Design of wide-area damping control systems for power system low-frequency inter-area oscillations

The recently developed robust control theories and wide-area measurementtechnologies make the wide-area real-time feedback control potentially promising. Theobjective of this research is to develop a systematic procedure of designing a centralizeddamping control system for power grid inter-area oscillations by applying wide-areameasurement and robust control techniques while putting emphasis on several practicalconsiderations.The first consideration is the selection of stabilizing signals. Geometric measuresof controllability/observability are used to select the most effective stabilizing signals andcontrol sites. Line power flows and currents are found to be the most effective inputsignals. The second consideration is the effects of time-delay in the communication ofinput/output signals. Time-delays reduce the efficiency of the damping control system. Insome cases, large delays can destabilize the system. Time-delays should be modeled inthe controller design procedure so that the resulting controller can handle a range of timedelays.In this work, time-delays are modeled by Padé Approximations and the delayuncertainty is described by Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT). The thirdconsideration is the controller robustness. The synthesis of the controller is defined as aproblem of mixed H2/H∞ output-feedback control with regional pole placement and isresolved by the Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) approach. The controller designed byrobust control techniques has satisfactory performance in a wide range of operatingpoints. The fourth consideration is the efficiency of the controller designed by lineartechniques in realistic nonlinear discrete environments. A tuning process and nonlinearsimulations are used to modify the controller parameters to ensure the performance androbustness of the controller designed with linear techniques. The last consideration is theselection of PMU data reporting rates. The performance of controllers designed in the sdomainis tested in digital environments and proper PMU data reporting rates are selectedwith consideration of the effects of time-delay.The design procedure of wide-area damping systems is illustrated by three studysystems. The first study system is a two-area four-machine system. The second one is theNew England 39-bus 10-machine system. The last one is a 29-generator 179-bus studysystem, which is a reduced order model of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council(WECC) system

Design of a Wide Area Controller Using Eigenstructure Assignment in Power Systems

Small signal stability has become a major concern for power system operators around the world. This has resulted from constantly evolving changes in the power system ranging from increased number of interconnections to ever increasing demand of power. In highly stressed operating conditions, even a small disturbance such as a load change can make the system unstable resulting in small signal instability. The main reason for small signal instability in power systems is an inter-area mode/s becoming unstable. Inter-area modes involve a group of generators oscillating against each other. Traditionally, power system stabilizers installed on the synchrous machines were used to damp the inter-area modes. However, they may not be very suitable to perform the job since they use local I/O signals which do not have a good controllability/observability of the inter-area modes. Recent advancements in phasor measurement technology has resulted in fast acquisition of time-synchronized measurements throughout the system. Thus, instead of using local controllers, an idea of a wide area controller (WAC) was proposed by the power systems community that would use global signals. This dissertation demonstrates the design of a WAC using eigenstructure assignment technique. This technique provides the freedom to assign a few eigenvalues and corresponding left or right eigenvectors for Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) systems. This technique forms a good match for designing a WAC since a WAC usually uses multiple I/O signals and a power system only has a few inter-area modes that might lead to instability. The last chapter of this dissertation addresses an important aspect of controller design, i.e., robustness of the controller to uncertainties in operating point and time delay of feedback signals. The operating point of a power system is highly variable in nature and thus the designed WAC should be able to damp the inter-area modes under these variations. Also, a transmission delay is associated due to routing of remote signals. This time delay is known to deteriorate the performance of the controller. A single controller will be shown to achieve robustness against both these uncertainties

A Criterion for Designing Emergency Control Schemes to Counteract Communication Failures in Wide-Area Damping Control

© The Authors 2023. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Communication failures and transmission delays are two major issues associated with Wide-Area Damping Controllers (WADCs). While transmission delays have been extensively studied and various solutions have been proposed, little research has been done on communication failures and most of the proposed methods are based on preventive controls. However, in today’s liberalized electricity markets, preventive controls are no longer acceptable and the trend is to use emergency controls instead. This paper proposes a novel emergency control scheme to counteract the loss of remote signals related to the input and to the output of the WADC (i.e. sensor and actuator failures). The proposed scheme is based on a simple criterion, which overcomes the complexity of the previous methods. Modal analysis and time domain simulations are performed to verify the performance of the proposed method. The simulation results show that the proposed method performs well in handling communication failures and can maintain good damping performance. This research work is particularly important in view of the trend towards the wide-scale adoption of wide-area measurement technologies, while the vulnerability to cyber-attacks is increasing.Peer reviewe

Wide Area Signals Based Damping Controllers for Multimachine Power Systems

Nowadays, electric power systems are stressed and pushed toward their stability margins due to increasing load demand and growing penetration levels of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Due to insufficient damping in power systems, oscillations are likely to arise during transient and dynamic conditions. To avoid undesirable power system states such as tripping of transmission lines, generation sources, and loads, eventually leading to cascaded outages and blackouts, intelligent coordinated control of a power system and its elements, from a global and local perspective, is needed. The research performed in this dissertation is focused on intelligent analysis and coordinated control of a power system to damp oscillations and improve its stability. Wide area signals based coordinated control of power systems with and without a wind farm and energy storage systems is investigated. A data-driven method for power system identification is developed to obtain system matrices that can aid in the design of local and wide area signals based power system stabilizers. Modal analysis is performed to characterize oscillation modes using data-driven models. Data-driven models are used to identify the most appropriate wide-area signals to utilize as inputs to damping controller(s) and generator(s) to receive supplementary control. Virtual Generators (VGs) are developed using the phenomena of generator coherency to effectively and efficiently control power system oscillations. VG based Power System Stabilizers (VG-PSSs) are proposed for optimal damping of power system oscillations. Herein, speed deviation of VGs is used to generate a supplementary coordinated control signal for an identified generator(s) of maximum controllability. The parameters of a VG-PSS(s) are heuristically tuned to provide maximum system damping. To overcome fallouts and switching in coherent generator groups during transients, an adaptive inter-area oscillation damping controller is developed using the concept of artificial immune systems - innate and adaptive immunity. With increasing levels of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road, the potential of SmartParks (a large number of EVs in parking lots) for improving power system stability is investigated. Intelligent multi-functional control of SmartParks using fuzzy logic based controllers are investigated for damping power system oscillations, regulating transmission line power flows and bus voltages. In summary, a number of approaches and suggestions for improving modern power system stability have been presented in this dissertation

Robust decentralized control of power systems through excitation systems and thyristor controlled series capacitors

The objective of this work is robust decentralized control of power systems through excitation systems and Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitors (TCSC). Hence the dissertation consists of two parts. In the first part an algorithm for the design of nonlinear decentralized excitation control is developed based on a feedback linearization technique. Feedback linearization technique is applied in excitation control of each generator to obtain an interconnected system where subsystems have linear system matrices and interconnections are represented by nonlinear terms. Different ways of achieving decentralization are investigated: (1) linear robust control combined with observer decoupled state space; (2) disturbance accommodation control. While linear robust control guarantees the subsystem\u27s stability when the interconnection terms are bounded within certain values, disturbance accommodation control is based on linear models of the interconnection terms. Nonlinear simulations are performed on a three-machine nine-bus power system. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies.;In the second part, indices for control signal selection and mode effectiveness and interaction are developed. They are applied in Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor damping control, which is to improve inter-area oscillation damping over a range of operating conditions, for evaluating local signals.;Two case studies are performed to explain and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies. The first power system is the two-area four-machine inter-area oscillation benchmark system. The second is the western U.S. power system (WSCC).;The uncertainty shown in the case studies in this dissertation are variations of load conditions. It can also be variations of topologies. The damping controller proposed in this dissertation is to use local measurement as input signals. Local measurements can be obtained by phasor measurement units (PMU). The feasibility of these control schemes using PMU should be investigated using discrete control techniques. Meanwhile, the measurement errors, control signal delays are not considered in this dissertation. Further work can take above factors into consideration. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Robust coordinated damping control of power systems with multi-terminal vsc-hvdc system and facts

This thesis investigates the robust and coordinated design of multiple damping controllers to ameliorate the damping characteristics of a bulky power system. A new methodology is proposed in this thesis for VSC-MTDC and FACTS damping controllers based on multiple control objectives and system multi-model. The key feature of the methodology is the robust and coordinated performance of the damping controllers. The formulated BMI-based optimization problem is solved systematically via a two- step approach. System multi-model is established in the design for the robustness of the controllers under system disturbances and changing operating conditions. The sequential design of a series of SISO controllers with properly selected feedback signals minimizes the negative interactions among the controllers. The approach is applied to a three-terminal VSC-MTDC and subsequently exerted with one terminal of VSC-MTDC and a TCSC to incorporate multiple devices and examine the generality and feasibility of the design. Given the flexible internal control configuration of VSC converter, the assessment of the impact of the d-q decoupled control modes on the effectiveness and flexibility of the damping controllers is carried out. Real-Time Digital Simulator is used to examine the effectiveness and robustness of the damping controllers under various system operating conditions and disturbances

Measurement-Based Monitoring and Control in Power Systems with High Renewable Penetrations

Power systems are experiencing rapid changes in their generation mixes because of the increasing integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) and the retirement of traditional generations. This opens opportunities for a cleaner energy outlook but also poses challenges to the safe operation of the power networks. Enhanced monitoring and control based on the increasingly available measurements are essential in assisting stable operation and effective planning for these evolving systems. First, awareness of the evolving dynamic characteristics is quintessential for secure operation and corrective planning. A quantified monitoring study that keeps track of the inertial response and primary frequency response is conducted on the Eastern Interconnection (EI) for the past decade with field data. Whereas the inertia declined by at least 10%, the primary frequency response experienced an unexpected increase. The findings unveiled in the trending analysis also led to an improved event MW size estimation method, as well as discussions about regional dynamics. Experiencing a faster and deeper renewable integration, the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA) system has been threatened by more frequent occurrences of inter-area oscillations during light-load high-renewable periods. A measurement-based oscillation damping control scheme is proposed for CESA with reduced reliance on system models. The design, implementation, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of the controller are discussed in detail. Despite the challenges, the increasing presence of IBRs also brings opportunities for fast and efficient controls. Together with synchronized measurement, IBRs have the potential to flexibly complement traditional frequency and voltage control schemes for improved frequency and voltage recovery. The design, implementation, and HIL testing of the measurement-based frequency and voltage control for the New York State Grid are presented. In addition to the transmission level development, IBRs deployed in distribution networks can also be valuable assets in emergency islanding situations if controlled properly. A power management module is proposed to take advantage of measurements and automatically control the electric boundaries of islanded microgrids for maximized power utilization and improved frequency regulation. The module is designed to be adaptive to arbitrary non-meshed topologies with multiple source locations for increased flexibility, expedited deployment, and reduced cost

Robust Coordinated Control of FACTS Devices in Large Power Systems

With the rapid development of power electronics, Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices have been proposed and implemented in power systems. This research mainly investigates the robust coordinated control of FACTS devices and traditional power system controllers in large power systems. The following objectives have been achieved: 1. FACTS modeling and controller design: FACTS devices are modeled using the current injection method. Linear and non-linear methods for the FACTS damping controller design are developed. 2. Optimal choice and allocation of FACTS devices: Using the genetic algorithms, the locations of the FACTS devices, their types and rated values are optimized simultaneously. The objective function, which consists of the investment costs for FACTS devices and the generation costs, is minimized. 3. Adaptive FACTS transient controller design using ANFIS technology: This objective deals with the development of fuzzy adaptive FACTS transient stability controller. Furthermore, by means of Adaptive Network based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) technology, the fuzzy controller parameters are optimized. 4. Simultaneous coordinated tuning of FACTS damping controller and conventional Power System Stabilizers (PSSs): Using the linearized power system model and the parameter-constrained non-linear optimization algorithm, interactions among PSS and FACTS damping controllers are considered. The controller parameters are optimized simultaneously to achieve a global optimal damping behavior. 5. Robust FACTS loop-shaping Power Oscillation Damping (POD) controller design in multi-machine power systems: By applying the model reduction and modern robust loop-shaping control technique, the FACTS robust loop-shaping POD controller is realized. This controller exploits the advantages of both conventional loop-shaping and modern H infinite robust control technique. Moreover, it is a decentralized approach and suitable for FACTS controller design in real large power systems. Die Dissertation erscheint parallel im Logos-Verlag, Berlin mit der ISBN 3-8325-0570-