The real-time operation of power systems requires security assessment and enhancement computations to ensure that the system stays in the normal state for as long as possible. The paper describes an interactive computer package with colour graphics for power-system operational studies. The package includes load flows, fault analysis and security enhancement. A decoupled algorithm is used for security enhancement, and offers the operator a choice of feasible corrective actions to alleviate line overloads. These corrective actions include generator rescheduling, network voltage adjustments, switching of reactive compensation and the control of phase shifters. Experiments on three test systems are summarised and discussed. ,7 max mm List of symbols nb -number of busbars nl = number of lines 5,-= voltage angle at busbar i V t = voltage magnitude at busbar i 8 a = loss angle of a line /-/ given by sin (R/Z) = current flow between busbars / and / = capacity of line i-j = nominal phase angular displacement of line i-j maximum phase angular displacement minimum phase angular displacement nominal real busbar load new real busbar load after load shedding nominal reactive busbar load new reactive busbar load after load shedding real-power generation rescheduled real-power generation sum of the operating generation and spinning reserve vector of the deviations of abnormal load busbar voltages vector of the deviations of the controlling variables consisting of tap-changing transformer ratios and reactive-power sources Kh = nominal transformer tap ratio n max _ maximujn transformer tap ratio «™ m = minimum transformer tap ratio M = number of overloaded lines K = number of phase-shifters DSEA = decoupled security enhancement algorithm NLP = nonlinear programming method LP = linear programming method bij = series admittance of line i-j = series impedance of line /-/ = impedance matrix q