Computing closest saddle node bifurcations in a radial system via conic programming

This paper considers the problem of computing the loading limits in a radial system which are (i) locally closest to current operating load powers and (ii) at which saddle node bifurcation occurs. The procedure is based on a known technique which requires iterating between two computational steps until convergence. In essence, step 1 produces a vector normal to the real and/or reactive load solution space boundary, whereas step 2 computes the bifurcation point along that vector. The paper shows that each of the above computational steps can be formulated as a second-order cone program for which polynomial time interior-point methods and efficient implementations exist. The proposed conic programming approach is used to compute the closest bifurcation points and the corresponding worst case load power margins of eleven different distribution systems. The approach is validated graphically and the existence of multiple load power margins is investigated.