Arash Vahidnia

Transient Stability Improvement Through Wide-Area Controlled SVCs

This paper presents a wide-area control approach to improve the transient stability of the power systems while also damping the post-fault inter-area oscillations. The proposed approach employs a nonlinear Kalman filter to estimate the inter-area modes using phasor measurement units (PMUs). The wide-area control system then uses the estimated inter-area dynamics through the developed control algorithms to improve the first swing and damping stability of the system. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated on the simplified Australian test system with different load models including induction motors and the results show significant improvement in the stability of the system by simply adding the wide-area control signals to the available controllers in the system. The application of the proposed wide-area control system is shown to be feasible on realistic systems by improving the system stability and efficiency.

Wide-area control of aggregated power systems

This paper proposes a new method for stabilizing disturbed power systems using wide area measurement and FACTS devices. The approach focuses on both first swing and damping stability of power systems following large disturbances. A two step control algorithm based on Lyapunov Theorem is proposed to be applied on the controllers to improve the power systems stability. The proposed approach is simulated on two test systems and the results show significant improvement in the first swing and damping stability of the test systems.

Interpreting regional frequencies from synchronized phasor measurement in multi-area power systems

In this paper a new approach is proposed for interpreting of regional frequencies in multi machine power systems. The method uses generator aggregation and system reduction based on coherent generators in each area. The reduced system structure is able to be identified and a kalman estimator is designed for the reduced system to estimate the inter-area modes using the synchronized phasor measurement data. The proposed method is tested on a six machine, three area test system and the obtained results show the estimation of inter-area oscillations in the system with a high accuracy.

Wave Aspect of Power System Transient Stability—Part II: Control Implications

This second part of a two-paper series gives an overview of key insights and control implications arising from the wave characteristics of power system transient stability. These insights, which are unique to traveling wave interpretation, are obtained through time-domain analysis of artificial and real test systems: “<italic>critical region for a stressed link near the end of a longitudinal system</italic>,” “<italic>dispersed control in a path</italic>,” “<italic>placement of controllers considering structure and load distribution in a system</italic>,” and “<italic>localized transient stability enhancement</italic>.” Good transient stability enhancement is successfully achieved by controllers in all test systems in terms of larger critical clearing time, which directly translates to increased maximum safe power transfer. The controller design is based on the transmission line analogy of traveling waves and load modulation effect. The concepts in this paper series can assist in improving the design of control strategies to enhance power system transient stability by considering the wave aspects.

Wave Aspect of Power System Transient Stability—Part I: Finite Approximation

Electromechanical wave propagation is present in power systems as a transient spatial delay of generator rotor angle variations when a disturbance occurs. The control and mitigation of the this wave phenomenon, which spreads out to different locations at a comparably slow speed, is important for enhancing power system transient stability, as shown in part two of this two-paper series. In an idealized power system consisting of infinitesimal generators and line impedances, this traveling wave can exist to infinite frequencies, its speed can be derived from a wave equation and its reflection can be eliminated by a characteristic termination. Part one of this paper series examines realistic power systems with finite size generators and line impedances. It shows that there is a finite approximation of the traveling wave in real power systems as the wave can exist only within a finite frequency range. This paper also examines aspects such as reflections due to discrete elements, controller design based on the load modulation effect, and the existence of traveling wave and its attenuation in the Australian power system.

Self-synchronising stator terminal control of permanent magnet synchronous generators for wind energy conversion systems

Conventional wind energy conversion systems (WECS) typically employ rotor side synchronous frame current control strategies to regulate the active/reactive power supplied by the WECS generator. Such strategies require accurate information regarding the rotor position and speed in order to set the dq frame reference currents and to perform the necessary frame transformations. This information can be obtained using a rotor speed sensor (i.e. a shaft encoder) or via a sensor-less strategy in which a dynamic machine model and stator current measurements are used to estimate the true rotor position. This paper now presents an alternative approach to control the active/reactive power supplied by the WECS permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The proposed strategy uses the three phase converter modulation commands to identify the phase and frequency of the PMSG stator terminal voltages. This enables the direct regulation of the real and reactive power extracted at the PMSG terminal voltages using a stationary frame Proportional + Resonant (PR) stator current regulation strategy, without requiring precise knowledge of the rotor position. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) functions are realized using the measured PMSG terminal voltage frequency to form an estimate of the rotor speed. The result is a simple robust WECS control strategy that rapidly and accurately tracks rotor speed changes caused by wind speed variations. Detailed simulation and experimental results obtained for a scaled laboratory prototype system are presented to validate the proposed strategy.

Delay compensation in the wide area control of SVCs for first swing stabilisation and damping

A delay compensation algorithm is presented for improving the robustness to delays of a wide area control strategy directed at using remote measurements to perform load modulation by means of an SVC. The compensation algorithm uses backward and forward projection of PMU based angle and velocity measurements to compensate for delays. Through the simulation of a simple network it is shown that a doubling of the delay robustness is possible and it is expected that the algorithm will adequately compensate for delays greater than what would be expected. Non-linear delay compensation is recommended however based on a small degradation noted with first swing performance.

PMU measurement based dynamic load modeling using SVC devices in online enviroment

Online dynamic load modeling has become possible with the availability of Static Voltage Compensator (SVC) and Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) devices. The power of the load response to the small random bounded voltage fluctuations caused from SVC can be measured by PMU for modelling purposes. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the capability of identifying an aggregated load model from high voltage substation level in the online environment. The induction motor is used as the main test subject since it contributes the majority of the dynamic loads. A test system representing simple electromechanical generator model serving dynamic loads through the transmission network is used to verify the proposed method. Also, dynamic load with multiple induction motors are modeled to achieve a better realistic load representation.

Wide area control of SVCs for first swing stabilisation and damping in longitudinal systems

A non-linear Kalman filter based control strategy for SVCs located in major load groups is presented. This focusses on the limitation and damping of inter-area modes. It does this through treating local modes as noise and uses a tunable nonlinear control algorithm to improve both first swing stability and system damping. Simulation on a four machine system shows that the Kalman filer can successfully lock on to a desired inter-area mode and obtain a 31% improvement in critical clearing time as well as improved damping.

Wide area controls for transient and dynamic stability enhancement

This paper presents a study done into the effectiveness of using local acceleration measurements vs. remote angle measurements in providing stabilising control via SVCs following large disturbances. The system studied was an analogue of the Queensland-New South Wales Interconnection (QNI) and involved the control of an existing Static Var Compensators (SVC) at Sydney West. This study is placed in the context of wide area controls for large systems using aggregated models for groups of machines.