Post-Disturbance Transient Stability Status Prediction Using Synchrophasor Measurements
Post-Disturbance Transient Stability Status Prediction Using Synchrophasor Measurements
Post-Disturbance Transient Stability Status Prediction Using Synchrophasor Measurements
AbstractThis paper presents a novel method to early pre- rather complicated and expensive [4]. As SPSs are event based
dict the transient stability status of a power system after being control systems that activate controls in response to occurrence
subjected to a severe disturbance. The proposed technique of some pre-identied set of disturbances, any modications to
is based on rate of change of voltage vs. voltage deviation
ROCOV V characteristics of the post-disturbance voltage the system requires alteration of the control logic [5]. Response
magnitudes obtained from synchrophasor measurements. Con- based wide area protection and control (WAPaC) systems are
verging and diverging nature of the post-disturbance trajectories the best alternative for SPSs as they can potentially be simpler
on ROCOV V plane is used to recognize the transient stability while being effective [5][7]. Response based WAPaC system
status. The proposed technique is computationally simple and fast can be implemented using wide area synchrophasor measure-
compared to the rotor angle based transient stability prediction
methods. Ofine simulations and real-time experimental studies ments. With phasor measurement units (PMUs) conforming to
carried out for the IEEE 39-bus test system showed over 99% new synchrophasor standard [8], more predictable and consis-
overall success rate under symmetrical and asymmetrical faults tent synchrophasor measurements can be obtained during the
as well as changes in pre-disturbance conditions and network post-disturbance period.
topology changes. In literature, there are four basic approaches to predict the
Index TermsPost-disturbance trajectory, real-time digital sim- transient stability status a power system: 1) time-domain simu-
ulation, stability status prediction, synchrophasor measurements, lations, 2) transient-energy-function (TEF) methods, 3) curve-
transient stability, wide area protection. tting techniques, and 4) machine-learning based classication
techniques.
The time-domain simulation is the most straightforward
I. INTRODUCTION
routine where a set of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs)
representing the power system are solved using step-by-step
T HE operational changes brought about by economic and
environmental pressures force large interconnected power
systems to operate near to the limits of stability. The risk of
numerical integration [9], [10]. The simulation duration is nor-
mally limited to about 3 to 5 seconds following the disturbance
[3], [11]. In [12][14], post-disturbance rotor angle trajectories
such a power system entering into unstable state following a
are obtained faster than real-time with the aid of various tools
large disturbance such as a fault is very high. In order to pre-
and techniques. This approach requires specialized computing
vent blackouts initiated by instabilities, early prediction of the
resources and needs accurate network conguration during and
potentially dangerous conditions is essential [1]. Fast recogni-
after a disturbance, which is difcult to get in real-time without
tion of instabilities provides opportunity to initiate emergency
a specialized scheme similar to those of SPSs. TEF methods
control actions [2].
are based on the direct method of Lyapunov stability principle,
Large disturbance rotor angle stability, which is commonly
which allows determining the stability of a system without
known as the transient stability, is the ability of synchronous
explicitly integrating the differential equations [15], [16]. The
machines of an interconnected power system to maintain syn-
power system stability assessment is done by constructing
chronism when subjected to a severe disturbance [3]. The sta-
an energy function (Lyapunov function), which contains the
bility status after a disturbance depends on the pre-disturbance
kinetic energy and potential energy, comparing with respect to
system operating condition, the form of disturbance, and the
a critical energy level for a given disturbance [17]. In practical
post-disturbance network conguration [3]. Transient stability
power system, however, it is hard to determine the levels of
is a fast phenomenon and a generator or group of generators
kinetic and potential energy under certain disturbances.
can potentially lose the synchronism in few seconds after a dis-
Application of curve-tting techniques to predict the future
turbance, depending on their inertia. In order to prevent poten-
behavior of post-disturbance trajectories, especially of the rotor
tial transient instability, it is common practice to provide con-
angles, is another approach used for predicting transient insta-
trols referred as special protection systems (SPSs), which are
bilities [18][20]. Even though the curve-tting methods do not
need the knowledge of the network conguration and parame-
Manuscript received March 02, 2015; revised August 06, 2015; accepted Oc-
ters of power system, they are sensitive to the startup time of
tober 20, 2015. Paper no. TPWRS-00287-2015.
The authors are with the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T5V6, prediction and the sampling period, thus prediction accuracy is
Canada (e-mail: umgurusi@myumanitoba.ca; Athula.Rajapakse@umani- poor. The transient instability can be predicted with post-fault
toba.ca).
power system variables such as voltages, phase angles, real and
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. reactive power injections using classiers trained with various
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2015.2496302 machine learning techniques such as articial neural networks
0885-8950 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
(ANN), decision trees (DT), fuzzy logic, and support vector ma-
chines (SVM) [7], [21][27]. Training of robust classiers ap-
plicable to all operating conditions is a time consuming task
and needs experts well versed in both power system behavior
and machine learning techniques. Power industry is generally
reluctant to apply black-box type machine learning solutions,
especially in real-time control and protection applications. Fig. 1. SMIB system with the initial steady-state power ow solution.
In [7] and [27], post-disturbance recovery voltage magni-
tude measurements have been successfully used to predict the
rotor angle instability status using SVM classiers. In [7], the
measured bus voltages are compared with a set of pre-identi-
ed voltage variation trajectory templates to evaluate a fuzzy
membership that indicate the similarity between the measured
voltage variations and the templates. The similarity values are
input to the trained SVM to make the classication. In contrast,
the SVM in [27] directly uses a sequence of sampled values of
the post disturbance voltages measured at selected buses. The
work in these two references establishes that the post-distur-
bance recovery voltage magnitude measurements have a strong
relationship with the post-disturbance transient stability status
[7], [27]. Based on that premise, a new approach that does not
rely on machine learning is developed in this paper for early Fig. 2. Variations of rotor angle and voltage magnitude following a fault.
prediction of the transient stability status of power system. The
proposed technique monitors the loci of the post-disturbance
requires to be updated in each measurement instant, and this cal-
voltage magnitudes on rate of change of voltage vs. voltage
culation requires the connectivity status of all generators. The
deviation ROCOV plane, and declares instability con-
voltage magnitudes do not need such a reference except for nor-
dition if it crosses a predened boundary. The voltage measure-
malizing to a per unit (pu) quantity [4], [27].
ments are obtained from PMUs. This method is simple to imple-
In order to examine the use of generator terminal voltage
ment and capable of predicting rst-swing transient instabilities
magnitudes as an indicator of the post-disturbance transient in-
as well as multi-swing transient instabilities of a power system
stability of a power system, consider the single machine in-
following a severe disturbance. In addition, the proposed new
nite bus (SMIB) system shown in Fig. 1. It is simulated in
method can recognize the most critical generator(s), which is
PSCAD software with the 555 MVA, 24 kV, 60 Hz, three-phase,
vital for initiating emergency control actions. The proposed ap-
2-pole synchronous generator given in [10]. The parameters of
proach could be implemented as the basis for a response-based
the generator, its excitation system with automatic voltage reg-
WAPaC scheme against transient instability.
ulator (AVR) and power system stabilizer (PSS) are also given
in [10]. When the generator delivers 500 MVA at 0.9 power
II. CONCEPT OF TRANSIENT STABILITY STATUS PREDICTION
factor (lagging) the initial steady-state power ow solution pro-
Rotor angles of generators are the direct indicators of tran- vides the generator terminal voltage as pu. At 1.0
sient stability status of a power system as the energy imbalance s, a three-phase to ground fault is applied at the midpoint (loca-
in a generator due to a perturbation causes the rotor angle vari- tion F) of one of the parallel transmission lines and the fault is
ations [3]. Generator terminal voltage magnitudes are also af- cleared by removing the faulted line. Fig. 2 shows the variations
fected due to a perturbation. Although the terminal voltage of a of the rotor angle and the terminal voltage magnitude obtained
generator does not directly indicate its stability status, the ter- for different fault durations. It is observed that the power system
minal voltage dip during a fault and a slow rate of voltage re- is stable when the fault duration is less than 490 ms whereas the
covery after clearing the fault restrict the generator electrical power system is unstable when it is 500 ms.
power output during the transient period. Thus, the generator Two transient stability indicators investigated in this paper
terminal voltage magnitudes have a critical impact on the tran- are the generator terminal voltage deviation and the rate of
sient stability following a fault and can be used as an indicator change of after clearing a fault. They are calculated as:
of the transient stability status of a power system [4], [7], [27].
As a transient stability status indictor, terminal voltage mag- (1)
nitudes have several advantages over the rotor angles. Time
ROCOV (2)
tagged voltage magnitude measurements can directly be ob-
tained through PMUs installed at the generator terminals. In where is the measured voltage magnitude in pu, and
contrast, the rotor angle of a generator needs to be derived from ROCOV is rate of change of voltage (pu/s). With time syn-
other indirect measurements or measured with a specially de- chronized measurements from PMUs, and ROCOV can be
ployed optical or magnetic sensor [8]. The rotor angles should easily determined. At the measurement:
be expressed relative to a common reference such as the center
of inertia (COI) angle in order to be meaningful. The COI angle ROCOV (3)
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TABLE I
PREDICTION ACCURACY: BASE CASE
TABLE II
PREDICTION ACCURACY: RANDOM CASES
B. RTDS Simulation in the Experimental Setup transient stability status of the power system in this real-time
The aim of this experiment is to validate the algorithm under system.
practical synchrophasor measurements. The arrangement of the 1) Disturbance Detection: The results shown in Fig. 8 vali-
experimental setup is shown in Fig. 7. The 39-bus test system date the disturbance detection logic described in Section III-C.
was implemented in the RTDS real-time simulator. The real- The thresholds and of the detection logic were se-
time simulation model was cross-validated against the phasor- lected considering 5% voltage drop/rise within two consecutive
domain model used in TSAT to ensure accuracy. The RTDS sim- PMU reportings (i.e., and
ulator used in this experiment was equipped with a GTNET at 60 frames/s reporting rate).
hardware board which can emulate 24 PMUs reporting positive In the presented case, a three-phase to ground fault was applied
sequence phasor measurements [31]. The voltage and current at 50% of Line 2-25 and the fault was cleared by removing the
signals at the generator buses in the simulated power system line after 6 cycles. The fault was applied when the coordinated
were input (internally) to the PMU modules. The P-class PMU universal time (UTC) is around 21:22:47.833 and it was cleared
model was selected as it is preferred for the applications re- when UTC is around 21:22:47.933. The variations of the gen-
quiring fast response [8]. A SEL-2407 GPS clock [32] was used erator bus voltage magnitudes as reported by the PMUs and the
to provide inter-range instrumentation group time code format ROCOV values computed from the reported measurements are
B (IRIG-B) time signal to the RTDS simulator via a GTSYNC shown in Fig. 8. The dots on the curves represent the instants at
card. All PMU modules use this signal for time synchronized which the PMUs reported new synchrophasors.
sampling and time stamping. The PMUs in the RTDS were con- It can be observed that the minimum value of ROCOV at
gured to report synchrophasors at 60 fps through a TCP/IP net- 21:22:47.850 (the rst reporting followed by the fault) was less
work. The synchrophasor data were collected by the openPDC than threshold and it was reported by the PMU at
v2.0 [33] PDC, and provided to the transient stability status pre- the generator at bus 37. Thus the disturbance must be close to
diction algorithm. The same transient stability boundaries de- bus 37. During the two consecutive reporting periods after the
termined using TSAT simulations were applied to predict the fault, the voltage magnitude measured at generator bus 37 is
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TABLE III
PREDICTION ACCURACY FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAULTS
TABLE IV
PREDICTION ACCURACY FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAULTS
V. CONCLUSION
A novel synchrophasor based approach for early prediction of
the transient stability status of a power system after being sub-
jected to a severe disturbance was proposed. The method of im-
plementation was described and the algorithm was thoroughly
validated using both ofine simulations and a real-time system.
Based on the results of numerous experiments, it can be con-
cluded that using the post-disturbance trajectories of generator
Fig. 10. (a) Variations of rotor angles and voltage magnitudes, (b) ROCOV vs.
terminal buses on ROCOV plane, stability status of the
for a 6 cycles fault on line 2-25 (50% of the length), (c) enlarged view of system can be determined. The stability boundaries can be deter-
ROCOV vs. plot of generator Gen.-37. mined using phasor-domain dynamic simulations following the
systematic procedure described in the paper. The so determined
boundaries can be directly used for implementing real-time sta-
evaluating its performance under three different topology vari- bility status prediction system, and generally valid for range of
ations from the base case. The topology changes considered operating conditions and under minor topology changes. The
were: proposed technique is computationally simple and fast com-
i) Line 5-8 out of service pared to other rotor angle stability prediction methods. The pro-
ii) Line 22-23 out of service posed technique is capable of early predicting the rst-swing as
iii) Line 25-26 out of service well as multi-swing transient instabilities. Furthermore method
This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
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