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Energy Reports 8 (2022) 487–492

www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr

2021 8th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems Engineering (CPESE 2021),
10–12 September 2021, Fukuoka, Japan

Impact of renewable energy penetration rate on power system

transient voltage stability
Shuanbao Niua , Zhe Zhanga , Xianbo Keb , Gang Zhangb , Chao Huob , Boyu Qina ,∗
a The School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
b Northwest Power Dispatch and Control Center, Northwest Branch of State Grid Corporation of China, Xi’an 710048, China
Received 1 November 2021; accepted 8 November 2021
Available online 3 December 2021

Abstract
Transient voltage stability of power system with high penetration of renewable energy faces challenges. This paper proposes
a method for quantitatively evaluating the impact of renewable energy penetration rate on transient voltage stability. Based on
input-to-state stability (ISS) theory, security and stability indices are constructed to evaluate the stability characteristics, and a
quantitative transient voltage stability assessment framework for power system with high penetration of renewable energy is
established. Case studies are performed on MATLAB/Simulink, and security/stability indices under different renewable energy
penetration rates are calculated. Finally, the critical scale of renewable energy integration is obtained through the coupling
relationship between stability characteristics and renewable energy penetration rate.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2021 8th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems Engineering,
CPESE, 2021.

Keywords: Transient voltage stability; Renewable energy penetration rate; ISS theory; Security and stability indices

1. Introduction
As the penetration of renewable energy rises sharply, the uncertainty of renewable power generation causes
adverse effect on secure/stable operation of power system [1,2]. In addition, conventional units with high moment
of inertia and strong disturbance attenuation capability have been widely replaced by renewable power generation,
which results in the reduction of voltage regulation capability [3]. The instability risk of power system with high
penetration of renewable energy increases. Therefore, evaluating the impact of renewable energy penetration rate
on transient voltage stability has become a critical research topic.
The common ways to evaluate transient stability analysis of power system are through time domain simulation [4]
and the direct method [5]. Considering complicated system model, time domain simulation method has been applied
to evaluate the transient voltage stability to obtain the accurate analysis results. However, the stable margin of
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qinboyu@xjtu.edu.cn (B. Qin).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.11.160
2352-4847/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2021 8th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems
Engineering, CPESE, 2021.
S. Niu, Z. Zhang, X. Ke et al. Energy Reports 8 (2022) 487–492

Fig. 1. Research framework of evaluating the transient voltage stability.

power system cannot be obtained through time domain simulation. Direct method has been applied to quantitatively
evaluate the transient voltage stability through constructing energy function [6,7]. However, due to the nonlinearity
and uncertainty of power system with high penetration of renewable energy, constructing Lyapunov function and
obtaining stability boundary face challenges. In [8], input-to-state stability (ISS) concept has been successfully
applied to study the stability of nonlinear systems, analyzing the dynamic responses under external disturbances
and quantifying the impact of external disturbances.
In this paper, a method for quantitatively evaluating the impact of renewable energy penetration rate on transient
voltage stability is proposed. First, the problem of quantitatively evaluating the transient voltage stability is
formulated. Second, quantitative transient stability assessment framework for power system with high penetration
of renewable energy is established based on ISS theory. Finally, case studies on quantitative stability analysis under
different renewable energy penetration rates and power flow transferring scales are performed.

2. Problem formulation
To quantitatively evaluate the impact of renewable energy penetration rate on transient voltage stability, the
coupling relationship between stability characteristics and renewable energy penetration rate should be obtained.
Quantitative stability analysis method based on ISS theory has been proposed in [9]. Power system with high
penetration of renewable energy can be regarded as the interconnection of subsystems. Based on the stability
properties of subsystems and electrical network connection of the interconnected system, stability criterion can
be adopted to quantitatively analyze the stability of interconnected system, and quantitative security and stability
indices can be obtained through stability criterion.
Based on the security and stability indices under different scales of renewable energy, the coupling relationship
between stability characteristics and renewable energy penetration rate can be obtained. Therefore, the research
framework of quantitatively evaluating the transient voltage stability is depicted in Fig. 1.

3. Quantitative transient voltage stability assessment framework

3.1. Theoretical preliminaries

To estimate the local input-to-state stability (LISS)/local input-to-output stability (LIOS) properties, the local
version of ISS is introduced first. Consider the following affine nonlinear system
ẋ = f (x) + g (x) u (1)
Where x ∈ Rn , u ∈ Rm , f : Rn →Rn , and g: Rn →Rn×m . f and g are continuous and Lipschitz with respect to x. Then
the definition of ISS is given as follows.

Definition 1. For any x0 ∈ Ω I SS ∈ Rn , u ∈ U I SS ∈ Rm . If there exist a function β I SS ∈ KL and a function

γ I SS ∈ K∞ , such that the following inequality holds
|x (t, x0 , u)| ≤ β I SS (|x0 | , t) + γ I SS (∥u∥∞ ) ∀t ≥ 0 (2)
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system (1) is ISS, where U I SS is a local region of external inputs, Ω I SS is a local region of initial states, γ I SS is
the input-to-state asymptotic gain of system (1), and ∥u∥∞ represents the supremum norm of the external inputs u.
Similarly, the LIOS derived from LISS is defined as follows.

Definition 2. For any x0 ∈ Ω I O S ∈ Rn , u ∈ U I O S ∈ Rm . If there exist a function β I O S ∈ KL and a function

γ I O S ∈ K∞ , such that the following inequality holds
|y (t, x0 , u)| ≤ β I O S (|x0 | , t) + γ I O S (∥u∥∞ ) ∀t ≥ 0 (3)
then, system (1) is called IOS.
It can be seen from (2) and (3) that the key of ISS analysis is to estimate β and γ , which can be obtained through
the methods proposed in [9].

3.2. Quantitative security and stability indices

Based on the LISS/LIOS properties and electrical network connection, the stability criterion is adopted to judge
the stability of the interconnected system. According to the small gain theorem, quantitative stability index can be
obtained as follows.
λ = 1 − ρ GLI OS
( )
(4)
where G L I O S = Γ L I O S Z, Γ L I O S = diag(γiL I O S ), and Z is the connection matrix between inputs and outputs. The
stability index reflects the stability margin. If λ > 0, the stability margin will increase as λ goes up. Otherwise, the
system will be unstable. Similarly, quantitative security index can be obtained from the criterion, and the expression
is as follows.
τi − bi
( )
µ = min (5)
τi
Where τi ≥ ∥ui ∥∞ , b = Z · (Id − G L I O S ) · β L I O S . The quantitative security index reflects the security margin of
the system. If µ > 0, the security margin will increase as µ goes up. Otherwise, the output of power system will
exceed the operational limits. Above all, a quantitative transient voltage stability assessment framework containing
the above-mentioned indices for power system with high penetration of renewable energy is established.

4. Relationship between stability characteristics and renewable energy penetration rate

Taking power flow transferring as external disturbances, test on a modified IEEE14-bus system was performed
to quantitatively analyze the transient voltage stability under different renewable energy penetration rates, and the
effectiveness of the proposed method was verified. The structure of the test system is depicted in Fig. 2. In modified
IEEE14-bus system, synchronous generator in bus 6 was replaced by doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG)-based
wind farm (WF), and a WF contains 15 DFIGs. In addition, the constant impedance load in bus 10 was replaced by
asynchronous motor. On the premise of remaining the total power generation unchanged, different renewable energy
penetration rates can be simulated by changing the number of the WF. Denote the ratio of power flow transferring
to the total power generation as mt , and let renewable energy penetration rate be denoted by r p .
Case 1: Evaluate the impact of renewable energy penetration rate on transient voltage stability when mt = 10%.
The LIOS properties of subsystems are estimated based on the methods in 3.1. The operational limit of the test
system is that the voltage of each bus should be larger than 0.8 p. u. after power flow transferring. To study the LIOS
properties of subsystems, the input and output for each subsystem should be selected. For the synchronous generator,
the input and output are selected as the current and the voltage, respectively. The estimation result of gain function
is: γ (s) = 0.068s. Other LIOS properties of the synchronous generator are estimated as βGL I O S = 0.072, and the
range of the input is τG = 0.354. For the WF, the input and output are selected as the terminal voltage and the
stator current, respectively. Similar to synchronous generator, the linear asymptotic gain of the WF is approximated
as γ (s) = 0.000627s. The maximum input τW F is 0.0053, and βWL IFO S = 0.0075. For the loads, by neglecting
the transient of the inductance, the input/output relationship of the constant impedance loads can be denoted by
I = U/Z L . Thus, the input-to-output asymptotic gain can be represented by γ L = 1/|Z L |, and β LL I O S = 0. Based
on the operational limits, the maximum input is selected as τ L = 0.192.
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Fig. 2. Structure of the test power system.

Based on the LIOS properties of subsystems, the maximum input of the test system is calculated as τ =
[0.354, 0.354, 0.0053, 0.192, 0.192]. When r p = 30%, the result of small gain theorem is ρ = 0.436 < 1, and
the quantitative stability index λ is 0.564. Thus, (5) should be used to verify that the outputs of the test system
are within the operational limits. The initial state of subsystems is |x0 | = [0.976, 0.980, 0.978, 0.981, 0.979] before
power flow transferring. Calculation result is b = [0.00624, 0.00673, 0.00394, 0.00042, 0.00041] < [0.354, 0.354,
0.0053, 0.192, 0.192] = τ . Therefore, voltage dynamics of the test system will stay within the operational limits, and
the quantitative security index is calculated as µ = 0.256. Adjusting renewable energy penetration rate by changing
the number of the WF, the initial state of subsystems and topological structure of the interconnected system change.
Therefore, the results of stability and security indices under different penetration rate should be recalculated through
the above procedures, and the calculation results are showed in Table 1.
Table 1. Calculations of λ and µ under different r p when mt = 10%.
Power flow Renewable energy λ µ
transferring (%) penetration rate (%)
35 0.756 0.371
45 0.680 0.312
55 0.594 0.216
10 65 0.520 0.139
75 0.442 0.023
85 0.334 −0.105
95 0.132 −0.178

The results indicate that when mt = 10%, with r p increasing from 35% to 95%, the quantitative stability index
λ gradually decreases. As for the security index, with the penetration rate increasing from 30% to 75%, the third
element in b is extremely close to the stability boundary. When r p increases to 85%, quantitative security index
µ reduces to a negative, which indicates that the voltage of the WF exceeds the operational limits. Based on the
calculation results, the relationship between renewable energy penetration rate and quantitative stability index is
depicted in Fig. 3(a). This result indicates that when mt < 10%, the test system can operate in a steady state under
any renewable energy penetration rate. The relationship between renewable energy penetration rate and quantitative
security index can be obtained by fitting, which is depicted in Fig. 3(a). The result indicates that the test system can
operate within the operational limits when mt = 10% and r p < 76.67%. Time-domain simulation was performed
to verify the analysis results, and the voltage dynamic curves are depicted in Fig. 3(c).
Case 2: Evaluate the impact of renewable energy penetration rate on transient voltage stability when mt = 20%.
It can be concluded from case 1 that with the increasing of renewable energy penetration rate, the security and
stability margins of the test system gradually reduce until the voltage of the WF exceeds the operational limits.
However, the small gain theorem always holds. Therefore, case studies are performed to quantitatively evaluate the
impact of different renewable energy penetration rate on the transient voltage stability under larger scale of power
flow transferring. The calculation results of stability and security indices are showed in Table 2.
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Table 2. Calculations of λ and µ under different r p when mt = 20%.

Power flow Renewable energy λ µ
transferring (%) penetration rate (%)
35 0.423 0.169
45 0.337 0.097
55 0.271 0.02
20 65 0.187 −0.017
75 0.063 −0.139
85 −0.137 –
95 −0.175 –

Fig. 3. (a) Relationship between r p and λ when mt = 10%; (b) Relationship between r p and µ when mt = 10%; (c) Dynamic of the wind
farm’s terminal voltage under different r p .

Fig. 4. (a) Relationship between r p and λ when mt = 20%; (b) Dynamic of the wind farm’s terminal voltage under different r p .

The calculations show that when mt = 20%, as the renewable energy penetration rate increases from 35% to
70%, the small gain theorem holds, while the quantitative security index gradually reduces until µ < 0. The voltage
dynamic of the WF exceeds the operational limits. As the renewable energy penetration rate increases from 75% to
95%, the stability index continues to reduce until λ < 0. The test system cannot operate in a steady state after power
flow transferring. The relationship between renewable energy penetration rate and quantitative stability index is
depicted in Fig. 4(a), which indicates that when mt = 20%, system cannot operate in a steady state when renewable
energy penetration rate is more than 78.08%. Time-domain simulation was performed to verify the analysis results,
and the voltage dynamic curves are depicted in Fig. 4(b).

5. Conclusion
This study proposes a method for quantitatively evaluating the impact of renewable energy penetration rate
on transient voltage stability. Based on ISS theory, a quantitative transient stability assessment framework for
power system with high penetration of renewable energy is established, and security/stability index under different
renewable energy penetration rates and power flow transferring scales is calculated. Analysis results show that under
the external disturbances of power flow transferring, the security and stability margins of power system reduce
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S. Niu, Z. Zhang, X. Ke et al. Energy Reports 8 (2022) 487–492

with the increasing of renewable energy penetration rate. Simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness
of the proposed method. Finally, the coupling relationship between security/stability index and renewable energy
penetration rate is formed, and the critical renewable energy scale of power system is obtained.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could
have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments
This work is supported by Science and Technology Foundation of State Grid Corporation Headquarters: Research
on Operation Characteristics, Coupling Mechanism and Evaluation Index of Multiple-Infeed LCC-HVDC Group
Systems at the Sending End.

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