In view of the existing subjective and one-sidedness problems in the process of coherence identification for dynamic equivalence

the influences of various factors on the coherence of generators are taken into account. By drawing on the experience of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for reference

a practical AHP model is developed. Key factors

such as swing curves

electrical distances and generator parameters

are combined to change the process of coherence identification from single dicision-making to multi-attribute decision-making. Through the comparison between the coherence matrixes of the standard systems with known coherence and the similarity matrixes of various factors

the AHP judgment matrix is determined

while the weight of each factor is determined objectively. The distributed clustering method is used to obtain the final similarity matrix

then the coherent generator clustering is completed. Simulation results of the IEEE 118-bus 54-unit system and Western Inner Mongolia power grid show that the method proposed is effective and practical. This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51277070).