Abstract: A system for accurately determining real-time Available Transfer Capability and the required ancillary service of large-scale interconnected power systems in an open-access transmission environment, subject to static and dynamic security constraints of a list of credible contingencies, including line thermal limits, bus voltage limits, voltage stability (steady-state stability) constraints, and transient stability constraints.

Abstract: A method for obtaining a global optimal solution of general nonlinear programming problems includes the steps of first finding, in a deterministic manner, all stable equilibrium points of a nonlinear dynamical system that satisfies conditions (C1) and (C2), and then finding from said points a global optimal solution. A practical numerical method for reliably computing a dynamical decomposition point for large-scale systems comprises the steps of moving along a search path ?t(xs)?{xs+ t×?, t?+} starting from xs and detecting an exit point, xex, at which the search path ?t(xs) exits a stability boundary of a stable equilibrium point xs using the exit point xex as an initial condition and integrating a nonlinear system to an equilibrium point xd, and computing said dynamical decomposition point with respect to a local optimal solution xs wherein the search path is xd.