P.A. Crossley

Bridging the gap between signal and power

This article focuses on problems and issues related to PQ and power system diagnostics, in particular those where signal processing techniques are extremely important. PQ is a general term that describes the quality of voltage and current waveforms. PQ problems include all electric power problems or disturbances in the supply system that prevent end-user equipment from operating properly.

Application of a Wide Area Backup Protection Expert System to Prevent Cascading Outages

A strategy to prevent cascading outages in power systems is proposed in this paper. The strategy employs wide-area back-up protection and artificial intelligence techniques to minimize the impact of a fault on a network. There are two ways in which wide-area backup protection can prevent cascading trips leading to a wide spread blackout: 1) Precise location of a fault so that only the circuit breakers necessary to isolate the fault are tripped; and 2) Avoidance of unnecessary trips, due to hidden failure or overloading, by blocking the trip signals of conventional back-up protection relays. The limitations of conventional back-up protection are examined and methods of improvement are presented.

An expert system for the back-up protection of a transmission network

A back-up protection scheme for a transmission network is described in the paper. The back-up protection uses an action factor-based expert decision system (referred to as the BPES) to provide optimal fault clearance for faults located anywhere on the protected network. To achieve an optimal response, the BPES needs to know the topology of the network and the operating response of existing protection relays. Based on this information, the expert decision system will try to identify the feeder that contains the fault and which circuit breakers need to be tripped to clear the fault.

Rotor Angle Instability Prediction Using Post-Disturbance Voltage Trajectories

A new method for predicting the rotor angle stability status of a power system immediately after a large disturbance is presented. The proposed two-stage method involves estimation of the similarity of post-fault voltage trajectories of the generator buses after the disturbance to some pre-identified templates and then prediction of the stability status using a classifier which takes the similarity values calculated at the different generator buses as inputs. The typical bus voltage variation patterns after a disturbance for both stable and unstable situations are identified from a database of simulations using fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. The same database is used to train a support vector machine classifier which takes proximity of the actual voltage variations to the identified templates as features. Development of the system and its performance were demonstrated using a case study carried out on the IEEE 39-bus system. Investigations showed that the proposed method can accurately predict the stability status six cycles after the clearance of a fault. Further, the robustness of the proposed method was examined by analyzing its performance in predicting the instability when the network configuration is altered.

Telecommunications for Smart Grid: Backhaul solutions for the distribution network

Telecommunications are an essential component of emerging Smart Grid technologies. Up until now, power system telecoms planning have largely focused on transmission with less investment in the distribution network. Presently there is a need for a universal system over which all messaging may be achieved. With the rise of protocols such as IEC 61850 there is growing momentum to start installing telecoms so as to exploit the benefits on offer, but the challenge is now how to correctly engineer a system that can accommodate rapid growth alongside demand for throughput and real-time performance. This paper reviews a number of last-mile access technologies and proposes a model telecoms network for Smart Grids.

Fourier Transform-Based Modified Phasor Estimation Method Immune to the Effect of the DC Offsets

This paper proposes a Fourier transform-based modified phasor estimation method to eliminate the adverse influence of the exponentially decaying dc offsets when discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is used to calculate the phasor of the fundamental frequency component in a relaying signal. By subtracting the result of odd-sample-set DFT from the result of even-sample-set DFT, the information of dc offsets can be obtained. Two dc offsets in a secondary relaying signal are treated as one dc offset which is piecewise approximated in one cycle data window. The effect of the dc offsets can be eliminated by the approximated dc offset. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by using computer-simulated signals and Electromagnetic Transients Program-generated signals. The algorithm is also tested on a hardware board with TMS320C32 microprocessor. The evaluation results indicate that the proposed algorithm can estimate the accurate phasor of the fundamental frequency component regardless of not only the primary decaying dc offset but also the secondary decaying dc offset caused by CT circuit itself including its burden.

Compensation of the distortion in the secondary current caused by saturation and remanence in a CT

Current-transformer (CT) saturation may cause the maloperation of a protection relay. This is particularly onerous when the remanent flux in the core of the CT adds to the flux change caused by the fault. The CT is forced into deep saturation and the waveshape of the secondary current is severely distorted. An algorithm for compensating the distortion in the secondary current caused by saturation and remanence in a CT is described in this paper. A second-difference function detects when the CT first starts to saturate. At this instant, the negative value of the second-difference function corresponds to the magnetizing current which, in conjunction with the magnetization curve, is used to estimate the core flux. This is then used as an initial value to calculate how the flux changes during the fault. The magnetizing current is estimated by inserting the estimated core flux into the magnetization curve and added to the secondary current; the result, the compensated secondary current, is equal to the secondary referred primary current. Various test results indicate that the proposed algorithm can accurately compensate a severely distorted secondary current and is not affected by remanence. The paper concludes by describing the hardware implementation of the algorithm on a prototype compensation unit based on a digital signal processor.

A CT saturation detection algorithm using symmetrical components for current differential protection

A method of symmetrical component analysis for the detection of current-transformer (CT) saturation in a numerical current differential feeder protection relay is presented in this paper. The performance of the differential relay is investigated for various faults on a typical Electro-Magnetic Transients Program/Alternative Transients Program (EMTP/ATP) simulated transmission feeder. The simulator includes the effects of CT saturation. A comparison between simulation and tests conducted on an analog model testbench are also evaluated. The results show a high degree of similarity and illustrate the effect that CT saturation imposes on the sensitivity and stability of the protection scheme. An algorithm is presented that shows significant improvement in sensitivity on internal faults while still maintaining a high level of stability on external faults and nonfault events.

Synchrophasor Broadcast Over Internet Protocol for Distributed Generator Synchronization

Synchronous islanded operation involves continuously holding an islanded power network in virtual synchronism with the main power system to aid paralleling and avoid potentially damaging out-of-synchronism reclosure. This requires phase control of the generators in the island and the transmission of a reference signal from a secure location on the main power system. Global positioning system (GPS) time-synchronized phasor measurements transmitted via an Internet protocol (IP) are used for the reference signal. However, while offering low cost and a readily available solution for distribution networks, IP communications have variable latency and are susceptible to packet loss, which can make time-critical control applications difficult. This paper investigates the ability of the phase-control system to tolerate communications latency. Phasor measurement conditioning algorithms that can tolerate latency are used in the phase-control loop of a 50-kVA diesel generator.

Modeling and Performance Analysis of a Microturbine as a Distributed Energy Resource

This paper presents modeling, simulation, and analysis of load following behavior of a microturbine (MT) as a distributed energy resource (DER). The MT-generator (MTG) system consists of the MT coupled to a synchronous generator. Simulation is done in MATLAB for different loading conditions under islanded and grid-connected modes. The MTG model also incorporates a speed controller for maintaining constant speed at variable loads. Performance is studied both with and without the speed controller. The paper also compares the simulation results with already reported results and with real life load following data for a typical islanded MT of similar rating.