Parallel contingency analysis solution based on OpenMP

Abstract

Contingency analysis solution is a basic function to evaluate the security of power systems in steady state. During a contingency analysis a power flow solution is solved for each credible contingency. Due to the number of contingencies to evaluate, such analysis is very time consuming. Since the contingencies are independent of one another, the analysis is inherently a parallelizable process. This paper presents the parallel contingency analysis solution using OpenMP (Open Multi Processing) standards. The solution distributes contingency solutions among multiple processors evenly. It has been implemented in one of the most established commercial planning software tools. Two real, large scale systems are used to demonstrate the efficiency of parallel contingency analysis solutions.