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Particle Swarm Optimization Optimized

Controller for Static Synchronous Series
Compensator to Improve Torsional
Damping
a a a
Chetan Kotwal , G. N. Pillai & H. O. Gupta
a
Department of Electrical Engineering , Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee , Roorkee, India
Published online: 01 Oct 2010.

To cite this article: Chetan Kotwal , G. N. Pillai & H. O. Gupta (2010) Particle Swarm Optimization
Optimized Controller for Static Synchronous Series Compensator to Improve Torsional Damping,
Electric Power Components and Systems, 38:12, 1338-1352, DOI: 10.1080/15325001003670944

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 Electric Power Components and Systems, 38:1338–1352, 2010
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1532-5008 print/1532-5016 online
DOI: 10.1080/15325001003670944

Particle Swarm Optimization Optimized Controller

for Static Synchronous Series Compensator to
Improve Torsional Damping

CHETAN KOTWAL,1 G. N. PILLAI,1 and H. O. GUPTA 1

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1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Roorkee, Roorkee, India

Abstract This article uses particle swarm optimization, one of the derivative-free
optimization techniques, to optimize the proportional-integral controller parameters
of the DC-link voltage controller of a 48-pulse static synchronous series compensator.
This particle-swarm-optimization-based proportional-integral controller is used to
keep the voltage across the DC-link capacitor of a 48-pulse voltage-source-inverter-
based static synchronous series compensator constant. The particle swarm opti-
mization approach avoids the repeated trials that are needed in a trial-and-error
approach to obtain near-optimum proportional-integral controller parameters. An
objective function is proposed, which helps to improve the damping of modes near
to the imaginary axis. The study system considered is the IEEE first benchmark
model for sub-synchronous resonance. The stability of the system is determined from
eigenvalue analysis. The article also shows that an optimized proportional-integral
controller can improve the performance of the system with lower value of DC-link
capacitor. Non-linear simulations are performed to verify the results of eigenvalue
analysis.

Keywords static synchronous series compensator, torsional interaction, sub-

synchronous resonance, eigenvalue analysis, non-linear simulation, particle swarm
optimization

1. Introduction
Series capacitors have been widely used in long transmission lines in order to compensate
for their large inductive reactance, which would otherwise limit the amount of power
that can be transferred down the line. Series capacitor compensation also improves the
transient stability and voltage regulation of the line. However, the extent to which a
transmission line can be compensated with series capacitance is often severely restricted
by concerns for the destructive effects of sub-synchronous resonance (SSR). Because of
the progress in high-power electronics, several flexible AC transmission system (FACTS)
controllers have been introduced, which can provide unprecedented flexibility aimed at
maximizing the utilization of transmission assets efficiently and reliably.
The static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) is a series FACTS device that
produces, with an appropriate control system, a balanced set of three-phase controllable

Received 6 May 2009; accepted 21 January 2010.

Address correspondence to Dr. Gopi Natha Pillai, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247 667, India. E-mail: gopinath.pillai@gmail.com

1338
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1339

voltages that are in quadrature with the transmission line current. The SSSC has two
modes of operation. If the SSSC voltage is a function of the transmission line current,
the SSSC operates in constant reactance mode. When the SSSC voltage is independent
of the line current, the SSSC operates in constant quadrature voltage mode. Fundamental
principles, characteristics, and potential benefits of the SSSC were described in [1].
Modeling and control of a 48-pulse converter were presented in [2]. The torsional
characteristic of an SSSC-compensated power system was studied in [3]. In [2], a simple
proportional-integral (PI) controller is used for the DC-link capacitor of the fundamental
frequency model of a voltage-source-converter-based SSSC. The benefit of adding an
SSSC in a fixed capacitor-compensated power system was studied in [4]. In [5], similar
studies led to the conclusion that a combination of an SSSC and a capacitor is more
economical in series compensation.
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In previous studies [1–5], the PI parameters of the DC-link voltage controller of

the SSSC are obtained using a trial-and-error method. In this article, a derivative-free
optimization method particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used for selecting the optimum
parameters of the DC-link voltage controller. The evaluation function is chosen so that
it gives more weightage to the eigenvalues near the imaginary axis of the s-plane. It
preserves the sign of the output.
The article is organized as follows. In Section 2, a complete model of the SSSC-
compensated power system is presented. In Section 3, an overview of PSO is given,
and in Section 4, a PSO-based PI controller implementation is given. The results of
eigenvalue analysis and non-linear digital simulation using power system aided design/
electromagnetic transient for DC (PSCAD/EMTDC) are given in Section 5.

2. Power System Modeling

In an SSSC, a synchronous voltage source (SVS) is implemented by a gate turn-off
thyristor (GTO) based voltage source inverter (VSI) that is driven by a DC storage
capacitor. The SVS can produce a set of alternating voltages that are approximately
sinusoidal at the desired fundamental frequency with controllable amplitude and phase
angle [1]. It can, therefore, generate or absorb reactive power when tied to an electrical
power system, as shown in Figure 1. The SVS for power transmission applications can

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of an SSSC-compensated transmission system.

 1340 C. Kotwal et al.

be implemented by various static power converters using semiconductor switches of

suitable rating and characteristics. Usually the 6n-step (n D 1; 2; : : : ) VSIs are used
for realizing the SVS. In this configuration, a total n numbers of identical, elementary,
six-step inverters are operated from a common DC bus, each to produce a compatible
set of three-phase, quasi-square wave output voltage waveforms. These output voltages
are shifted in time from each other by a predetermined phase angle. These voltage
waveforms are combined via an appropriate magnetic structure to produce the multi-step
output. In this way, the major families of harmonics present in the constituent waves are
canceled out.
In an SSSC, the SVS is connected in series with the transmission line through an
interfacing transformer, as shown in Figure 1. When the injected series voltage is in phase
quadrature with the line current, the SSSC imitates the behavior of a series capacitor. An
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SVS can be built with a multi-pulse or multi-level VSI. In this article, it is built with a
multi-pulse VSI.
The multi-pulse inverter can be obtained from the combination of several six-
pulse inverter modules switching at the desired fundamental frequency. Three-phase
converters switching at the fundamental frequency are known as a six-pulse inverter.
A 12-pulse inverter is made up from two 6-pulse inverters. In this case, the successive
inverter-transformers must have a phase difference of 30ı .
A 24-pulse inverter can be obtained by adding two 12-pulse inverters. In this case,
the successive inverter-transformers must have a phase difference of 15ı . In a similar
way, a 6q-step inverter can be built by making a phase shift of 360ı=6q between the
successive inverter-transformers. A 48-pulse inverter will require eight 6-pulse inverters
along with suitable magnetic circuits.
The successive inverter phase shift is 7.5ı . The main problem with the six-pulse
inverter is the presence of lower order harmonics (fifth and seventh harmonics are
dominant). This can be resolved by using a 12-pulse converter. The minimum harmonics
level will be of the 11th and 13th numbers. The fifth and seventh harmonics will get
eliminated by suitable secondary winding connections of two transformers. The minimum
harmonics in a 48-pulse inverter are the 47th and 49th. All the lower-order harmonics
are completely eliminated.
Figure 2 shows the arrangement of the magnetic circuit along with eight 6-pulse
inverters for getting a 48-pulse multi-pulse VSI.
The series-compensated IEEE first benchmark model for SSR analysis is shown
in Figure 3 [6], which consists of a generator, turbine, and the SSSC-compensated
transmission network. L and R represent the inductance and resistance of the transmission
line, respectively, and L2 represents the leakage inductance of the transformer connected
at the infinite bus bar. In a multi-machine system, different plants are interconnected via
transmission lines in different areas. These plants will have different resonant frequencies
with their own fixed series-compensated lines. As all these plants will have different
resonant frequencies, it will damp other oscillations. The resonant condition is more
severe only when a plant ends up in a radial mode through a long series-compensated
line [7]. In this article, the study mainly concentrates on torsional interaction, the electro-
mechanical phenomena under an SSR. Hence, for a single-machine infinite-bus system,
an example of a radial system is chosen here for studying the effect of a VSI-based SSSC
on torsional interaction damping.
The generator electrical and mechanical equations are described by a 16th-order state
space representation [3]. The turbine-generator shaft is modeled as six rotational masses
(low pressure A [LPA], low pressure B [LPB], high pressure [HP], intermediate pressure
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1341
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Figure 2. Schematic diagram of a 48-pulse multi-pulse VSI.

[IP] turbine, generator, and exciter mass) with torsional springs. The lineralized equations
of the generator including a mechanical system are given by

XPG D AG XG C BG uG ; (1)

yG D CG xG ; (2)

 1342 C. Kotwal et al.

Figure 3. Single-line diagram of an SSSC-compensated power system.

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where the state vector is given by

xGT DŒ d q Ed0 Eq0 ıg Se Tg;e Sg TLPB;g

SLPB TLPA;LPB SLPA TIP;LPA SIP THP;IP SHP :

In the state vector, ‰ denotes the stator flux linkage, E’ denotes the transient internal
voltage, ıg is the rotor angle, S denotes per unit slip, and T denotes the torque. The
six-mass mechanical system contains the generator (g), exciter (e), LPB, LPA, IP, and
HP turbine shafts. The torque between these shafts is indicated by subscripts. The input
vector contains the terminal voltages, and the output vector contains the armature (line)
currents. They are given by

uTG D ŒVD VQ  and yGT D ŒILD ILQ :

It is to be noted that the generator electrical quantities are represented in a d -q domain

with respect to the synchronously rotating frame of the generator. The input and output
quantities, however, are transformed with respect to a common reference D-Q frame for
the entire system [8].
The SSSC consists of a 48-pulse VSI, its magnetic circuit and an interfacing trans-
former [2]. The series inductance Lr of Figure 3 accounts for the leakage of the inter-
facing transformer and transformers in the magnetic structure of the 48-pulse inverter,
while the conduction losses of the inverter and transformer are represented by Rr .
The equivalent circuit of the 48-step inverter is shown in Figure 4. The AC side
representation is given in Figure 4(a), while the DC side is given in Figure 4(b). In this
figure, Lr and Rr are the magnetic circuit leakage inductance and inverter resistance,

Figure 4. Equivalent representation of a 48-step inverter: (a) AC side and (b) DC side.
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1343

respectively, Rdc D .Roff C Ron /=24 (as there are 24 legs in parallel), and Cdc is the
capacitance of the DC storage capacitor.
The dynamics of the DC capacitor is given by
 
0 Vdc d
idc D .ir C icap / D C Cdc Vdc : (3)
Rdc dt

Rearranging gives
 
d 1 0 1
Vdc D idc C Vdc : (4)
dt Cdc Rdc Cdc

On the AC side of the VSI, assuming that output is pure sine wave (with the 47th
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harmonics as a minimum), the three-phase voltages are given by

p p  
16 3 16 3 2
va 0 D  Vdc sin.!t C f /; vb 0 D  Vdc sin !t C f ;
  3
p  
16 3 2
vc 0 D  Vdc sin !t C C f ; (5)
 3

where  is the transformation ratio of interfacing transformer, and f is a phase difference

between injected voltage and infinite bus (reference bus).
Assuming zero power loss for the VSI,

DC power D AC power.

The dynamics between the AC and DC current are given by

p   
0 16 3 2
idc D  sin.!t C f /iLa C sin !t C f iLb
 3
  
2
C sin !t C C f iLc : (6)
3

Normalized per unit equations of the SSSC in the DQ frame [3] are
2 !Rr 3
! 1 sin f
2 3 Xr 7 2 3
iD iD
6
6 7
d 6 7 6 !Rr 7 6 7
4 iQ 5 D 6 ! 1 cos f 7 C 4 iQ 5
7
dt 6 Xr
Vdc Vdc
6 7
4 !xdc 5
2 sin f 2 cos f
Rdc
2! 3
0 0 2 3
6 Xr 7 VtD
6 ! 76
C6 07 4VtQ 5 ; (7)
7
6 0
7
4 Xr 5 0
0 0 1
 1344 C. Kotwal et al.
p p
where Xr D !Lr , 1 D 3!=Xr , 2 D 3!=Xdc , iLD , and iLQ are the D- and Q-
axis components of line currents iLa , iLb , and iLc , respectively. Further, VtD and VtQ
are D- and Q-axis components of the terminal voltage. The 48-step VSI is supplied
by a DC storage capacitor with a capacitance of Cdc , and its reactance is given by
Xdc D 1=!Cdc . The angle ‚f is the phase displacement of the inverter voltage with
respect to the infinite bus. This is the control variable that is used for controlling the
SSSC.
When the SSSC is connected to the power system, Kirchhoff’s voltage law can
be written for the entire network including the machine terminal and the infinite bus
voltage [3]. The resulting equation is similar to the one given in Eq. (7) except that Xr is
replaced by XT , and Rr is replaced by RT , where XT D .L C Lr /! and RT D R C Rr
are the total reactance and resistance, respectively (see Figure 3). By making the above
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replacements,
2 !R 3
T
2 3 6 xT !  3 sin  f
72 3
iD 6 7 iD
d 6 7 6 6 !RT 76 7
i
4 Q5 6 !D 3 cos f 7 7 4 iQ 5
dt xT
Vdc V
6 7
4 !xdc 5 dc
2 sin f 2 cos f
Rdc
2! 3
0 0 2 3
6 xT 7 VD VD1
6 ! 7
C6 07 4VQ VQ1 5 ; (8)
76 7
6 0
4 xT 5 0
0 0 1
p
where 3 D 3!=XT , VD1 , and VQ1 are the D- and Q-axis components of the infinite
bus voltage. After linearizing, Eq. (8) can be decomposed into two parts:
XT
uG D yG C FyG C FS xN C FC f ; (9)
!
xN D AN xN C BN yG C BC f ; (10)

where
" #
RT XT p p
F D ; FS D Œ 3 sin f 0 ; 3 cos f 0 T ;
XT RT
p p
FC D Œ 3Vdc0 cos f 0 ; 3Vdc0 sin f 0 T ;
p
 
!Xdc
AN D ; BN D 3!Xdc Œsin f 0 ; cos f 0 ;
Rdc
p
BC D Œ 3!Xdc .iD0 cos f 0 iQ0 sin f 0 /; xN D Vdc :

Substituting the values of uG and yG in Eqs. (1) and (10), the overall system equations
can be written [8] as
XP D AX C BU; (11)
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1345

where
XT D ŒXG ; XN ; u D f :

The A and B matrices are

2   3
XT
6 AG C BG H F CG C ! CG AG BG HFs 7
ŒAsys  D 4 B 5
BN CG AN

and
XT
B D ŒBG HFC BC T
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and H DI ŒCG ŒBG :

!

3. Overview of PSO
Different variants of the PSO algorithm were proposed, but the most standard was
introduced by Shi and Eberhart [9]. The key attractive feature of PSO is its simplicity, as
it involves only two model equations. In PSO, the coordinates of each particle represent a
possible solution associated with two vectors—the position (x) and velocity (v) vectors.
The size of vectors x and v is equal to the problem space dimension. A swarm consists of
number of particles “or possible solutions” that proceed (fly) through the feasible solution
space to explore optimal solutions. Each particle updates its position based on its own
best exploration; best swarm overall experience, and its previous velocity vector [10].
The PSO concept consists of, at each time step, changing the velocity of each
particle toward its pbest and gbest locations. Acceleration is weighted by a random term,
with separate random numbers being generated for acceleration toward pbest and gbest
locations. For example, the j th particle is represented as xj;g D .xj;1 ; xj;2 ; xj;3; : : : ; xj;g /
in the g-dimensional space. The best previous position of the j th particle is recorded
and represented as pbest D .pbestj;1 ; pbestj;2 ; pbestj;3 ; : : : ; pbestj;g /. The index of the best
particle among all of the particles in the group is represented by gbestg . The rate of
the position change (velocity) for particle j is represented as vj D .vj;1 ; vj;2 ; : : : ; vj;g /.
The modified velocity and position of each particle can be calculated using the current
velocity and the distance from pbestj;g to gbestg , as shown in the following formulas:
.tC1/ .t/ .t/ .t/
vj;g D w  vj;g C c1  rand. /  .pbestj;g xj;g / C c2  Rand. /  .gbestg xj;g /
(12)
.tC1/ .t/ .tC1/
xj;g D xj;g C vj;g (13)

j D 1; 2; 3; : : : ; n g D 1; 2; 3; : : : ; m

where
n is the number of particles in a group,
m is the number of members in a particle,
t is the pointer of iterations (generations),
.t/ .t/
vj;g is the velocity of particle j at iteration t.vgmin  vj;g  vgmax /,
w is the inertia weight factor,
 1346 C. Kotwal et al.

c1 and c2 are acceleration constants,

rand. / and Rand. / are random numbers between 0 and 1,
.t/
xj;g is the current position of the particle at the j th iteration,
pbest;j is the pbest of particle j , and
gbest is the gbest of the group.
In the above procedures, the parameter V max determines the resolution, or fitness,
with which regions are searched between the present position and the target position. If
it is too high, particles might fly past good solutions. If it is too small, particles may not
explore sufficiently beyond local solutions [11].
In many experiences with PSO, V max was often set at 10–20% of the dynamic range
of the variable on each dimension. The constants c1 and c2 represent the weighting of
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the stochastic acceleration terms that pull each particle toward pbest and gbest positions.
Low values allow particles to roam far from the target regions before being tugged back.
On the other hand, high values result in an abrupt movement toward, or past, target
regions. Hence, the acceleration constants c1 and c2 were often set to be 2.0 according
to past experience. Suitable selection of inertia weight w in Eq. (14) provides a balance
between global and local explorations, thus requiring fewer iterations on average to find
a sufficiently optimal solution. As originally developed, w often decreases linearly from
about 0.9 to 0.4 during a run. In general, the inertia weight is set according to the
following equation:
 
wmax wmin
w D wmax x iter; (14)
itermax

where itermax is the maximum number of iterations (generations), and iter is the current
number of iterations.

4. PSO-PI Controller Implementation

The block diagram of a closed-loop system with PI controller is shown in Figure 5. The
voltage across the DC-link capacitor is compared with reference DC voltage, and the error
is fed to a PI controller to produce a manipulated variable optimized with PSO algorithm.
The output is in terms of f . The closed-loop transfer function of the complete
system with PI controller is of the 18th order.
The PI controller will retain the charge on the DC capacitor (DC-link capacitor
of VSI) and inject a voltage in quadrature with the line current. The magnitude of the

Figure 5. Block diagram of system with PI controller.

 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1347

output voltage of the VSI can be varied by phase angle control of the injected voltage,
which establishes a momentary real power exchange to charge and discharge the DC-link
capacitor. Taking the state variable Vdc as the output, the output equation is written as

Y D Œ0 0 0


0 1X D CX: (15)

The system in Eqs. (11) and (15) completely discusses the SSSC-compensated power
system, which can be used for controller design. The system is of the 17th order, and
the equations in the form of XP D AX C BU are given below:

Ra !B Ra !B 0
X.1/ D .1 C Sg / Eq !B cos.ıg /VD C !B sin.ıg /VQ ;
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d q C
xd0 xd0
(16)

Ra !B Ra !B 0
X.2/ D .1 C Sg /!B d q Ed !B sin.ıg /VD !B cos.ıg /VQ ;
xq0 xq0
(17)
!
1 xq 1 xq 0
X.3/ D 1 q E ; (18)
0
Tqo xq0 0
Tqo xq0 d

 
1 xd 1 xd 0 1
X.4/ D 1 d Eq C 0 Efd ; (19)
Td0 o xd0 Td0 o0
xd Td o

X.5/ D !B Sg ; (20)

De 1
X.6/ D Se C Tge ; (21)
2He 2He

X.7/ D Kge !B .Se Sg /; (22)

1 Dg 1 1
X.8/ D Tge Sg TLPB g Te ; (23)
2Hg 2Hg 2Hg 2Hg

X.9/ D KLPB g !B .Sg SLPB /; (24)

1 DLPB 1
X.10/ D SLPB SLPB TLPA LPB ; (25)
2HLPB 2HLPB 2HLPB

X.11/ D KLPA LPB !B .SLPB SLPA /; (26)

1 DLPB 1
X.12/ D SLPB SLPB TLPA LPB ; (27)
2HLPB 2HLPB 2HLPB

X.13/ D KIP LPA !B .SLPA SIP /; (28)

 1348 C. Kotwal et al.

1 DIP 1
X.14/ D TIP LPA SIP THP IP ; (29)
2HIP 2HIP 2HIP

X.15/ D KHP IP !B .SIP SHP /; (30)

1 DHP
X.16/ D THP IP SHP ; (31)
2HHP 2HHP
p p !Xdc
X.17/ D 3!Xdc sin.f /iD C 3!Xdc cos.f /iQ Vdc : (32)
Rdc

The PI controller parameters kp and ki are selected to maximize the negative real part
of the eigenvalues corresponding to torsional modes.
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The performance criterion W .k/ is defined by

X  1 3
W .k/stabilizing D max ;
g

where (k) is Œkp ; ki ; g is the poles of the system transfer function; and g is the number
of torsional modes (mode 4 to mode 1) and swing mode (mode 0) values. This objective
function will increase the damping of modes close to the imaginary axis and give less
weightage to the eigenvalues far away from the imaginary axis in the left half of the s-
plane. To preserve the same sign, the third-order term is considered in the above objective
function. The real part gives the damping, and the imaginary part gives the frequency in
rad/sec. For stability of the system the real part should be more negative.
The evaluation function f is given by

1
f D : (33)
W .k/

The searching procedure of the proposed PSO-PI controller is below [11].

Step 1. Specify upper and lower bounds of kp and ki ; initialize velocities and
searching points randomly.
Step 2. For each individual k of the population, calculate the maximum negative
value of the optimized real part values of torsional modes and the swing
mode eigenvalue of the closed-loop transfer function.
Step 3. Calculate the evaluation value of each individual in the population using the
evaluation function given by Eq. (33).
Step 4. Compare each particle’s evaluation value with its pbest . The best evaluation
value of pbest is denoted as gbest .
Step 5. Modify the member velocity V of each individual k according to Eq. (12).
Step 6. Check the values of velocity and position for each member and group,
whether it is within specified maximum and minimum values of velocity
and position.
Step 7. If the number of iterations reaches the itermax , then go to Step 8; otherwise,
go to Step 2.
Step 8. The particles that generate the latest gbest are optimal controller parameters.
The following parameters are used for verifying the performance of the PSO-PI
controller in searching the PI controller parameters:
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1349

 the member of each particle is kp and ki ;

 the population size is 50;
 the inertia weight factor w is set by Eq. (14), where wmax D 0:9 and wmin D 0:4;
 the acceleration constant C1 D C2 D 2.

5. Eigenvalue Analysis and Non-linear Digital Simulations

After incorporating the optimized PI controller in the block diagram shown in Figure 5,
the eigenvalues of the complete system are discovered. A steady-state operating point
is chosen in which the machine operates with a power factor of 0.9 while delivering
a power of 0.7 p.u. The infinite bus system voltage is 477.8 kV. Mechanical damping
is assumed to be 0.1 p.u., and the constant field voltage is assumed. The value of the
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DC capacitor is 3000 fd. Other parameters of the SSSC are selected as given [3].
The compensation level is set at 0.15 p.u. The optimized parameters of the PI controller
are kp D 0:2034 and ki D 554:53. The eigenvalues of the system with a PSO-optimized
controller are shown in Table 1. The parameters and operating conditions are same as
given in [3], where the PI controller parameters are selected by a trial-and-error approach.
In the conventional PI controller, repeated trials are required to obtain the near-optimum
parameters of the controller. By applying the PSO approach, repeated trials can be avoided
to obtain better controller parameters. In Table 1, the eigenvalues of the complete system
with the PI controller [3] are also given for comparison.
It can be seen from Table 1 that damping of the zeroth mode and torsional modes
have been improved with a PSO-optimized PI controller. The increase in the damping
of torsional mode 1 is significant; the improved torsional performance is achieved at the
expense of reduced damping of network modes.
The result obtained from eigenvalue analysis is validated through PSCAD/EMTDC
software [12]. A bolted, three-phase-to-ground fault is created between the SSSC and the
infinite bus when the system is operating in steady state for 1.25 sec. The operating point
is the same as that of eigenvalue studies. Figures 6(a) and 6(b) show the variation of
generator-exciter (GEN-EXC) torque, real power flow, and generator-LPB (GEN-LPB)
torque in per unit. As shown in Table 1, the PSO-PI controller improves the damping
of torsional mode 1. Figures 7(a) and 7(b) show the variation of GEN-EXC torque, real

Table 1
Eigenvalues of the critical modes with PI and with PSO-PI algorithm

With PI With PSO-PI

Modes (kp D 1, ki D 500) (kp D 0:47972, ki D 561:67)

Super-synch 10:707 ˙ 400:39i 8:7503 ˙ 400:33i

Sub-synch 6:3117 ˙ 81:456i 1:7507 ˙ 80:00i
Mode 5 0:1817 ˙ 298:18i 0:1818 ˙ 298:18i
Mode 4 0:0567 ˙ 202:89i 0:0620 ˙ 202:89i
Mode 3 0:1800 ˙ 160:54i 0:1859 ˙ 160:54i
Mode 2 0:6661 ˙ 127i 0:6672 ˙ 127i
Mode 1 0:2404 ˙ 98:576i 0:4602 ˙ 98:64i
Mode 0 0:4456 ˙ 7:0767i 0:4606 ˙ 7:08i
 1350 C. Kotwal et al.
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Figure 6. System response with: (a) PI controller and (b) PSO-PI controller.

power flow, and GEN-LPB torque in per unit. It can be verified from Figure 5(b) that
mode 1 will be stable with the PSO-PI controller.
The DC capacitor that interacts with the AC system via the converter switches can
influence the sub-synchronous behavior of the SSSC [3]. It has been shown that lower
values of the DC capacitor causes sub-synchronous oscillations in the SSSC-compensated
power system [3].
Table 2 shows the eigenvalues of the SSSC-compensated power system with PI, and
the reduced value of the DC capacitor are shown for the PI and PSO-PI controllers. A
lower value of DC capacitor, 1600 fd [3], is used for eigenvalue analysis. It is evident
from Table 2 that the PSO-optimized controller can stabilize the unstable mode 1 of the
compensated power system.
The result obtained from eigenvalue analysis is validated through PSCAD/EMTDC
software. A bolted, three-phase-to-ground fault is created between the SSSC and the
 PSO Controller for SSSC to Improve Damping 1351
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Figure 7. System response with reduced value of DC-link capacitor with: (a) PI controller and
(b) PSO-PI controller.

Table 2
Eigenvalues of the critical modes with PI and with PSO-PI algorithm

With PI With PSO-PI

Modes (kp D 1, ki D 500) (kp D 0:19343, ki D 252:10)

Super-synch 9:87 ˙ 416:13i 9:4823 ˙ 417:98i

Sub-synch 2:82 ˙ 125:41i 1:7035 ˙ 75:662i
Mode 5 0:1817 ˙ 298:18i 0:1818 ˙ 298:18i
Mode 4 0:04 ˙ 202:88i 0:0721 ˙ 202:89i
Mode 3 0:05 ˙ 160:5i 0:1939 ˙ 160:54i
Mode 2 0:05 ˙ 126:87i 0:6695 ˙ 127i
Mode 1 0:19 ˙ 98:576i 0:4509 ˙ 98:06i
Mode 0 0:26 ˙ 5:17i 0:3533 ˙ 7:106i
 1352 C. Kotwal et al.

infinite bus when the system is operating in steady state for 1.25 sec. The operating point
is the same as that of the eigenvalue studies. Figures 7(a) and 7(b) show the variation of
GEN-EXC torque, real power flow, and GEN-LPB torque in per unit. It can be verified
from Figure 7(b) that mode 1 will be stable with the PSO-PI controller.

6. Conclusion
In this article, PSO is used to tune the parameters of the DC-link voltage controller
of a 48-pulse SSSC, which is connected as a compensator in a radial power system.
An objective function is formulated to selectively improve the damping of the torsional
modes of the SSSC-compensated power system. To verify the efficacy of the controller,
eigenvalues of the compensated system are determined using the linearized equations.
Downloaded by [University of Manitoba Libraries] at 00:53 16 February 2015

The results of eigenvalue analysis and non-linear digital simulation show that the PSO-
optimized PI controller improves the damping of the torsional modes of the SSSC-
compensated power system. Lower values of the DC-link capacitor destabilize the lower
torsional modes of the SSSC-compensated power system. But the PSO-optimized PI
control can stabilize the torsional modes with lower values of the DC-link capacitor. The
results of the eigenvalue analysis are verified using non-linear digital simulations.

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