EMENg 3131

Electrical Power Systems

Power System Transients, Power
System Stability & Load Flow Studies
Lecture 11:

Yoseph Mekonnen
Page 1
 Chapter Seven

Power System Transients, Power

System Stability & Load Flow Studies

Page 2
 Outline

Introduction
Power system transients
Power system stability

Page 3
 Power System Transients
The transient over voltages which occur on a power
system are either of external origin (for example, a
lightning d is charge) or generated internally by switching
operations.
In general , the transients on transmission systems are
caused by any sudden change in the operating condition or
configuration of the systems .

Page 4
 …contd..
 Internal sources

 Studies have verified that approximately 80% of transient

activity at a given facility is internally generated.
 Internal transient generators range from copiers to coffee
makers, from vacuum cleaners to
variable speed drives, and from fluorescent light ballasts
to furnace igniters.
 Copiers and laser printers, for example, are notorious
transient generators as are heating and
air conditioning systems.
 Any time an inductive load, whether it is a vacuum cleaner or
a heavy duty variable speed drive, is either powered on or off
– it generates a low magnitude surge impulse that propagates
back through the electrical distribution.
Page 5
 Classification of Transients
 Transients are divided into impulsive and oscillatory .
 If the mains signal is removed, the remaining waveform
is the pure component of the transient.
 The transient is classified in the impulsive category
when 77% of the peak-to-peak voltage of the pure
component is of one polarity.
Impulsive and Oscillatory Transients
1. Low Frequency 2. Medium Frequency 1. High Frequency
Rises in 0.1 ms and lasts Last from 50 ns to 1 ms Has duration below 50 ns
more than 1 ms (Impulsive). (Impulsive) (Impulsive).
Contains frequency  Last from 5 to 500 kHz It can ranges between 0.5
components up to 5 kHz (Oscillatory) and 5 MHz (Oscillatory).
(Oscillatory) Does not propagate as easily
Most common transients as the low-frequency types
recorded on a power system. but may cause arcing faults
They can easily propagate. on the system which result in
voltage sag.

Page 6
 Effects of Transients
 Electronic devices may operate at decreased efficiencies.
 Integrated circuits (sometimes called "electronic chips") may fail.
 Motors will run at higher temperatures when transient voltages are
present.
 Transients can interrupt the normal timing of the motor and
result in "micro jogging".
 This type of disruption produces motor vibration, noise, and
excessive heat.
 Transients produce hysteresis losses in motors that increase the
amount of current necessary to operate the motor. Transients can
cause early failures of electronic motor drives and controls.
 Generally results in failure of most of low power equipment.
 Electrical distribution system is also affected by transient activity.
 Transient degrade the contacting surfaces of switches,
disconnects, and circuit breakers.

Page 7
 Power system stability
Transient Stability
The ability of the power system to maintain synchronism
when subjected to a severe transient disturbance such as a
fault on transmission facilities, loss of generation, loss of a
large load.
Steady-state stable Stability
The power system is steady-state stable for a particular
steady-state operating condition if, following a small
disturbance, it returns to essentially the same steady-state
condition of operation.
Steady-state stability studies are usually less extensive in
scope than transient stability studies and often involve a
single machine operating into an infinite bus or just a few
machines undergoing one or m ore small disturbances.
Page 8
 …Contd..
Increase in load is a kind of disturbance.
If increase in loading takes place gradually and in small
steps and the system withstands this change and performs
satisfactorily, then the system is said to be in STEADY
STATE STABILITY.
Thus the study of steady state stability is basically
concerned with the determination of upper limit of
machine’s loading before losing synchronism, provided the
loading is increased gradually at a slow rate.

In practice, load change may not be gradual. Further,

there may be sudden disturbances due to i) Sudden change
of load ii) Switching operation iii) Loss of generation iv)
Fault
Page 9
 …Contd..
For a large disturbance, changes in angular differences
may be so large as to cause the machine to fall out of step.
This type of instability is known as TRANSIENT
INSTABILITY.
Transient stability is a fast phenomenon, usually occurring
within one second for a generator close to the cause of
disturbance.

Short circuit is a severe type of disturbance.

In some cases, the system may be stable even with
sustained fault; whereas in other cases system will be stable
only if the fault is cleared with sufficient rapidity.

Page 10
 …Contd..
Transient stability limit is almost always lower than the
steady state limit and hence it is much important.
Transient stability limit depends on the type of
disturbance, location and magnitude of disturbance.

After every disturbance, the machines must adjust the

relative angles of their rotors to meet the condition of the
power transfer involved.

Page 11
 …Contd..

The angular momentum M depends on the size of the

machine as well as on its type.

Page 12
 Swing equation
The differential equation that relates the angular
momentum M, the acceleration power Pa and the rotor angle
δ is known as SWING EQUATION.
Solution of swing equation will show how the rotor angle
changes with respect to time following a disturbance.
The plot of δ Vs t is called the SWING CURVE.
Once the swing curve is known, the stability of the system
can be assessed.
The flow of mechanical and electrical power in a generator
and motor are shown in Fig

Page 13
 …Contd..

Generator in Fig receives mechanical power Pm at the

shaft torque Ts and the angular speed ω via. shaft from the
prime-mover.
It delivers electrical power Pe to the power system
network via. the bus bars.
The generator develops electromechanical torque Te in
opposition to the shaft torque Ts.

Page 14
 …Contd..
In a generator, accelerating torque acting on the rotor is
given by:

Page 15
 …Contd..

It can be see how the angular displacement θ can be

related to rotor angle δ.

Swing Equation

Page 16
 …Contd..
Swing curves are used to determine the stability of the
system.
If the rotor angle δ reaches a maximum and then
decreases, then it shows that the system has transient
stability.
On the other hand if the rotor angle δ increases
indefinitely, then it shows that the system is unstable.

Page 17
 Stability of generator connected to infinite bus
Complex Power is Given By

Page 18
 …Contd..
Power

Page 19
 Equal Area Criteria
The accelerating power in swing equation will have sine
term.
Therefore the swing equation is non-linear differential
equation and obtaining its solution is not simple.
For two machine system and one machine connected to
infinite bus bar, it is possible to say whether a system has
transient stability or not, without solving the swing equation.
Such criteria which decides the stability, makes use of
equal area in power angle diagram and hence it is known as
EQUAL AREA CRITERION.

Page 20
 …Contd..
Example

Applying equal area criteria before, during and after fault we can get
the graph of power versus angle of the system.
In a stable case, if the fault is cleared at tc1 second, or at angle δc1,
where the area Aa (area associated with acceleration of the generator)
equals the area Ad (area associated with deceleration of the generator).
One can see that the angle reaches its maximum δm at tc1 and never
gets greater than this value.

Page 21
 …Contd..
Example

In the unstable case, the fault is cleared at tc2 second

with the area Aa greater than the area Ad. Also, it is very
clear that for an unstable case, with the fault cleared at tc2
the angle keeps increasing and goes out-of-step, or unstable

Page 22
 Example
Ex

Page 23
 References
1. Power System Analysis (William D. Stevenson & John J.
Grainger)
2. Power System Analysis Hadi Saadat Solution manual.

Page 24
Page 25