Ch.

13 Power System Controls

Prof. Dongjun Won

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Inha University, Incheon, Korea

1
Power System Controls
• Local controls
• Turbine-generator units and selected voltage controlled buses
• Turbine-generator units : Voltage regulator(Exciter), turbine-governor
• Voltage controlled buses : Tap-changing transformers, switched capacitor banks, and static VAR systems

• Central controls
• At area control centers
• Generating unit outputs, area frequency, and tie-line power flows to interconnected areas
• Automatic load-frequency control (LFC) in order to maintain area frequency at its scheduled value (60 Hz)
and net tie-line power flow out of the area at its scheduled value
• Reference power signals are dispatched to the turbine-governors of controlled units.

2
Power System Controls
EMS

3
Power System Controls
• Voltage regulator (Exciter)
• adjusts the power output of the exciter in order to control the magnitude of generator terminal voltage 𝑉𝑡 .
• When a reference voltage 𝑉𝑟𝑒𝑓 is raised (or lowered), the output voltage 𝑉𝑟 of the regulator increases (or decreases) the
exciter voltage 𝐸𝑓𝑑 applied to the generator field winding, which in turn acts to increase (or decrease) 𝑉𝑡
• If 𝑉𝑡 decreases, the voltage regulator increases 𝑉𝑟 to increase 𝐸𝑓𝑑 , which in turn acts to increase 𝑉𝑡

• Governor
• adjusts the steam valve position to control the mechanical power output 𝑃𝑚 of the turbine.
• When a reference power level 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑓 is raised (or lowered), the governor moves the steam valve in the open (or close)
direction to increase (or decrease) 𝑃𝑚 .
• The governor also monitors rotor speed ω𝑚
• Neglecting losses, if 𝑃𝑚 is greater than 𝑃𝑒 , ω𝑚 increases, the governor moves the steam valve in the close direction to
reduce 𝑃𝑚 .

4
Power System Controls
• How a typical area meets its daily load cycle.
• Base load : By base-loaded generators running at 100% of their rating for 24 hours. Nuclear units
and large fossil-fuel units are typically base-loaded.
• Variable part of the load : By units that are controlled from the central control center. Medium-sized
fossil-fuel units and hydro units are used for control.
• During peak load hours : smaller, less efficient units such as gas-turbine or diesel-generating units
• Generators operating at partial output (with spinning reserve) and standby generators provide a
reserve margin.

5
13.1 Generator-Voltage Control
• Exciter
• Delivers dc power to the field winding on the rotor of a synchronous generator
• IEEE Type 1 exciter, which uses a shaft-driven dc generator to create the field current
• The leftmost block represents the delay associated with measuring the terminal voltage 𝑉𝑡
• The voltage regulator is modeled as an amplifier with gain 𝐾𝑎 and a time constant 𝑇𝑎
• The last forward block represents the dynamics of the exciter’s dc generator.
• The output is the field voltage 𝐸𝑓𝑑 , which is applied to the generator field winding and acts to adjust
the generator terminal voltage as in (12.6.5).
• The feedback block is used to improve the dynamic response of the exciter by reducing excessive
overshoot.

6
13.1 Generator-Voltage Control
• Wind turbines
• Type 1 wind turbines (squirrel cage induction machines) : have no direct voltage control.

• Type 2 wind turbines (wound rotor induction machines with variable external resistance) : While they do not
have direct voltage control, the external resistance control system is usually modeled as a type of exciter.

• The purpose for this control is to allow for a more constant power output from the wind turbine.

7
13.1 Generator-Voltage Control
• Wind turbines
• Type 3 and 4 wind turbines have the ability to perform voltage or reactive power control.
• Common control modes include constant power factor control, coordinated control across a wind farm
to maintain a constant voltage at the interconnection point, and constant reactive power control
• For fixed reactive power 𝑄𝑐𝑚𝑑 is a constant, while for power factor control, 𝑄𝑐𝑚𝑑 varies linearly with
the real power output.

8
13.2 Turbine-Governor Control
• Turbine-governor
• Adjusts the steam valve position to control the mechanical power output 𝑝𝑚 of the turbine.
• When a reference power level 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑓 is raised (or lowered), the governor moves the steam valve in the
open (or close) direction to increase (or decrease) 𝑝𝑚 .
• Frequency–power relation

R: Regulation constant (Droop coefficient)

9
13.2 Turbine-Governor Control
• Steady-state frequency–power relation for one area of an interconnected power system can be determined by summing
(13.2.1) for each turbine-generating unit in the area.

(13.2.2)

• Area frequency response characteristic 𝛽

(13.2.3)

• Area steady-state frequency–power relation

(13.2.4)
Units of 𝛽 are MW/Hz when ∆𝑓 is in Hz and ∆𝑝𝑚 is in MW.

• The larger the size of the interconnected system, the better the frequency response since there are more generators to
share the task. However, owners/operators of generator units want to prevent effective governing response for
economic reasons.
10
13.2 Turbine-Governor Control
• Simple steam turbine governor commonly known as the TGOV1 model.

• Wind turbines can be controlled by changing the pitch angle of the blades.

• For wind above the rating for the turbine, its blades are pitched to limit the mechanical power delivered to the electric
machine. When the available power is less than the machine’s rating, the pitch angle is set to its minimum.
11
Example 13.3
• Turbine-governor response to frequency change at a generating unit
• A 500-MVA, 60-Hz turbine-generator has a regulation constant R = 0.05 per unit based on its own rating.
• If the generator frequency increases by 0.01 Hz in steady-state, what is the decrease in turbine
mechanical power output? Assume a fixed reference power setting.

12
Example 13.4
• Response of turbine-governors to a load change in an interconnected power system
• An interconnected 60-Hz power system consists of one area with three turbine generator units rated 1000, 750,
and 500 MVA, respectively.
• The regulation constant of each unit is R = 0.05 per unit based on its own rating. Each unit is initially operating at
one-half of its own rating, when the system load suddenly increases by 200 MW.
• Determine
• the per-unit area frequency response characteristic 𝛽 on a 1000 MVA system base
• the steady-state drop in area frequency
• the increase in turbine mechanical power output of each unit.
• Assume that the reference power setting of each turbine-generator remains constant. Neglect losses and the
dependence of load on frequency.

13
Example 13.4

14
13.3 Load-Frequency Control
• LFC objectives for an interconnected power system
1) Following a load change, each area should assist in returning the steady-state frequency error ∆f to zero
2) Each area should maintain the net tie-line power flow out of the area at its scheduled value, in order for the area to absorb
its own load changes

• Area control error (ACE)

(13.3.1)

• the ACE for each area consists of a linear combination of tie-line error ∆𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑒 and frequency error ∆𝑓 .
• The constant Bf is called a frequency bias constant.

• Change in reference power setting, ∆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑖 , of each turbine-governor operating

(13.3.2)

• The ACE given by (13.3.1) is computed and a percentage of the ACE is allocated to each
controlled turbine-generator unit.
15
13.3 Load-Frequency Control
(13.3.2)

• Time intervals : two or more seconds in order to adjust the reference power settings
• As the commands accumulate, the integral action in (13.3.2) is achieved.
• When a load change occurs in any area, a new steady-state operation can be obtained only
after the power output of every turbine-generating unit in the interconnected system reaches a
constant value.
• This occurs only when all reference power settings are zero, which in turn occurs only when the
ACE of every area is zero.
• Furthermore, the ACE is zero in every area only when both ∆𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑒 and ∆𝑓 are zero.
• Therefore, in steady-state, both LFC objectives are satisfied
• Frequency bias 𝐵𝑓 should be high enough such that each area adequately contributes to
frequency control.
• Integrator gain 𝐾𝑖 should not be too high; otherwise, instability may result.
16
13.3 Load-Frequency Control
• During emergencies, when large imbalances between generation and load occur, LFC is
bypassed and other emergency controls are applied.
• Coordination of economic dispatch with LFC
• Both the LFC and economic dispatch objectives are achieved by adjusting the reference power settings of turbine-
governors on control.
• In practice, raise or lower signals are dispatched to the units at discrete time intervals of 2 to 10 seconds
• The desired outputs 𝑃𝑖𝐷 of units on control, typically every 2 to 10 minutes.

17
Example 13.5
• Response of LFC to a load change in an interconnected power system
• As shown in Figure 13.12, a 60-Hz power system consists of two interconnected areas.
• Area 1 has 2000 MW of total generation and an area frequency response characteristic 𝛽1 = 700
MW/Hz. Area 2 has 4000 MW of total generation and 𝛽2 = 1400 MW/Hz.
• Each area is initially generating one-half of its total generation, at ∆𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑒1 = ∆𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑒2 = 0 and at 60 Hz
when the load in area 1 suddenly increases by 100 MW.
• Determine the steady-state frequency error ∆𝑓 and the steady-state tie-line error ∆𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑒 of each area for
the following two cases:
a. Without LFC, and
b. With LFC given by (13.3.1) and (13.3.2).
• Neglect losses and the dependence of load on frequency

18
13.4 Power System Stabilizer Control
• Faster and continuously acting exciters resulted in the development of power system
oscillations at frequencies in the range of between 0.1 and 5 Hz
• The oscillatory part of a power system signal is y(t), and the mode’s present damping is:
𝑞
−𝜎𝑖
𝑦 𝑡 = ෍ 𝐴𝑖 𝑒 𝜎𝑖 𝑡 cos(𝜔𝑖 𝑡 + 𝜙𝑖 ) (13.4.1) 𝜉𝑖 = × 100 (13.4.2)
𝑖=1 𝜎𝑖2 + 𝜔𝑖2
• Common way to increase the modal damping: modulate the synchronous generator exciter
voltage input through the use of a power system stabilizer (PSS)
• In order to provide increased damping, the PSS output must provide torque that is in phase with the speed
variation
• Since the PSS input is applied as an exciter input, the PSS must account for the gain and phase lag characteristics
of the generator, exciter, and power system
1 − sin 𝜙 1
𝛼= (13.4.3) 𝑇1 = , 𝑇2 = 𝛼𝑇1 (13.4.4)
1 + sin 𝜙 𝜔𝑑 𝛼

19