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This paper investigates the use of the constraint reactive implicit coupling (CRIC) method for the engine of a continuation power flow program. Full Newton continuation power flow methods are robust and accurate but are computationally expensive. Fast decoupled methods provide accurate results and require less computational time, but their performance worsens at heavy loading conditions, where the system active/reactive power decoupling characteristics are lost. This paper makes use of the CRIC method, which preserves the decoupled power flow solution structure but better models the active/reactive coupling. Effective stopping criteria are proposed for the continuation method, which helps to speed up computation. Such stopping criteria are also applied for tracing QV curves for some practical Brazilian power systems, with all operating limits considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]