Optimal Integration of Series and Shunt FACTS with Wind Energy for Active Power Loss Reduction

The integration of wind energy (WE) with flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices into the grid to improve grid performance is one of the latest advances in renewable energy (RE) technology. This work proposes the optimal placement and size of a WE, a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) with two of FACTS controller, viz. thyristor-controlled series compensator (TCSC) static var compensator (SVC). The goal is to maximize system bus load (Max. LBS) and minimize active power loss (Min. Ploss) by satisfying various safety and stability constraints. Newton Raphson\u27s power flow study involving TCSC, SVC, and DFIG is a bi-objective that meets multiple constraints: lines, generation, voltage limits, and small signal stability. A variant of the genetic algorithm, non-dominated sorting GA II (NSGA-II), was applied to solve the contradictory bi-objective optimization problem. A modified standard and practical test system, the IEEE 14-bus and the Indonesia Java Bali 24-bus, integrated with DFIG, TCSC, and SVC, were simulated to investigate the efficacy of the suggested technique. The simulation shows that the optimal placement and size of DFIG with both FACTS can improve system performance with all system loading conditions and meet all system constraints

Study of Voltage Stability Using Intelligent Techniques

The continuous increase in the demand of active and reactive power in the power system network has limits as scope for network expansion many a times poses serious problems. The power system must be able to maintain acceptable voltage at all nodes in the system at a normal operating condition as well as post disturbance periods. Voltage instability is a serious issue in the system due to progressive and uncontrollable fall in voltage level. The research presented in this thesis is concerned with several facets of the voltage stability problem. The focus of this thesis is to improve the voltage stability of the system. The sensitivity analysis plays an important role as it monitors the nearness of the system towards the voltage collapse situation. The conventional offline data as well as the online data are processed to determine the weak areas are determined. As the system is having nonlinearities it is governed by differential and algebraic equations which are in turn solved by nonlinear techniques. In this work the system is analysed with steady state model. Once the system is represented in the form of differential equations and standard form is achieved advanced control techniques can be easily applied for its solution. The main focus of this thesis is aimed at placing FACTS device known as the Static compensator (STATCOM) at weak location of the system network to address the problem of voltage instability. With its unique capability to control reactive power flow in a transmission line as well as voltage at the bus where it is connected, this device significantly contribute to improve the power system. These features turn out to be even more prominent because STATCOM can allow loading of the transmission lines close to their thermal limits, forcing the power to flow through the desired paths. This opens up new avenues for the much needed flexibility in order to satisfy the demands. The voltage instability is improved with reactive power supports of optimal values at optimal locations. Also renewable energy sources offer better option than the conventional types and hence attempt has been made to include the wind energy for this study the wind generator is considered delivering constant output and is assumed as a substitute to the conventional power generators. Finally the system voltage stability is studied with design of a controller based on probabilistic neural network. The developed controller has provided much better performance under wide variations in the system loads and contingencies and shown a significant improvement in the static performance of the system. The proposed controller is tested under different scenarios of line outages and the load increase and found to be more effective than the existing ones. The research has revealed a veritable cornucopia of research opportunities, some of which are discussed in the thesis

Wind Farm

During the last two decades, increase in electricity demand and environmental concern resulted in fast growth of power production from renewable sources. Wind power is one of the most efficient alternatives. Due to rapid development of wind turbine technology and increasing size of wind farms, wind power plays a significant part in the power production in some countries. However, fundamental differences exist between conventional thermal, hydro, and nuclear generation and wind power, such as different generation systems and the difficulty in controlling the primary movement of a wind turbine, due to the wind and its random fluctuations. These differences are reflected in the specific interaction of wind turbines with the power system. This book addresses a wide variety of issues regarding the integration of wind farms in power systems. The book contains 14 chapters divided into three parts. The first part outlines aspects related to the impact of the wind power generation on the electric system. In the second part, alternatives to mitigate problems of the wind farm integration are presented. Finally, the third part covers issues of modeling and simulation of wind power system

Power quality enhancement in electricity networks using grid-connected solar and wind based DGs

The integration of DG into utility networks has significantly increased over the past years primarily as a result of growing energy demand, coupled with the environmental impacts posed by conventional fossil fuel-based power generation. The prominent DG technologies which are capable of meeting bulk energy demands and are clean energy sources are wind and solar energy sources. The resources for solar and wind based DG are available in abundance in most geographical locations in South Africa and the rest of Africa. Through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) introduced by the South African government in 2011, 3 920 MW of renewable energy has been procured to date. Out of this, solar and wind energy constitute 2 200 MW and 960 MW, respectively. Grid integration of solar and wind-based intermittent DGs may however pose negative impacts on the quality of power supplied by the utility network. Some of the detrimental impacts of DG include voltage fluctuations, flicker, etc. which are in general categorised as power quality (PQ) problems. The proper planning of DG integration is required to mitigate the negative impacts they pose on system's PQ to ensure that the performance of the utility network is enhanced in terms of the overall PQ improvement of the system. This dissertation reviews general PQ problems in utility networks with DG integration and whether poor planning of DG integration affects PQ negatively. The work emphasizes on the impacts of grid integration of wind and solar PV sources on power quality. It investigates the manner in which wind and solar energy systems differ in their impacts and capacity to improve PQ of the network in terms of a number of factors such as point of integration and capacity of DG, type of DG, network loading, etc. The role of grid-integrated DG in PQ improvement in electricity network is also investigated by exploring different PQ improvement techniques. The networks considered for the grid integration of DG for PQ improvement in this work are the IEEE 9-bus sub-transmission network at the nominal voltage of 230kV and the IEEE 33-bus distribution network at the nominal voltage of 12 kV. The aspects essential for facilitating proper planning of DG integration for PQ improvement and total loss reduction are investigated and the comparative analysis is made between grid integration of wind and solar PV based DGs. The simulations of different case studies in this work are done using DIgSILENT PowerFactory version 14.1 as well as coding in MATLAB. The cases studies conducted are aimed at facilitating the proper planning of grid integration of wind and solar PV-based DGs by comparing their PQ improvement capabilities under different scenarios. First the investigation of how their location and capacity affect the network voltage profiles and active power losses is conducted. Their ability to improve the system's PQ is also studied by observing PQ improvement strategies such as voltage control, installation of energy storage and the optimal placement of DGs under different scenarios. In order to account for the weakness of most South African utility grids, PQ improvement in weak networks with DG integration is also studied by investigating how DG integration in networks with different grid strengths affect the system's PQ. The results provide an understanding of the role of grid integration of wind and solar based DGs on PQ which is useful in the planning of grid integration of RE, particularly in South African electricity networks. The results revealed that the location and capacity of integrated DGs indeed affect the quality of power as well as active power losses in the grid. It is also established that a significant improvement in network's PQ and line loss reduction can be achieved in networks with wind and solar integration. The results however indicated that wind and solar PV based DGs differ in their impacts and capacity to improve the quality of power in the network. Furthermore, the results revealed that wind and solar plants integration into weak utility grids may pose adverse impacts on the system's PQ. It was however established that including reactive power control devices such as STATCOM and SVC at the PCC can successfully improve the system's PQ and enable grid code compliance in electricity networks with DG integration

A Wide Area Hierarchical Voltage Control for Systems with High Wind Penetration and an HVDC Overlay

The modern power grid is undergoing a dramatic revolution. On the generation side, renewable resources are replacing fossil fuel in powering the system. On the transmission side, an AC-DC hybrid network has become increasingly popular to help reduce the transportation cost of electricity. Wind power, as one of the environmental friendly renewable resources, has taken a larger and larger share of the generation market. Due to the remote locations of wind plants, an HVDC overlay turns out to be attractive for transporting wind energy due to its superiority in long distance transmission of electricity. While reducing environmental concern, the increasing utilization of wind energy forces the power system to operate under a tighter operating margin. The limited reactive capability of wind turbines is insufficient to provide adequate voltage support under stressed system conditions. Moreover, the volatility of wind further aggravates the problem as it brings uncertainty to the available reactive resources and can cause undesirable voltage behavior in the system. The power electronics of the HVDC overlay may also destabilize the gird under abnormal voltage conditions. Such limitations of wind generation have undermined system security and made the power grid more vulnerable to disturbances. This dissertation proposes a Hierarchical Voltage Control (HVC) methodology to optimize the reactive reserve of a power system with high levels of wind penetration. The proposed control architecture consists of three layers. A tertiary Optimal Power Flow computes references for pilot bus voltages. Secondary voltage scheduling adjusts primary control variables to achieve the desired set points. The three levels of the proposed HVC scheme coordinate to optimize the voltage profile of the system and enhance system security. The proposed HVC is tested on an equivalent Western Electricity Coordinated Council (WECC) system modified by a multi-terminal HVDC overlay. The effectiveness of the proposed HVC is validated under a wide range of operating conditions. The capability to manage a future AC/DC hybrid network is studied to allow even higher levels of wind

Optimal power flow considering voltage stability with significant wind penetration

Voltage stability evaluation is one of the major issues in the power system operation and control. One reason is that there is an enormous number of voltage collapses which frequently occurs. The principal objective of this thesis is to choose appropriate criteria for voltage stability evaluation in optimal power flow (OPF) approach considering the worst contingency or the congested condition. Voltage stability can be affected by several elements and control ways which operate on different time scales. In particular, the role of wind power generation, demand response (DR), over excitation limiter (OXL), energy storage system (ESS) and on-load tap changer (OLTC) are significant. The proper modelling of these elements and control ways as well as using in an OPF approach should be analyzed in longterm voltage stability. First, an impedance-based (IB) index is presented in this thesis that can evaluate unstable behavior of the power system with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind farms integration. A model for DFIG capability curve limits is presented that can be integrated to the internal circuit of the generator. Furthermore, the OLTC model was added to this index. The index uses the concept of coupled single-port circuit. The OPF with new IB-index constraint is implemented to show the performance of the index. This study also introduces a multi-objective stochastic optimal power flow (SOPF) approach with the presence of uncertain wind power generations. The multi-objective SOPF investigates the operating cost, voltage stability and emission effects as the objective functions. The effect of the DR program is considered in this study. The fuzzification technique is used to normalize all objective functions in the multi-objective SOPF. A line voltage stability index (LVSI) is presented and compared with other LVSIs. The proposed multi-objective SOPF is also carried out with different existing LVSIs as the objective functions. Following the voltage stability assessment, the frequency control is also considered in the SOPF. In this case, the frequency restoration scheme cooperates with DR and spinning reserve to stop a frequency drop in contingency events. This scheme is defined in three levels. Furthermore, an extended-L (EL) index is used to evaluate voltage stability analysis. Several frequency and voltage constraints are added in the SOPF approach. The EL-index considers a generator equivalent model (GEM). In addition, energy storage systems (ESSs) are considered in this SOPF approach. Those approaches are analyzed in detail and they are tested and validated on several case studies. The results show that the proposed approaches operate successfully

Power system planning methods and experiences in the energy transition framework

In recent years, the unbundling of the electricity market together with the profound “energy landscape” transformation have made the transmission network development planning a very complex multi-objective problem. The climate and energy objectives defined at the European level aim for a deepening integration of the European power markets and the electricity sector is recognized as one of the main contributors to the energy transition from a thermal-based power system to a renewable-based one. In the deregulated framework, network planners have to satisfy multiple different objectives, including: facilitating competition between market participants, providing non-discriminatory access to all generation resources for all customers, including green resources, mitigating transmission congestions, efficiently allocating the network development actions, minimizing risks associated with investments, enhancing power system security and reliability and minimizing the transmission infrastructure environmental impact. Further complexities are related to the significant uncertainty about future energy scenarios and policy rules. In particular, the increasing distributed renewable energy source integration dictated by the European energy targets, raises several issues in terms of future power flow patterns, power system flexibility and inertia requirements, and cost-effective development strategies identification. The thesis aims to investigate various aspects concerning the transmission network planning, with particular reference to the Italian power system and the experience gained working in the “Grid Planning and Interconnections Department” of Terna, the Italian Transmission System Operator. One of the main topics of this work is the use of the series compensation to exploit operating limits of underused portions of the HV – EHV transmission network in parallel to critically loaded ones, in order to control and provide alternative paths for power flows. The purpose is to extend the allowable transmission capacity across internal market sections. To this aim, a specific application of series compensation (together with reconductoring) to exploit the transfer capacity of a 250 km long, 230 kV-50 Hz transmission backbone spanning the critical section Centre South – Centre North is illustrated. The results are validated by means of static assessment and similar applications could be hypothesized for grid portions in the South of Italy where the primary network is mainly unloaded whereas the sub-transmission network reaches high levels of loading because of the huge renewable generation capacity situated there. A further characteristic of modern power systems is the need to integrate high levels of renewable energies while fulfilling reliability and security requirements. The offshore wind farms perspectives in the Italian transmission system are evaluated, considering policies, environmental and technical aspects. Furthermore, the adoption of the HVDC technology in parallel to the AC traditional system topic is addressed: planning static and dynamic studies involving a real HVDC Italian project are proposed. In particular, the impact of the planned HVDC link on the loadability and the dynamic performance of the system is investigated in medium and in long-term future planning scenarios. The evaluation of the thermal performance of a specific grid portion in the South of Italy affected by significant increase of power generation by variable energy sources is proposed both in the current situation and in the future scenarios in order to highlight the benefits related to the presence of the planned network reinforcements. Finally, some issues of the prospective reduced inertia systems are illustrated and a possible methodology to evaluate the economic impact of inertia constraints in long-term market studies is proposed. In the light of the emerging concept of power system flexibility, traditional planning evolved to assess the ability of the system to employ its resources when dealing with the changes in load demand and variable generation. Flexibility analyses of the Italian power system, carried out in terms of some market studies-based metrics and grid infrastructure-based indexes, are provided. The flexibility requirements assessment in planning scenarios are of interest to evaluate the impact of network development actions and have been included in the yearly National Development Plan. The last research topic involves the cost-effective target capacity assessment methodology developed by Terna in compliance with the Regulator directives presented together with the results yielded by its application to each significant market section of the Italian power system. The methodology has been positively evaluated from academic independent expert reviewers, and its outputs are relevant for the policy makers, regulatory authority and market participant to assess and co-design the energy transition plan of a future European interconnected power system

Enhancement of deregulated and restructured power network performance with flexible alternating current transmission systems devices.

Doctoral degree. University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban.The increase in power transactions, consequent open access created by deregulation and restructuring has resulted into network operation challenges including determination as well as enhancement of available transfer capability (ATC), and congestion management among others. In this study, repeated alternating current power flow (RACPF) approach was implemented for determination of ATC. ATCs for inter-area line outage and generator outage contingency conditions were obtained and analyzed. Analyses of most severe line outage contingencies resulting from evaluation of different performance index (PI) ranking methods were carried out for severe line outage contingency identification. A comprehensive review of FACTS controllers with their various background, topological structures, deployment techniques and cutting-edge applications was carried out for network performance enhancement. In addition, different placement methods were investigated for optimal performance evaluation of FACTS devices. Following this, comparative performance of static var compensator (SVC) and thyristor-controlled series compensator (TCSC) models for enhancement of ATC, bus voltage profile improvement and real power loss minimization was investigated. In addition, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and brain-storm optimization algorithms (BSOA) were engaged for optimum setting of FACTS devices through multi-objective problem formulation and allocation purposes. Thereafter, sensitivity-based technique involving incorporation of proposed FACTS device loss with the general loss equation for the determination of optimum location with same objectives was developed and TCSC location was established based on this sensitivity factors analyses, obtained from partial derivatives of the resultant loss equations with respect to control parameters. Subsequently, investigation and analyses of capability of an optimized VSC-HVDC transmission system in enhancing power network performance were conducted. Furthermore, this optimized VSC-HVDC transmission system was applied for mitigation of bus voltage and line thermal limit violation as a result of n-1-line outage contingency. All these investigations and analyses were implemented for bilateral, simultaneous and multilateral transactions as characterized by network liberalization and IEEE 5 and 30 bus networks were used for implementation in MATLAB environment. RACPF method found to be more accurate especially when compared with other methods with 11.574 MW above and 29.014 MW below recorded ATC values. Voltage and real power PI have also been proven to be distinctly dissimilar in severe contingency identification. In placement method comparison however, disparities in ATC enhancement ranges between 2% and 85% were achieved while real power loss minimization of up to 25% was obtained for different methods. Real power loss minimization of up to 0.06 MW and voltage improvement of bus 21 to 30 were achieved with SVC, while ATC enhancement of up to 14% were recorded for both devices. However, BSO behaved much like PSO throughout the achievements of other set objectives but performed better in ATC enhancement with 27.12 MW and 5.24 MW increase above enhanced ATC values achieved by the latter. The comparison of set objectives values relative to that obtained with PSO methods depict suitability and advantages of BSOA technique. Sensitivity based placement technique resulted into ATC enhancement of more than 60% well above the values obtained when TCSC was placed with thermal limit method. In addition, a substantial bus voltage improvement and active power loss reduction were recorded with this placement method. With incorporation of a VSC-HVDC based transmission system into ac network however, there was an improvement in power flow up to 15.66% corresponding to 46 MW for various transactions, transmission line power loss minimization up to 0.38 MW and bus voltage profile deviation minimization. Besides, automatic alleviation of violated thermal and voltage limits during contingency present VSC-HVDC system as a solution for network performance optimization especially during various transactions occasioned by unbundling power processes. Therefore, ATCs were properly enhanced, bus voltage profile improved, and system real power loss minimized. Likewise, HVDC system enhanced network performance and automatically alleviated violated thermal and voltage limits during contingency