Spectral Clustering-Based Partitioning of Large-Scale Power Electronics-Based Power Systems for Small-Signal Stability Analysis

The nodal admittance matrix (NAM)-based approach is well-suited for small-signal stability analysis of large-scale power electronics-based power systems (PEPSs), as it preserves the system structure through its admittance matrix. Previous studies have explored partitioning such systems into subareas and interconnections to reduce computational burden; however, they lacked a formal algorithmic procedure for determining feasible partitions. While several grid partitioning methods, such as those based on graph theory or machine learning, exist in the literature, they cannot be directly applied to NAM-based analysis due to differing objectives and constraints. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a systematic, step-by-step procedure for applying a spectral partitioning algorithm that yields a division of the system into subareas suitable for NAM-based analysis. The computational complexity of the proposed method is also derived to demonstrate its efficiency and justify the practicality of the resulting subarea decomposition. The performance of the partitioning method is evaluated by applying the spectral clustering-derived subareas and interconnections to the NAM-based partitioning approach on a 140-bus system. Computational times for the full-system and partitioned NAM analyses are compared using MATLAB. Additionally, PSCAD simulations of the complete system and partitioned subareas are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.