LAB3 – SOLVING FOR OUTAGES

EE461: POWER SYSTEMS

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

PURPOSE: The purpose of this lab is to introduce how to solve for outages in the
power system. This lab will focus on performing a power flow study by manually
creating outages, solving the system and recording the effects of the individual outages.
This lab will introduce the following aspects:

Loading a Slider file (*.sld)

Interpreting a power flow analysis

Creating an outage

Solving for outages

To properly perform this lab, start PSS/E and open the sample.sav file. Refer to Lab 1 on
how to do this.

Loading a slider file (*.sld)

After the sample.sav file is displayed, select open on the toolbar.

The open dialog box will be displayed, and will automatically narrow the search to *.sav
file types. To load a slider (*.sld) file, simply change the file type to a “Slider Binary
File (*.sld)” and select the slider file created in Lab 2.

The slider file created in lab 2 should be displayed on the screen and should be similar to
the figure shown below: If the data on the branches is grayed out, the system needs to be
solved. PSS/E grays out the data to let the user know that the system needs to be solved.
Simply solve the system as shown in Lab 2.

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

Interpreting a power flow analysis

With the slider file open and the system solved, display the current loading percentages.
This process was explained in Lab 2. Once the current loadings are displayed and the
system is solved the slider will be similar to the one below:

PSS/E automatically displays the current

Creating and solving for outages

Now take one line at the time, solve it, and display it with current loadings.
Go ahead right click on the desired bus/line, from which you will see the following menu.

This view makes it possible to pinpoint where possible overloads and/or problems may
exist in the system. By inspecting the branch between Bus #151 (NUCPLANT) and Bus
#201 (HYDRO), it can be seen that this branch is operating at 50% of its rated capacity.
Looking at the branch between Bus#152 (MID500) and Bus #3021 (WDUM), it can be
seen that the branch is operating at 127% of its rated capacity. Overloaded percentages

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

are shown in dark red. This is because the branch is running much higher than its rated
capacity and requires immediate attention to avoid permanent damage to the branch
and/or the equipment. At the end of this lab, a results table is provided. Fill out the first
row, labeled “No Outages”, with the current ratings of each branch from the figure above.

Creating an outage

It is important to see how the system is reacting in its base case with everything fully
functional. However, it is necessary to investigate how the system will react if an outage
occurs. To do this, it is necessary to deliberately take a bus, branch or piece of equipment
out of service and investigate its impact on the rest of the system.

In order to switch out a bus, branch or piece of equipment, select the item to be switched
out by right clicking on the device and selecting “Switch” from the menu box as shown in
the image below:

**REMEMBER: The data file (*.sav) and slider (*.sld) diagram are interconnected,
therefore deleting a bound item from a diagram removes it from the *.sav data file
and will result in analysis corruption. This means that if a change is made to either
of the files the other will be affected. To avoid possible corruption of the data file,
the “bind items” feature should be turned off. This is done by right clicking on a
bus and clicking on bind items.

Now switch Bus #101 (NUCA) out of service.

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

Notice when a device is switched out of service it turns into dotted lines and the one-line
diagram is grayed out. The dotted lines indicate that the items are not in service and
when the system has been grayed out it has been changed and needs to be solved again.

Now solve the system.

Record the current ratings for each branch in the second row, marked “101 NUC-A” in
the table provided at the end of this lab.

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

In order to switch an item back into service, left click the switched out item to select it,
right click and select “Switch” just as before. Now, switch Bus #101 (NUC-A) back on
and solve the system. Everything should look as it did before the bus was switched out.

Next, switch Bus #102 (NUC-B) out of service and solve the system.

Record all of the current ratings in the appropriate row of the results table and then switch
the bus back into service.

Repeat this for each bus in the system and record all of the ratings in the Results Table.

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

Note: When some buses are switched out, you will receive the following error message.

Click OK and switch the device back into service. Fill in the corresponding row in the
results table with N/A for each column on each of the buses that display this message
upon being switched out.

This is because; there can be multiple islands each of which contains a system swing bus,
with DC links connecting them. PSS/E performs the required bus type code and branch
status flag changes to disconnect all buses that were listed as not tied back to a swing bus.
Any in service dc lines connected to such buses are blocked. Any in-service series
FACTS devices connected to such buses are placed out-of-service. This process is
repeated for each island.

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

Questions
The “sample.sav” data file as well as the “lab2.sld” slider file must be open to perform
this section of the lab.

As was mentioned before, this process can be done on branches and equipment as well as
on buses. With all buses switched on and the system solved for, select the generator
connected to Bus #101 (NUC-A), switch it out and solve for the system.

1) What is the difference between just switching out the generator and switching out
bus #101? __________ _____ ____
Why is this? ________ _ __

Switch the generator back on and solve for the system. Now, switch off the branch
between Bus #151 and #201 and solve the system. You might need to remove the current
rating boxes to do this, just turn them back on once the branch is switched off.

2) What is the difference between just switching out the branch and switching out
bus #201? __ ________ _____ ____
Why is this? ________ _ __

Now switch the branch back on and switch off the transformer between Bus #152 and
#153 and solve.

3) What is the difference between just switching out the transformer and switching
out bus #153? __________ ____ ____
Why is this? ________ _ __

Now switch the transformer back on and switch off the load connected to Bus #153 and
solve.

4) What is the difference between just switching out the load and switching out bus
#153? ____ ______ ____ ____
Why is this? ________ _ __

Now switch the load back on and switch off the load connected to Bus #152 and solve.

5) What is the difference between just switching out this load and switching out the
load connected to bus #153? ____ _____ _ ___
Why is there such a large increase of power flow on the branch between bus #152
and #153? ________ _ _

6) Looking at the table you have completed, which bus being switched out had the
most negative impact on the system? ____ ____ ____
What would indicate this? ____ __ __ __

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 Lab 3 – Solving For Outages

7) Which bus being switched out had the least negative impact on the system? _ _
____ _ _
What would indicate this? ____ __ __ __

Answer these questions and display the results in the table given below.

Results Table
BRANCHES / 101 - GEN - 102 - GEN - 151 - 151 - 151 - 152 - 152 - 152 - 152 - 152 -
OUTAGES 151 101 151 102 152 152 201 153 202 3004 3021 3022
NO
OUTAGES
101
NUC-A
102
NUC-B
151
NUCPLANT
152
MID500
153
MID230
201
HYDRO
202
EAST500
3004
WEST
3021
WDUM
3022
EDUM

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