Abstract
The increasing competitiveness of the power systems' environment has created new challenges to the power system security assessment, demanding the development of new methodologies. Important aspects of this evolution are the unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution, caused by regulatory changes and creating a more competitive environment, the increased environmental concerns making it more difficult to build new assets, and the strong incentives to the generation from renewable energy sources. These factors contribute to the increasing stress on operating conditions and, consequently, cause more vulnerable networks. In recent years, the daily routine of transmission system operators has become more complex. The interconnected network is no longer just for mutual support; nowadays it has become the base platform for trading electricity allowing the shifting of increasing volumes of power across the system. Despite all the benefits that doubtless are many, from the operations perspective, the free electricity market presents more unpredictable and less stable power flows, a market-dependent generation pattern, also more unpredictable and less controllable. In addition to the latter, the significant amount of generation from renewable energy sources also contributes to place the system closer to its security limits. Therefore, and despite the bigger complexity and increased quality of service requirements, the energy supply and the optimization of resources remain a permanent goal, fulfilling all the security principles used for system operation. Incidents are naturally unpredictable and after the large disturbances which occurred in recent years (such as the blackouts on 9th May of 2000 in Portugal, on August 14th 2003 in the United States of America, on September 28th 2003 in Italy and in the European UCTE Network on November 4th 2006), the awareness of the risk of unpredictable disturbances has increased, and it has become essential for the decision-making process to have security indices that allow the operator to react in advance and to be aware of inherent risks, preventing harmful situations. The use of methodologies that take advantage of the actual real-time conditions in combination with past knowledge is extremely interesting in the system operation environment, because it gives a more accurate overview to the control room operators. Since long, the deterministic security assessment has been used to guarantee a high level security in system operations of Transmission Systems, being known as N-1 criterion. It tends to provide a conservative security region for protecting the system against severe contingencies. In the deterministic approach only the consequences of contingencies are assessed, but it does not consider likelihood, or better it does consider likelihood equal to one for all contingencies, therefore it cannot address increased or decreased uncertainty in operating conditions, such as adverse meteorological conditions or risk of forest fires. The advantages of probabilistic methods in comparison with deterministic ones are further developed in [1, 2]. Hence, the probabilistic assessment has become an important topic for researchers and engineers, because by combining consequences and probability it is possible to evaluate risk of contingencies, as in (1): Riskcontingency i = probabilitycontingency i × severitycontingencyi (1) Through the historical data, it is possible to affirm that most incidents originate from overhead lines (OHL). From 2001 until the end of 2008, OHL represent on average 91% of the incidents with origin in the Portuguese transmission system. Overhead lines, due to their dispersion over a wide geographic area and because of the many different ground characteristics where they are deployed, are more exposed to the action of external factors which cause most of the grid incidents. An accurate characterization of each incident's cause, an analysis of their occurrence and of the intrinsic characteristics of the Portuguese territory is presented in reference [3], including geographical and meteorological data, which are a crucial part of the inputs for the risk assessment methodology. This paper aims to describe the key issues of the calculation of the circuit-part of overhead lines contingencies probability, as part of the risk assessment methodology (figure 1), which is being developed and has as main purpose to support control room operators in their continuous task.

Abstract
In this paper it is applied a Rough Set approach that takes into account an incomplete information system to study the steady-state security of an electric power system. The Rough Set Theory has been conceived as a tool to conceptualize, organize and analyze various types of data, in particular, to deal with inexact, uncertain or vague knowledge. The knowledge acquisition process is a complex task, since the experts have difficulty to explain how to solve a specified problem. So, an incomplete set of relevant information may arise. The study presents a systematic approach to transform examples in a reduced set of rules. These rules can be used successfully to avoid security problems and provides a deeper insight into the influence of parameters on the steady-state system performance. ©2009 IEEE.

Abstract
In this paper, we analyze important aspects related to voltage stability indices in electrical power systems, which allows operators to determine the weakest bus of a system as well as its critical line settings of each bus. Conventional techniques are analyzed and a comparison of the performance of several indices is presented. The feasibility of the reported methods is shown by numerical studies in IEEE 30 busbar test system.

Abstract
The condition of voltage stability in a power system can be characterized by the use of voltage stability indices. The voltage stability analyses were conducted on the IEEE 14 and IEEE 57 reliability test system, using several different scenarios of load increase. In this paper, a comparison of the performance of several indices is presented, with satisfactory results. In this paper will also present New Index to Voltage Collapse (NIVCP). NIVCP is a system index and see the all power system.

Abstract
This study is dedicated to the learning process to help students to deal with the complexity of a Lighting Design Project. In the Department of Electrical Engineering, preference was given to applying methods integrating technology in the learning and then evaluating the outcomes. Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as an instructional strategy of active learning, and adapted for use in Lighting Design course. In cooperative learning, students work together in small groups in an organized way, on a well-ordered activity They are individually responsible for their work,. on the other hand, the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. Teams need to be small enough so that everyone can play apart And the students' work must be clearly defined. By applying PBL it is expected that students work in a cooperative and collaborative learning way, developing positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, as well as group processing. Students see the potential of the method. PBL addresses many of the concerns of teachers and professional organizations. Above all, it encourages students to be in charge of their education. It emphasizes critical thinking skills, understanding, learning how to learn, and working cooperatively with others. The benefits of PBL in the Lighting Design course are seen in the way students improved the study and analysis of a Lighting Design project. This method can also he seen as a benefit for Electrical Engineering programme where educators strive for improved teaching and learning.

Abstract
The growing concern about global climate change has led the European Union and the Portuguese Government to set targets for the percentage of electricity to be produced from renewable sources. In order to achieve the defined targets, Distributed Generation (DG) is expected to be increasingly integrated into networks. However, the intermittency of some of those DGs (such as wind energy) may enhance network operating costs or decrease network security. Thus, Network Operators started to concern about these effects and in order to avoid them, new wind parks were required to provide ancillary services to the network. These ancillary services include the ride-through-fault capability. Although some wind parks can already supply ride-through-fault capability to the distribution network (i.e. wind parks with Double Fed Induction Generators (DFIG)), most of them are still largely unable to do so due to the current DG protection scheme. This work concentrates on the development of new settings for the DG protection scheme which aims at allowing DG to provide ride-through fault capability to the distribution network. A DFIG with ride-through-fault capability was modeled on PSCAD/EMTDC and tested under the Portuguese Distributed Generation Protection Scheme Regulation Code. New relay settings for the DG protection scheme are advanced and simulated on PSCAD/EMTDC software in order to permit DGs providing ride-through fault capability to the distribution network. Conclusions of the new relay settings performance are withdrawn and commented on.