Professional Documents
Culture Documents
power systems
K. Prasertwong,1 N. Mithulananthan2 and D. Thakur1
1
Electric Power System Management, Energy Field of Study, Asian Institute of Technology,
Klongluang, Pathumthani, Thailand
2
Power and Energy System Group, School of Information Technology and Electrical
Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Email: mithulan@itee.uq.edu.au
The main function of a power system is to convert energy from one of the naturally
available forms to electricity and transport it through grids to points of consumption.
As electrical energy (like any other form of energy) cannot be destroyed, whatever
is produced from a generator has to be utilized or stored. However, the technology
for storing electricity in large quantities has not yet matured. Thus many different
types of equipment and controllers have been used in power systems to maintain a
balance between demand and supply.
In modern power systems, apart from a large number of generators and associated
controllers, there are many types of load, ranging from a simple resistive load to
more complicated loads, with electronic controllers. The influx of more and more
controllers and loads has increased the complexity and nonlinearity of power systems.
As a result, power systems are viewed as complex, highly nonlinear, dynamical
systems with a number of instability problems. Instability problems in power systems
that can lead to partial or full blackout can be broadly classified in three main catego-
ries, namely those relating to voltage, phase angle or frequency.110 Though such
instability problems never themselves cause a blackout in their pure form, the initial
stages of many incidents can be clearly related to one of these categories.
Operations engineers and researchers faced with transient instability problems
have struggled to find counter-measures.4 A transient instability problem, considered
as part of a phase-angle problem, is defined as the inability of a power system to
maintain synchronism when subjected to large disturbances. When the system
faces large disturbances such as large load increase, loss of tie lines, or loss of
generating units maintaining constant electrical speed among all the generators is
a challenge, as some machines speed up while others slow down to adjust to post-
disturbance situation. If there is no control mechanism to keep the speeding up or
slowing down of generators within the allowable limits, there is a good chance that
these generators will fall out of the grid by losing synchronism. Fast exciter or
automatic voltage regulators (AVRs) have been introduced to try to solve this
problem. The introduction of fast AVRs has been able to give a coarse adjustment
to keep the electrical speed of synchronous generators within limits and AVRs have
been successful in maintaining synchronism by controlling the first swing by control-
ling the terminal voltage. However, fast AVRs cannot do the fine adjustment to
control oscillation in the speed. Then, the power system stabilizer (PSS) was intro-
duced, to allow fine adjustment to damp out those power oscillations that are referred
to as electromechanical or low-frequency oscillations.4,7
Apart from the fast exciter, there are other sources that contribute to oscillation
in modern power systems, such as frequency dependency of electrical loads, network
characteristics and negative interaction of controllers. Though oscillations are inher-
ent in power system, if not properly controlled they can lead to partial or full black-
out. Hence, a complete understanding of the problem would help in finding effective
remedial measures.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Following introduction, the paper
next describes what low-frequency oscillation is. Some noteworthy oscillation-
related incidents and lesson learned are then covered next. The methods available
for power system oscillation studies are described in the following section, along
with general power system modeling. The most widely used method for low-fre-
quency oscillation study, eigenvalue analysis, is presented in details in this section.
Some remedial measures that have been used all around the world by utilities for
oscillation damping is given in the next section. A simple case study showing the
effect of different controllers on power system oscillation modes in a systematic
way is also presented in the paper, with some discussion. Finally, conclusions are
drawn.
Low-frequency oscillation
The ability of synchronous machines in an interconnected power system to remain
in synchronism after being subjected to a small disturbance is known as small-signal
stability, which is a subclass of phase-angle instability problem. It depends on the
ability to maintain equilibrium between electromagnetic and mechanical torques for
each synchronous machine connected to the power system. The change in electro-
magnetic torque of a synchronous machine following a perturbation or disturbance
can be resolved into two components: a synchronizing torque component in phase
with the rotor angle deviation; and a damping torque component in phase with the
speed deviation. Lack of sufficient synchronizing torque results in aperiodic or
non-oscillatory instability, whereas lack of damping torque results in low-frequency
oscillations.
Low-frequency oscillations are generator rotor angle oscillations at a frequency
of 0.12.0 Hz and are classified by the source of the oscillation.4 The root cause of
electrical power oscillations is an imbalance between demand and the power avail-
able at a point in time. In the earliest era of power system development, power
oscillations were rare because generators were closely connected to loads, but nowa-
days, the large and widespread demand for electricity requires the transmission of
huge amounts power over long distances, which results in increasing power oscil-
lations. The phenomenon involves mechanical oscillation of the rotor phase angle
with respect to a rotating frame. Increasing and decreasing the phase angle at low
frequency will be reflected in the power transferred from a synchronous machine,
as the phase angle is strongly coupled to power transferred. The low-frequency
oscillations can be classified as local and inter-area mode.4,10
Local modes are associated with the swinging of units at a generating station
with respect to the rest of the power system. Oscillations occur only to the small
part of the power system. Typically, the frequency range is 12 Hz.
Inter-area modes are associated with swinging of many machines in one part of
the system against machines in other parts. They generally occur in weak inter-
connected power systems through long tie lines. Typically the frequency range
is 0.11 Hz.
There can also be other modes, associated with poor design of controllers.10 Tor-
sional oscillation is another type of oscillation, which can occur in series-capacitor-
compensated power systems; the frequency of oscillation is typically in a
sub-synchronous frequency range.10
Because of the faults, the lines were disconnected from the grid, but this overloaded
some other lines in the network, which then, for example, sagged on trees, causing
more earth faults. Such sequential line tripping and generator tripping can cause
power oscillations. The tripping of transmission lines significantly modifies the char-
acteristics of the remaining grid, especially over longer distances (greater equivalent
impedance) for the power flow and consequent higher stability risk. Also, the modi-
fied grid may have less damping compared with the original grid. The weak tie lines
and the nature of the longitudinal structure combine to cause low-frequency oscilla-
tions. The concentration of outputs in major power plants, with insufficient reserve
margins, heavy flow across transmission interfaces due to seriously imbalanced
regional power and pumped storage units were causes of low-frequency oscillation
observed in some of the cases above mentioned.11 With the heavy tie line power, low-
frequency electromechanical oscillation modes were captured in some cases men-
tioned above, and decreasing the tie line power flow made those modes disappear.
Most of the events happened either on a cold day in winter or a very hot day in
summer.11 The use of thermostatically controlled loads, such as space heaters,
coolers and water heaters, is increasingly common in these days. These loads tend
to operate continuously over long periods even during low-voltage conditions. As a
result, the total number of these devices connected to the system will increase a
few minutes after a drop in voltage. Therefore there might be some influence on
low-frequency oscillations from thermostatically controlled loads.11
Postmortem analyses have suggested that previous systems modeling produced
data that differed from actual values. For example, modeling showed positive
damping for power oscillations but in actual fact it was negatively damped. There
are various reasons for this type of discrepancy. In order to avoid this and to have
a complete knowledge of the system, all the contributions to the oscillatory problem
need to be modeled accurately and a good understanding of the phenomena under
different operating conditions is required. With this type of knowledge and under-
standing, counter-measures can be implemented to avoid disastrous consequences.
Methodology
Low-frequency oscillation study requires dynamic modeling of most of the compo-
nents of a power system. Once the mathematical model is available, different meth-
odologies can be applied to study systems oscillatory behavior in the low-frequency
range. Researchers tend to use eigenvalue analysis, time domain simulation or Prony
analysis. Though each of these has its own merits and demerits, eigenvalues and
time domain simulations are typically used by utility companies to get a complete
understanding of system oscillatory phenomena.
with simple models; alternatively, if the aim is to capture both local and global
modes, such as an inter-area mode, each and every machine in the system and
its associated controllers should be modeled in detail. It is important to include loads,
controllers and other power system components that could influence the low-
frequency oscillations.
A general mathematical model of a power system is given by equation 1:
x = f ( x, y, l, p )
(1)
0 = g ( x, y, l, p )
where x is a vector of state variable; y is a vector of algebraic variables; and l and
p are uncontrollable and controllable parameters, respectively. Machine and control
dynamics will be included in the differential equations, while basic load flow and
other network equations will be included in algebraic equations.
Eigenvalue analysis
The small-signal stability or low-frequency oscillations of a system can be deter-
mined by eigenvalues at an operating point. The relative participation of state vari-
ables and their contribution in certain oscillation modes are given by the corresponding
elements in the right and left eigenvectors. Hence, the combination of left and right
eigenvectors yields the participation factor matrix, and that matrix can be used to
identify the dominant state variable in a particular mode.
The following steps are followed in studying the low-frequency oscillations of
power systems.
x = J1 J 2 x
0 J 3 J 4 y (2)
J
f f g g
where J1 = ; J2 = ; J3 = and J 4 = .
x ( xo , yo , lo , po ) y ( xo, yo,lo, po ) x ( xo , yo , lo , po ) y ( xo, yo,lo, po )
x = ( J1 J 2 J 41 J 3 ) x = Ax (3)
That is, the linearized DAE system can be reduced to a set of ODE equations, as
shown in equation 3. Matrix A in equation 3 is referred to as the reduced system
state matrix.
P1i 1i i1
P
Pi = 2 i = 2 i i 2
P
ni ni in
where element Pki = kiik; ki is the kth entry of the right eigenvector associated
with the ith mode; and ik is the kth entry of the left eigenvector associated with the
ith mode.
Prony analysis
Prony analysis is used to determine the modal, damping, phase, and magnitude
information contained in a given signal.1618 It is an extension of Fourier analysis
where damping as well as frequency information is obtained. The Prony analysis
gives an optimal fit to a signal, Y(t), in the form:
n
Y ( t ) = Bi ei t (8)
i =1
The n distinct eigenvalues (i values) and signal residues (Bi values) in equation
8 are identified by Prony analysis. It is important to note that Prony analysis results
in a residue and eigenvalue decomposition of an output signal; it does not identify
transfer functions directly. Consider the linear system represented in the Laplace
domain as shown in equation 9. Conventional Prony analysis identifies a modal of
Y(s) but it does not use the knowledge of input signal, I(s); therefore it cannot iden-
tify the transfer function, G(s).
Y (s)
G (s) = (9)
I (s)
But Prony analysis can give the transfer function, in the form:
n
Ri
G (s) = (10)
i =1 s i
for a given class of inputs I(s). The distinct eigenvalues (i values) are associated
with the transfer function residues (Ri values). Obtaining transfer functions in
the form of equation 10 is valuable to power system analysis in a variety of areas
other than power system stabilization (PSS) design, and is considered as one of the
Fig. 2 Eigenvalue plot of the system for the base case (machine only).
Now, AVR or an excitation system is introduced to see its effect on the critical
mode. The eigenvalue plot of the system (machine with AVR) is given in Fig. 3.
The installation of AVR has introduced new modes, including an additional complex
mode, as expected. However, the complex mode related to the AVR is far away
from the imaginary axis and the damping ratio of the mode is higher. It is interesting
to note that, as AVR is put in place, the damping ratio of the critical mode is reduced
by pushing it toward the imaginary axis.
Fig. 4 shows the eigenvalue plot of the system with AVR and PSS installed. As
can be clearly seen, the introduction of PSS has pulled out the critical eigenvalue to
the open left half plane by adding damping. The effect of adding a static synchronous
series compensator (SSSC) and a thyristor-controlled series compensator (TCSC) in
addition to AVR and PSS are shown in Figs 5 and 6, respectively.
However, in a larger system the placement of these FACTS controllers and the
best control input signals to add more damping becomes critical. Controllability and
observability indices methods can be used to identify those locations and the best
control input signals respectively.26 An extended eigenvector method has also been
proposed in the literature for placement of FACTS controllers for oscillation
damping.26 In this simple system, SSSC and TCSC are placed in the transmission
line between buses 2 and 3.
The introduction of SSSC and TCSC has introduced new eigenvalues, as shown
in Figs 5 and 6, respectively, and also added damping on the critical mode as well
as another complex mode. A comparison of the critical modes with different control-
lers is presented in Table 2.
Table 2 gives the critical eigenvalue with the associated frequency of oscillation
and damping ratio for various cases. The introduction of AVR reduces the damping
ratio in the critical mode and the corresponding initial frequency of oscillation
Fig.4 Eigenvalue plot of the system with machine, AVR and PSS.
Fig. 5 Eigenvalue plot of the system with AVR, PSS and SSSC.
increases, slightly. However, the combination AVR and PSS is the best among all
the cases and gives the maximum damping ratio in the critical mode.
The introduction of SSSC and TCSC, in addition to the PSS controller, does not
improve the damping ratio in the critical mode. Comparison of the SSSC and TCSC
cases along with AVR shows that the damping ratio in the critical mode is higher
in the SSSC plus AVR case. But when PSS is introduced along with SSSC and
TCSC, TSCS shows a better performance. All these results have been verified with
time domain simulations, as shown in Figs 79. SSSC and TCSC give similar
Fig. 6 Eigenvalue plot of the system with AVR, PSS and TCSC.
performance under different combinations. The time domain simulation was per-
formed for a small perturbation in mechanical power to the machine in all the cases.
Conclusions
The paper presents a comprehensive low-frequency oscillation study in a simple test
system to capture the local electromechanical mode in a step-by-step manner. The
base case system shows an electromechanical mode with a low damping ratio and
the introduction of AVR pushes the critical mode towards the imaginary axis by
adding negative damping on it. Adding PSS to the machine with AVR pulls back
the critical eigenvalue to the open left half plane by adding more damping. Similarly,
TCSC and SSSC, two of the series FACTS controllers, also help the system by
1.0004
1.0003
1.0002
Rotor speed (pu)
1.0001
0.9999
0.9998 AVR
AVR+PSS
AVR+TCSC
0.9997
AVR+SSSC
0.9996
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Time (s)
1.0004
AVR+PSS
1.0003 AVR+SSSC
AVR+PSS+SSSC
1.0002
Rotor speed (pu)
1.0001
0.9999
0.9998
0.9997
0.9996
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Time (s)
Fig. 8 Comparison of rotor speed with PSS, SSSC, and PSS and SSSC together.
improving the damping, which had been reduced by the AVR. However, adding
TCSC or SSSC to a system with AVR and PSS does not improve the damping in
the critical mode, in this case. Overall, the PSS is found to be very effective in adding
damping in critical mode. All the eigenvalue results were corroborated with the
helping of time domain simulations.
1.0004
AVR+PSS
1.0003 AVR+TCSC
AVR+PSS+TCSC
Rotor speed (pu) 1.0002
1.0001
0.9999
0.9998
0.9997
0.9996
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Time (s)
Fig. 9 Comparison of rotor speed with PSS, TCSC, and PSS and TCSC together.
References
1 F. P. deMello and C. Concordia, Concept of synchronous machines stability as affected by excita-
tion control, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., PAS-88 (April 1969), pp. 189202.
2 E. V. Larsen and D. A. Swann, Applying power system stabilizers, Parts IIII, IEEE Trans. Power
App. Syst., PAS-100 (June 1981), pp. 30173046.
3 P. Kundur, M. Klein, G. J. Rogers and M. S. Zywno, Application of power system stabilizers for
enhancement of overall system stability, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., PWRS-4 (May 1989), pp.
614626.
4 P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994).
5 G. Rogers, Demystifying power system oscillation, IEEE Computer Applications in Power, 9(3)
(July 1996), 3035.
6 J. Machowski, J. W. Bialek and J. R. Bumby, Power System Dynamics and Stability (John Wiley,
New York, 1997).
7 G. Rogers, Power System Oscillations (Kluwer, Boston, MA, 2000).
8 J. H. Chow, J. J. Sanchez-Gasca, H. Ren and S. Wang, Power system damping controller design,
IEEE Control Systems Magazine (August 2000), 8290.
9 IEEE/CIGRE, Definition and classification of power system stability, IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, 19(2) (May 2004), 13871401.
10 B. Pal and B. Chaudhuri, Robust Control in Power Systems (Springer, New York, 2005).
11 M. C. J. Angammana, Analytical study of factors affecting electromechanical oscillations in power
systems, Masters thesis, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, May 2006.
12 C. A. Caizares, N. Mithulananthan, F. Milano and J. Reeve, Linear performance indices to predict
oscillatory stability problems in power systems, IEEE Trans. on Power Systems, 19(2) (May 2004),
11041114.
13 F. Milano, An open source power system analysis toolbox, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems,
20(3) (August 2005), 11991206.
14 F. Milano, PSAT: Power System Analysis Toolbox, version 2.0.0-beta, March 2007.
15 IEEE Std 421.52005, IEEE Recommended Practice for Excitation System Models for Power System
Stability Studies (IEEE, New York, April 2006).
16 J. F. Hauer, C. J. Demeure and L.L. Scharf, Initial results in Prony analysis of power system
response signals, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 5(1) (February 1990), 118126.
17 J. F. Hauer, Application of Prony analysis to the determination of modal content and equivalent
models for measured power system response, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 6(3) (August
1991), 10621068.
18 D. J. Trudnowski, J. R. Smith, T. A. Short and D. A. Pierre, An application of Prony methods in
PSS design for multimachine systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 6(1) (February 1991),
118126.
19 R. Wang and R. H. Lasseter, Re-dispatching generation to increase power system security margin
and support low voltage bus, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 15(2) (May 2000), 118126.
20 C. Y. Chung, L. Wang, F. Howell and P. Kundur, Generation rescheduling methods to improve
power transfer capability constrained by small-signal stability, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., 19(1)
(February 2004), 524530.
21 N. G. Hingorani, Flexible AC transmission, IEEE Spectrum, 30(4) (April 1993), 4045.
22 J. J. Paserba, N. W. Miller, E. V. Larsen and R. J. Piwko, A thyristor controlled series compensa-
tion model for power system stability analysis, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 10(3) (July 1995),
14711478.
23 H. F. Wang and F. J. Swift, Capability of the static VAr compensator in damping power system
oscillations, IEE Gene. Transm. Didtrib., 143(4) (July 1996), 353358.
24 N. G. Hingorani, and L. Gyugyi, Understanding FACTS (IEEE Press, New York, 2000).
25 N. Mithulananthan, C. A. Caizares, J. Reeve and G. J. Rogers, Comparison of PSS, SVC and
STATCOM controllers for damping power system oscillations, IEEE Trans. on Power Systems,
18(2) (May 2003), 786792.
26 B. K. Kumar, S. N. Singh and S. C. Srivastava, Placement of FACTS controllers using modal
controllability indices to damp out power system oscillations, IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 1(2)
(March 2007), 209217.
27 Y. Mitani, K. Tsuji and Y. Murakami, Application of superconducting magnet energy storage to
improve power system dynamic performance, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., 3(4) (1988), 14181425.
28 M. G. Rabbani, J. B. X. Devotta and S. Elangovan, Application of simultaneous active and reactive
power modulation of SMES unit under unequal -mode for power system stabilization, IEEE Trans.
on Power Systems, 14(2) (May 1999), 547552.
29 Y. Mitani, K. Tsuji and Y. Murakami, Fundamental analysis of dynamic stability in superconduc-
tive power systems, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, 27(2) (March 1991), 23492352.
30 A. Soni and C. S. Ozveren, Improved control of isolated power system by the use of feeding, IEEE
UPEC 06. Proceedings of the 41st International, 3 September 2006, pp. 974977.