101-5/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

945

Subject to
Equality constraints : Power balanced equations

where

g(Z) = Z L(Z) =

Pi (, V, PG /PL ) = 0

i = 1, 2, ..., N

(2)

Qi (, V, QG /QL ) = 0

i = 1, 2, ..., N

(3)

voltage angle
V voltage magnitude
PG variable real power generator
QG variable reactive power generator
PL real power load
QL reactive power load
N number of all buses in the system
NG number of generator buses.

i = 1, 2, ..., N

(4)

PGi,min PGi PGi,max

i = 1, 2, ..., NG

(5)

QGi,min QGi QGi,max

i = 1, 2, ..., NG

(6)

|IL | IL,max
where

|IL |
Nl

L = 1, 2, ..., Nl

+
+
where

i=1
N

i=1

where g(Z)
W
Y
Z
Z

(7)

absolute current ow in line L

the number of line ows.

Qi Qi (, V, QG /QL ) +

iAH

Hi (fi (Y ) fHi ) +

fi (Y )
fHi
fLi
P i
Qi
line,l
H
L

=0

(8)

(10)

vector of rst order derivative of Lagrangian

Function with respect to Z
vector of second order derivative of Lagrangian Function with respect toZ
T
state vector [, V, PG , QG , IL ]
T
vector of all variables [Y, , H , L ]
update vector
vector of Lagrange multiplier of equality
constraints

Initial variables and binding set

Z P , AP

2
(i + i PGi + i PGi
)+

L
L

Z = W 1 g(Z)

To solve the optimal power ow problem, The most

common method of handling the equality and inequality
constraints is used Newton method based on the forming the
Lagrangian function for the problem dened as followed:
L=

L
H

Equation (8) is called the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions solved by applying the Taylors series expansion by
ignoring the high terms and can be written as:

B. Lagrangian Function

N
G


L
Y

dg(Z)
Z = g(Z)
(9)
dZ
From equation (9), W denotes the second order derivatives
of Lagrangian Function with respect to Z. The Newton step
can be obtained from solving the following equation and the
optimal power ow can be solved by Newton method.

Inequality constraints : Limitations of real and reactive

power generations, bus voltages and line ows
Vi,min Vi Vi,max

N

i=1
Nl

L=1

iAL

Compute vector g ( Z P )

Check for convergence

Yes

End

g (Z ) d H

P i Pi (, V, PG /PL )
P P 1

line,L IL (, V )

No
Compute 'Z

Li (fLi fi (Y ))

W 1 g ( Z P )

Update
Z P 1

vectors of binding variable

upper limit of binding variable
lower limit of binding variable
Lagrange multiplier of real power balance
at bus i
Lagrange multiplier of reactive power
balance at bus i
Lagrange multiplier of line ow l
Lagrange multiplier of binding variable
at upper limit
Lagrange multiplier of binding variable
at lower limit.

Z P  D 'Z

Adjust binding set

Fig. 1.

Flow chart of OPF by Newton Method

C. Sensitivity Analysis

Following Lagrangian Function, the optimal system operating point can be solved by adjusting Lagrangian function
to satisfy the rst order derivative ignoring the non-binding
constraints as:

Sensitivity analysis [6], [7] is used to nd the optimal

capacitor placement in which yields the highest system power
factor. The optimal system operating point from OPF problem
changes as some parameter change. Sensitivity analysis is
evaluated the sensitivity of the optimal system operating point
to a change in some parameter by taking the rst order
derivatives of g(Z) vector in equation (8) with respect to
parameter as followed:

946

W Z (0) = N

QLj Z = W 1 M

(11)

where W is the matrix of the second order derivative of

Lagrange function with respect to Z from the OPF problem
and is dened as:
2
TT
0
0
0
L T2V L

2
V2 T L VV
0
0
0
L

2
0
0
0
0
PP L
G G

0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
2
0
OpT L O2 pV L O2 p PG L 0
2
0
O2QQG L 0
OQT L O2QV L

2
2
2
O T L OlineV L 0
0
O I L
line l
line
0
B
0
0
0
V *V

0
0
BPG *PG
0
0

0
0
0
BQG *QG
0

0
0
0
BIl *Il
0

TO

VO

L
L

2
PO L
G p

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

T
2
2
0
0
0
V O L V O L BV *V
Q
line

0
0
0 BPTG *PG 0
0

Q2 G OQ L
0
0
0 BQTG *QG 0

2Il Oline L 0
0
0
0 BITl *Il

0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
TO

TO

line

And

  
 


M T = 0T1 0T2 TQLj QL 0T3  0T4
 



= 0TY 0TN |0...0 1 0...0 0TNl  0TB

bus j

The element BV V in the W matrix is a matrix of binding

limits on voltages. If the voltage is binding at its upper
limit,the value of the element is 1. If it is binding at the
lower limit, the value is -1. BPG PG , BQG QG and BIl Il
are similarly dened. The other terms in equation (11) are:

where 0TY
0TN
0TNl
0TB

of
of
of
of

state vector (Y ) dimension

dimension N
dimension Nl
binding variables dimension

After adding the capacitor bank at bus j , the parameter is

= QLj , the system power factor can be written as:

iG
P FAf ter = cos tan1 
iG

(12)


M T = 0TY T PL T QL 0TNl  T fHi  T fLi
(13)
where Z
vector of the optimal system operating point
zero vector of state vector (Y ) dimension
0Y
PL vector of dimension N with element PLi
for i {1, 2, ..., N }
QL vector of dimension N with element QLi
for i {1, 2, ..., N }
zero vector of dimension Nl
0Nl
fHi vector of upper binding variables dimension
fLi vector of lower binding variables dimension.
The optimal system operating point will change after adding
capacitor bank to improve system power factor. Capacitor bank
installation at any buses is equivalent to reducing reactive
power load at that bus. As the mention above, will represent
the reactive power load. This method can calculate the rate
at which some function of the system operations changes as
a parameter changes given that optimality is maintained as
the parameter varies.
From equation (11), (12) and (13), let be reactive power
load at any bus j , that is = QLj , we have

The sensitivity of the optimal system operating point is

vector
vector
vector
vector

iG







T Z = T T V T PG T QG T Iline  T P 

W QLj Z = M

zero
zero
zero
zero

(14)

(16)

In this case, the objective function is to maximize the system

power factor that can be written in terms of parameter as
followed:


QGi ()
iG

(17)
P F = cos tan1 
PGi ()





T Q T line T H  T L

(15)

(QGi + QLi QGi )

+

(PGi
QLi PGi )

(18)

Therefore, the system power factor after adding the ca

and
pacitor banks can be obtained by substituting QLj PGi

QLj QGi being element of QLj Z evaluated from equation

(15) in equation (18).
III. C ASE S TUDIES
The optimal location for capacitor bank is considered the
bus that gives the largest incremental system power factor
when the capacitor is added. Therefore, there are two methods
to compute these values: the differencing method and the
sensitivity method. The differencing method is achieved by
comparing the objective functions of two solved OPF problems: the base case OPF and the OPF with 1 MVAr reactive
load reduced at one load bus. For the system with N load
buses, the OPF must be solved N + 1 times. On the other
hand, the sensitivity method solves base case OPF once, and
then the sensitivity analysis is applied as discussed above in
order to determine the optimal capacitor placement.
In this study, the test systems are calculated by both differencing and sensitivity methods. The results from two methods
are compared. Finally, the optimal capacitor placement can be
considered.
A. Case Study 1
The model of 5-bus test system modied from the 14bus IEEE test system is a simple power system with three
generators connected at busses 1, 2 and 3 as shown in Fig. 2.

947

 









Fig. 2.

TABLE II
I NCREMENTAL SYSTEM POWER FACTOR FOR THE 5- BUS TEST SYSTEM

The 5-bus test system

TABLE I

Adding Bus Number

Differencing Method

Sensitivity Method

0.000991

0.000983

0.001034

0.001042

0.000840

0.000840

0.001048

0.001050

0.000982

0.000987

0.001089

0.001091

I NCREMENTAL SYSTEM POWER FACTOR FOR THE 5- BUS TEST SYSTEM

Adding Bus Number

Differencing Method

Sensitivity Method

0.001304

0.001302

0.001324

0.001326

0.001402

0.001403

0.001420

0.001423

The incremental system power factor of the 5-bus system

determined from the differencing and the sensitivity methods
are shown in Table 1.
From Table 1, incremental system power factor obtained
from both methods are approximately the same. They give
the highest values at bus 5, hence it is the optimal location
for capacitor installation for this system. Although the results
from two methods are the same, the sensitivity analysis can
evaluate easily and quickly in once OPF.
B. Case Study 2
The case study 2 is the 9-bus test system from Power
System Engineering Research Center (PSERC) [8] of Cornell
University which is a power system with three generators and
nine transmission line ows as shown in Fig. 3.




 





Fig. 3.

 






The 9-bus test system

From the 9-bus test system, the results of the evaluation

using two methods are shown in Tables 2.
Similar to the 5-bus system, the results of both methods
give the same optimal location for capacitor installation with
approximately same incremental system power factor. The
optimal capacitor location for the 9-bus system is therefore
bus 9.

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IV. C ONCLUSION
Power factor improvement installed capacitor bank plays
as important role in power system improvement which not
only reduces the total system generation cost and losses but
also improve the system efciency. To consider the optimal
capacitor placement which is the location of capacitors to
be installed on the power system that yields the highest the
system power factor be evaluated by differencing method and
OPF sensitivity analysis. As the results in case study, Both
methods give the same optimal location with approximately
the same system power factor. However, the sensitivity method
requires much less computational work since only one OPF
computation is needed.
R EFERENCES
[1] Allen J. Wood, Power Generation Operation and Control, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 1996.
[2] S. Barcon, I. Suarez, and L. Flamenco, How to Improve Power Factor,
Voltage Regulation and to Reduce Harmonic Distortion of an Industrial
Plant, using a Power System Simulator, Harmonics and Quality of Power
10th International Conference, Vol. 1, pp.111-115, 2002.
[3] M. Huneault and F. D. Galiana, A Survey of The Optimal Power Flow
Literature, Power system IEEE Transactions, vol.6,pp.762-770, 1991.
[4] D. I. Sun, B. Ashley, B. Brewer, A. Hughes A. and W. F. Tinney,
Optimal Power Flow by Newton Approach, IEEE Transactions on
Power Apparatus and Systems, vol.103, pp. 2864-2880, 1984.
[5] A. Santos ans G. R. M. Costa, Optimal Power Flow Solution by
Newtons Method Applied to an Augmented Lagrangian Function, Power
system IEE Proceedings, Vol. 142, No.1, pp.33-36, 1995.
[6] P. R. Gribik, D. Shirmohammadi, S. Hao and C. L. Thomas, Optimal
Power Flow Sensitivity Analysis, Power system IEEE Transactions, Vol.
53, pp.969-976, 1990.
[7] J. L. Bala, P. A. Kuntz and R. M. Taylor, Sensitivity Based Optimal
Capacitor Placement on a Radial Distribution Feeder, IEEE Technical
Applications Conference and Workshop, pp.225-230, 1995.
[8] http://www.pserc.cornell.edu/matpower

Jessada Chureemart received his B.Sc. from Khonkaen University,

Thailand, and his M.Sc. in Physics from Chulalongkorn University,
Thailand in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He is now a lecturere
at Mahasarakham University, where his current research interests
include physics application and hard disk drive technology
Phanwadee Churueang received her B.Eng. from Khon Kaen
University, Khon Kaen, Thailand, and her M.Eng. in electrical
engineering from Kasetsart University, Thailand in 1999 and 2002,
respectively. She is now a lecturer at Mahasarakham University,
where her current research interests include power system planning
and economics, load forecasting and photovoltaic.