Steady‐state contingency selection is performed on the Taiwan power system using both deterministic and probabilistic approaches. In the deterministic approach, both the real power performance index (PIp) and the voltage performance index (PIv) are evaluated to reach the desired ranking lists of line outages. Generator reactive power output limits (Q‐limits) are taken into account throughout the contingency selection procedure. To examine the effect of voltage control on contingency selection, both the case with a fixed tap changer position and the one with a variable tap changer position are considered. An important observation from this study is that the masking problem, which has been reported to take place in real power contingency selection, does not seem to appear in voltage contingency selection. Thus, it is recommended that in voltage contingency selection the summation in PIv be made over all buses while in real power contingency selection the summation in PIp be carried out only on overloaded lines. A new method for probabilistic contingency selection is also developed using the outage statistics of Taiwan power systems.