In recent years, power systems have been pushed to operate above their limits due to the increase in the demand for energy supply and its usage. This increase is accompanied by various kinds of obstructions in power transmission systems. A power system is said to be secured when it is free from danger or risk. Power systems security deals with the ability of the system to withstand any contingencies without any consequences. Contingencies are potentially harmful disturbances which occur during the steady state operation of a power system. Load flow constitutes the most important study in a power system for planning, operation, and expansion. Contingency selection is performed by calculating two kinds of performance indices; an active performance index (PIP) and reactive power performance index (PIV) for a single transmission line outage. In this paper, with the help of the Newton Raphson method, the PIP and PIV were calculated with DIgSILENT Power Factory simulation software and contingency ranking was performed. Based on the load flow results and performance indexes, the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) North-West region network is recommended for an upgrade or the reactive power or series compensators should be constructed on the riskiest lines and substations.

In this paper voltage stability is analysed based not only on the voltage deviations from the nominal values but also on the number of limit violating buses and severity of voltage limit violations. The expression of the actual state of the system as a numerical index like severity, aids the system operator in taking better security related decisions at control centres both during a period of contingency and also at a highly stressed operating condition. In contrary to conventional N – 1 contingency analysis, Northern Electric Reliability Council (NERC) recommends N – 2 line contingency analysis. The decision of the system operator to overcome the present contingency state of the system must blend harmoniously with the stability of the system. Hence the work presents a novel N – 2 contingency analysis based on the continuous severity function of the system. The study is performed on 4005 possible combinations of N – 2 contingency states for the practical Indian Utility 62 bus system. Static VAr Compensator is used to improve voltage profile during line contingencies. A multi- objective optimization with the objective of minimizing the voltage deviation and also the number of limit violating bus with optimal location and optimal sizing of SVC is achieved by Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm.