See Also
Contingency analysis is a vitally important part of any power system analysis effort. Industry planners and operators must analyze power systems covering scenarios such as the long-term effects on the transmission system of both new generation facilities and projected growth in load. Market analysts and planners must make informed decisions regarding transactions for energy trade - whether that trade is for the next hour or months down the road. PowerWorld Simulator’s Contingency Analysis tools provide the ability not only to analyze a power system in its base case topology, but also to analyze the system that results from any statistically likely contingent scenario.
Industry planning and operating criteria often refer to the n-1 rule, which holds that a system must operate in a stable and secure manner following any single transmission or generation outage. In PowerWorld Simulator, the individual contingency conditions can also be tailored to consist of either a single element (such as the loss of a transmission line or transformer), or multiple elements (such as the loss of a generator, several buses and a number of branches simultaneously). See Available Contingency Actions for a complete list of possible contingency actions.
Simulator can be set to use a Full Newton solution or use a DC Load Flow method to analyze each contingency. The Full Newton approach is not as fast as a DC Load Flow, but the results tend to be significantly more accurate and allow for gauging voltage/var effects.
The Tutorial Links is a great place to start learning about using Simulator’s Contingency Analysis Tool.