VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE FOR NON-CONSERVATIVE POWER SYSTEMS.

The issue of path dependence of energy functions for power systems is addressed. In this approach, which avoids (the linear) trajectory assumptions, the authors borrow from the wide body of literature in the field of nonconservative mechanics which has revolutionized the analysis of nonlinear heat transfer models, and established a variational principle of the Hamilton type for purely nonconservative mechanics according to the central Lagrangian equation. In the authors' approach, the velocity of variation and the variation of velocity are not commutative, as is the case in the mechanics governing conservative dynamical systems.