Bifurcation analysis of oscillations in electric power systems

Dynamical consequences of Hopf bifurcations leading to oscillatory instabilities in power system models are analyzed. The effect of parameter variation in load models on power system stability is demonstrated by a simple system with two generators and one load. The bifurcation structure of the system is found to be sensitive to small perturbations of the load model. Models with two through ten generators exhibit the same sensitivity. For symmetric power systems, Hopf bifurcations generate a number of different branches of symmetry-breaking periodic states