The detection, prevention and mitigation of cascading outages in the power system

This dissertation studies the causes and mechanism of power system cascading outages and develops new methods and new tools to help detect, prevent and mitigate the outages. Three effective solutions: a steady state control scheme, a transient stability control scheme, and an interactive system-wide and local scheme have been proposed using those new methods and tools. A steady state control scheme can help detect and prevent the possible cascading outage at its initial slow steady state progress stage. It uses new methods and new tools to solve the line overload, congestion or bus high/low voltage problems. New methods, such as vulnerability index (VI), margin index (MI), network contribution factor (NCF), topology processing and selected minimum load shedding (SMLS), and new tools, such as transmission network control based on a network contribution factor (NCF) method, generator control based on a generator distribution factor (GDF) method, and load control based on a load distribution factor (LDF) method have been proposed and developed. A transient stability control scheme can help prevent and mitigate the possible cascading outage at its transient progress stage if there is enough time to take action. It uses one Lyapunov direct method, potential energy boundary surface (PEBS) method, and sensitivity analysis of transient energy margin for fast stabilizing control. The results are verified by the accurate time-domain transient stability analysis method. The interactive scheme takes advantage of accurate system-wide and local information and analysis results, uses some techniques from both steady state control and transient stability control, works at both the system-wide level and local substation level, monitors the system all the time, and takes actions when needed to help detect, prevent and mitigate the possible cascading outage. Comprehensive simulation studies have been implemented using the IEEE 14- bus, 24-bus, 39-bus and 118-bus systems and promising results show the ability of the proposed solutions to help detect, prevent and mitigate cascading outages

Automation, Protection and Control of Substation Based on IEC 61850

Reliability of power system protection system has been a key issue in the substation operation due to the use of multi-vendor equipment of proprietary features, environmental issues, and complex fault diagnosis. Failure to address these issues could have a significant effect on the performance of the entire electricity grid. With the introduction of IEC 61850 standard, substation automation system (SAS) has significantly altered the scenario in utilities and industries as indicated in this thesis

Improving Buffalo City's sub-transmission reliability

Several experiences of sudden large scale disruptions in electrical service deeply impacted both social stability and economic development in affected communities and caused lower levels of reliability performance. The prevention of such catastrophic incidents poses huge challenges for reliability study and operational practices in Buffalo City's sub-transmission network. Primarily investigations on the field shows, aging infrastructure, relay failures and reactive maintenance practice is eminent. Inspired by these challenges, this dissertation proposes an analysis of the critical transition in sub-transmission network from a lower level of reliability to an economically and acceptable level of reliability. The transition of the operational "stress" and its large scale of power interruptions are studied. The transition of the existing sub-transmission to the alternative sub-transmission models has been presented. The analysis of load flow and fault level calculations identifies the loading trends critical to cause operational "pressure" of unplanned interruptions. The results in this research work had to discover the most appropriate resolutions to aging equipment, reactive maintenance and protection systems. The DIgSILENT Power Factory simulates and quantifies the results of the problems that could occur in the sub-transmission network in the immediate future. Measures to mitigate any occurrence which might cause more prone to a catastrophic blackout are presented. The proposed corrective measures of upkeep aging infrastructure, relay responsiveness and planned preventative maintenance have been recommended. The development of these corrective measures and the proposed network model is the key to reaching higher levels of reliability performance in the energy supply that communities require in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality

A New Relaying Method for Third Zone Distance Relay Blocking During Power Swings

Due to the increasing complexity of modern bulk power systems, the power swing identification, blocking, and protection have become more challenging than they used to be. Among various transmission line protection methods, distance relays are the most commonly used type. One of the advantages of using distance relays is the zoned protection which provides redundancy. However, the additional redundancy comes with a problem that it increases the probability of incorrect operation. For example, the undesired operation of the third zone distance protection during power swing scenarios has been attributed as one of the major causes for creating large-scale blackouts. Some research works in the literature investigate proper identification of stable and unstable power swing conditions. Most research works dwell on identification of power swing conditions but do not address how the scheme could be used for blocking the third zone of distance relays during stable power swings. Also, the current power swing detection schemes are often very complex to implement for a relaying engineer or are not fast enough for blocking the third zone distance element. This research proposes a reliable and fast methodology for the third zone blocking (TZB) during power swings. The new mathematical formulations and derivations are based on sound time tested power system theory and are simpler to understand for a relaying engineer to implement this technique. The algorithm proposed in the research can prevent unnecessary tripping of distance relays during power swings. The algorithm also overcomes the shortcomings of the conventional power swing identification methods when applied for the third zone blocking. A first zero-crossing (FZC) concept is introduced as the criteria for identifying stable power swing or out-of-step phenomena. The analysis is based on system stability point of view and utilizes power-angle equations. The proposed algorithm could be applied at every discrete time interval or time step of a distance relay to detect power swing points. It could also be applied to any transmission line in the power system by finding an equivalent single machine infinite bus (SMIB) configuration individually for each line on a real-time basis, which is one of the primary advantages of the proposed method. In the thesis work, the proposed technique is first demonstrated using a simple single machine infinite bus system. The TZB algorithm is then tested using a modified Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WSCC) power system configuration using Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT) simulations. The code is written in MATLAB. The TZB method is then further analyzed using electromagnetic simulations with Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) on WSCC system. The proposed method uses small time step simulations (50 μs) to take various aspects of power system complexity into consideration, such as different harmonics presents in the system, synchronous machine operation at different speeds, travelling wave representation of transmission lines instead of purely lumped parameter representation, etc. The investigations as mentioned above and the results show that the proposed TZB scheme is a straightforward and reliable technique, involving only a few calculation steps, and could be applied to any power system configuration. The main novelty of this technique is that it does not require a priori stability study to find the relay settings unlike conventional power swing identification or distance relay blocking techniques. The inputs to the relay are basic electrical quantities which could be easily measured locally on any transmission line. The local measurements would make the implementation of the proposed TZB simpler for relaying applications compared to Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) based techniques. In a WAMS based relaying technique - the cost associated with the communication network, reliability of the communication network, impact of communication delay on relay, etc all become factors for actual industry use

Operating strategies to preserve the adequacy of power systems circuit breakers

The objective of the proposed research is to quantify the limits of overstressed and aging circuit breakers in terms of probability of failure and to provide guidelines to determine network reconfigurations, generator commitment, and economic dispatch strategies that account for these limits. The proposed temporary power system operating strategies address circuit breaker adequacy issues and allow overstressed breakers to be operated longer and more reliably until they are replaced with adequate equipment. The expansion of electric networks with new power sources (nuclear plants, distributed generation) results in increased short-circuit or fault currents levels. As fault currents increase, they will eventually exceed circuit breaker ratings. Circuit breakers exposed to fault currents in excess of their ratings are said to be overstressed, underrated, or inadequate. Insufficient ratings expose overstressed breakers to increased failure probabilities. Extensive common-mode outages caused by circuit breaker failures reduce the reliability of power systems. To durably avoid outages and system unreliability, overstressed breakers must eventually be replaced. Large-scale replacements of overstressed breakers cannot be completed in a short time because of budgetary limits, capital improvement schedules, and manufacturer-imposed constraints. Meanwhile, to preserve the ability of old and overstressed breakers to safely interrupt faults, short-circuit currents must be kept within the limits imposed by the ratings and the age of these breakers by using the substation reconfiguration and generator commitment strategies described in this study. The immediate benefit of the above-mentioned operating strategies is a reduction of the failure probability of overstressed breakers obtained by avoiding the interruption of currents in excess of breaker ratings. Other benefits include (i) increased network reliability, (ii) restored operating margins with respect to existing equipment, and (iii) prioritized equipment upgrades that enhance the long-term planning of power systems.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Meliopoulos, A. P. Sakis; Committee Member: Divan, Deepakraj M.; Committee Member: Harley, Ronald G.; Committee Member: Johnson, Ellis L.; Committee Member: Taylor, David G

Allocating and Enforcing Property Rights in Land: Informal versus Formal Mechanisms in Subsaharan Africa

The standard view of economists is that formalisation of private rights in land is a prerequisite of economic growth, especially so in conditions of acute population pressure and agricultutal commercialisation. That stage has been reached in many regions of the African continent, hence the recommendation that land rights be duly registered by a central authority acting on behalf of the state. An alternative view, more prevalent among social scientists, claims that, far from being bypassed by evolving scarcity circumstances, the informal (customary) land tenure system is capable of adjusting itself to the needs of a modern agriculture while at the same time ensuring a more equitable access to land for those whose livelihood narrowly depends upon it. This paper aims at assessing these two views by carefully looking at the arguments advanced by their respective upholders as well as by taking stock of the most recent empirical evidence available to test their validity. It will be shown that the first view is not as solidly grounded as it may seem at first sight, yet the second view must be duly qualified to allow for serious inter-community failures of the 'indigenous order' solution.

Model-based dynamic relaying for power system protection under uncertainty

Several major cascading outages have involved mis-operation or mis-coordination of protective relays during stressed system conditions that resulted in a vulnerable network. Such stressed conditions include concurrent high load demand, changes in circuit topology, equipment outages, and short-circuit faults. With levels of wind and photovoltaic (PV) generation projected to increase in the future, large-scale variable generation also presents an additional point of vulnerability to the existing protection system. In this work, a new framework is introduced that is built on model-based distributed relay intelligence. The framework integrates real-time measurements from adjacent buses and predictive circuit models embedded in relays. The data collected by the relay is input to circuit simulations in order to accurately predict possible fault conditions at the relay location. Settings can then be adapted in real-time based on prevailing system conditions. Several scenarios are evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. This work further develops a probabilistic formulation of optimal relay characteristics that adapts to the randomness and uncertainty introduced by renewable generation. In this framework, the calculation of relay operating times is formulated as a stochastic optimization problem. In addition, at the system level, a mixed-integer linear program is developed for protective device and switch allocation considering intentional islanding with distributed generation in distribution systems.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Security Risk Management for the Internet of Things

In recent years, the rising complexity of Internet of Things (IoT) systems has increased their potential vulnerabilities and introduced new cybersecurity challenges. In this context, state of the art methods and technologies for security risk assessment have prominent limitations when it comes to large scale, cyber-physical and interconnected IoT systems. Risk assessments for modern IoT systems must be frequent, dynamic and driven by knowledge about both cyber and physical assets. Furthermore, they should be more proactive, more automated, and able to leverage information shared across IoT value chains. This book introduces a set of novel risk assessment techniques and their role in the IoT Security risk management process. Specifically, it presents architectures and platforms for end-to-end security, including their implementation based on the edge/fog computing paradigm. It also highlights machine learning techniques that boost the automation and proactiveness of IoT security risk assessments. Furthermore, blockchain solutions for open and transparent sharing of IoT security information across the supply chain are introduced. Frameworks for privacy awareness, along with technical measures that enable privacy risk assessment and boost GDPR compliance are also presented. Likewise, the book illustrates novel solutions for security certification of IoT systems, along with techniques for IoT security interoperability. In the coming years, IoT security will be a challenging, yet very exciting journey for IoT stakeholders, including security experts, consultants, security research organizations and IoT solution providers. The book provides knowledge and insights about where we stand on this journey. It also attempts to develop a vision for the future and to help readers start their IoT Security efforts on the right foot