Keywords

Voltage Stability, Syncronous Condenser, Data Center, Large Loads

Abstract

The rapid integration of hyperscale data centers as large, concentrated loads presents a growing voltage stability challenge in grids weakened by synchronous generator retirement and increasing inverter-based resource penetration. This work proposes a Jacobian-based sensitivity framework for systematically identifying voltage-critical buses and optimally siting synchronous condensers as voltage support resources. A voltage-weighted sensitivity index, extracted from the full Jacobian inverse, is introduced to combine network-wide reactive coupling strength with observed voltage drops into a single deployable placement criterion. Validation on IEEE 14-bus and 30-bus test systems under multiple loading scenarios demonstrates that the proposed criterion consistently identifies the correct placement location, recovers violated bus voltages to within acceptable limits, and reduces system-wide reactive vulnerability. Comparative analysis against established critical bus indices confirms the physical validity of the sensitivity framework at base-case loading, while large-load case studies demonstrate capabilities that static network-based indices cannot provide.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Sun, Qun Zhou

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

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