Constrained Hierarchical Spectral Clustering of Power Grids

In recent years, power system islanding is considered as the last resort to prevent network instability. The purpose of controlled islanding is to establish self-sustaining electrical islands to prevent a blackout and lead to ease of restoration. In this regard, an appropriate decision - making algorithm is required to determine the best separation points in a short time.
This paper proposes a novel methodology by developing the hierarchical spectral clustering algorithm. This method is computationally very efficient and determines an islanding solution with minimal power flow disruption while ensuring that each island contains only coherent generators. The proposed method also enables operators to constrain any branch to be excluded from the islanding solution. The method is tested using the models of the IEEE 39 and IEEE 118-bus test systems and comparative analysis with existing methods have been performed. The simulation results demonstrate that the methodology is more efficient than another existing approach and could be utilized in the real-time application of the power grid.