Power Systems: notes and questions
For EE students
Notes for each topic, a formula sheet, practice questions and 42 past GATE questions from 7 papers (2018–2026), 40 of them solved step by step.
- previous-year questions
- 42previous-year questions
- solved step by step
- 40solved step by step
- GATE papers, 2018–2026
- 7GATE papers, 2018–2026
- topics with notes
- 6topics with notes
Foundation
Learn the subject one topic at a time. Each topic has notes, the key formulas and practice questions.
Topic notes and formulas
Notes on every topic, with the key formulas and practice.
Generation, transmission lines, cables, compensation, insulators and distribution
This topic covers how bulk power is generated, carried over AC and HVDC lines and cables, held within voltage limits by compensation, and finally distributed to consumers.
6 practice questions
Per-unit system, bus admittance matrix and load flow
The per-unit system rescales every voltage, current, power and impedance to chosen bases, so a network with several voltage levels can be solved as one.
6 practice questions
Economic dispatch, voltage and frequency control, power factor correction
This topic covers how real power is shared among generators at least cost, how frequency is held by governor action and supplementary control, and how voltage and reactive power are managed with taps, compensators and power factor correction.
6 practice questions
Symmetrical components and fault analysis
Symmetrical components resolve any unbalanced three-phase set into three balanced sets (positive, negative and zero sequence), so an unsymmetrical fault becomes an interconnection of three single-phase sequence networks.
5 practice questions
Protection and circuit breakers
Protection detects a fault, picks out the faulty element and trips only the breakers that must open, so the rest of the system keeps running.
5 practice questions
Power system stability and the equal area criterion
Power system stability is the ability of synchronous machines to stay in step after a disturbance.
6 practice questions
GATE
Past GATE questions on Power Systems by topic and year, the full papers, practice and the GATE syllabus.
42 questions, by topic and year
How many questions each topic had in the EE papers of each year. This shows what was asked, not what will be asked. We placed each question under a topic ourselves; the exam paper does not label topics.
| Topic | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission & distribution | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Per unit & load flow | 2 | 2 | · | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Dispatch & control | · | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Faults | 3 | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Protection | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | · | · | 2 | 5 |
| Stability | 1 | · | 1 | · | 1 | 1 | · | 4 |
34 practice questions
The GATE syllabus for Power Systems, paper by paper
Verbatim from the GATE 2027 syllabus PDF: EE Section 6, “Power Systems”. Neither EC nor IN lists power systems; EC's only “stability” is the stability of LTI and control systems.
Show the GATE EE wordingHide the GATE EE wording
Basic concepts of electrical power generation, AC and DC transmission concepts, Models and performance of transmission lines and cables, Economic Load Dispatch (with and without considering transmission losses), Series and shunt compensation, Electric field distribution and insulators, Distribution systems, Per‐unit quantities, Bus admittance matrix, Gauss- Seidel and Newton-Raphson load flow methods, Voltage and Frequency control, Power factor correction, Symmetrical components, Symmetrical and unsymmetrical fault analysis, Principles of over‐ current, differential, directional and distance protection; Circuit breakers, System stability concepts, Equal area criterion.
Preparing in Kolkata? See IAE Academy’s GATE EE coaching.
IF YOU WOULD RATHER TALK IT THROUGH