242
2, JUNE 2002
Identification of Synchronous Machine Parameters
Using Load Rejection Test Data
Edson da Costa Bortoni, Member, IEEE, and José Antônio Jardini, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—This work shows a computational methodology for
the determination of synchronous machines parameters using
load rejection test data. By machine modeling one can obtain the
quadrature parameters through a load rejection under an arbi-
trary reference, reducing the present difficulties. The proposed
method is applied to a real machine.
Index Terms—Parameter identification, synchronous machines.
LIST OF SYMBOLS
Effective terminal voltage (in volts).
Effective induced voltage (in volts).
Windings voltage (in volts).
Windings current (in amperes).
Armature phases windings.
Direct and quadrature axes.
Field and damper windings.
Transient and subtransient time constants (in sec-
onds)
Synchronous, transient, and subtransient induc-
tances (per unit).
Active and reactive power (in watts, var).
Resistance (in ohms).
Laplace variable.
0: Open circuit, initial conditions and 0 axis.
Power angle.
Linkage fields.
Angular speed (in radians per second).
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE identification of synchronous machines parameters is
very important to the analysis of generation systems both
in steady state and in transient processes.
Within many methods which have been developed in the past
decades, two of them gained prominence due to their practice,
low risk level imposed to the machine under test and moreover,
the quality of the obtained data. One is the frequency response
method [1] and the other one is the load rejection test [2].
The frequency response test is carried out by applying cur-
rents about 0.5% of the rated current, with frequencies varying
in the range from 0.001 Hz to 1000 Hz. The rotor must be prop-
Manuscript received August 27, 1997; revised February 26, 2002.
E. C. Bortoni is with the DEE-FEG-UNESP, São Paulo State University,
Guaratinguetá 12500-000, Brazil.
J. A. Jardini is with the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, São
Paulo 05508-900, Brazil (e-mail: jardini@pea.usp.br).
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8969(02)05405-0.
0885-8969/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 17, NO.
erly positioned in order to obtain the direct and quadrature axis
parameters. Using the frequency response data one can evaluate
the operational reactances and consequently determine the pa-
rameters and time constants currently used in power systems
studies. A computer based equipment to run these tests with low
costs is present in [3].
The second method, not standardized yet, also allows the de-
termination of direct and quadrature axis parameters by exe-
cuting load rejection in two special operational points, in which
the components of current do exists in the axis of interest only.
The load point concerning the direct axis can be easily ob-
tained under-excitating the machine as it has been synchronized
to the system. The machine must be running at negligible active
power and driving a considerable amount of reactive power from
the system. This procedure garantees the obtaining of nonsatu-
rated parameters and avoids undesirable over voltages during
the tests.
The localization of the quadrature axis is not so trivial, since
the machine being under-excitated, one must find a loading
point in which the absolute value of the power factor angle
is equal to the power angle . In practice it can be found
after successive load rejections with different powers, aiming at
minimize the field current variations. An alternative procedure
is the employment of a power angle meter [4]. These difficulties
can, sometimes, make this test impracticable.
Nevertheless, several papers can be found in the international
technical literature presenting field experience of the industry
in applying the load rejection test [5]–[7]. It is possible when
advanced system identification techniques are applied in such
phenomenological procedures [8], [9].
Through the development of the equations which govern the
armature voltage behavior during a load rejection, this work will
show that the data obtained with a load rejection under an arbi-
trary reference is sufficient to determine the transient parameters
using numerical methods. The special cases in which the com-
ponents of the current do exist only in the direct axis or only in
the quadrature axis will be studied.
II. TRANSIENT PROCESS MODELING
The synchronous machine transient process modeling will be
made in three steps. The first takes into account only the steady
state, before the load rejection; the second analyzes the transient
process after the rejection and in the latter, a composite of the
previous results will be done in order to obtain the complete be-
havior of the machine under a local rejection. In these analyses,
all the variables are in per unit.
BORTONI AND JARDINI: IDENTIFICATION OF SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE PARAMETERS 243

Fig. 1. Equivalent circuits of a synchronous machine.

A. Steady State B. Transient Process

In a three-phase system with perfectly symmetric voltages The transient process will be studied evaluating the linkage
yields fluxes variations both in direct and quadrature axis. At the end,
the initial conditions previously calculated should be added.
Representing the direct axis by the equivalent circuit showed
in Fig. 1(a), and introducing the Laplace variable, the direct axis
(1) linkage flux variations for a given excitation voltage is

In a dqo frame, one can obtain (9)

For synchronous machines without damper windings and

fully laminated poles
(2)

The armature phase voltages can be recalculated as

(10)
(3)

In case of balanced load and neglecting the armature resis- Where is the armature leakage inductance and the direct
tance, the currents in dqo frame are obtained as follows: axis mutual inductance .
Considering that in the load rejection there is a negative cur-
rent variation

(11)

(4) Applying the inverse Laplace transformation, one can obtain

the linkage flux variation in a transient process
The linkage flux equations are
(12)
(5) Taking into account the damper windings effects, yields
It is well known that

(13)
(6) In case of quadrature axis, the equivalent circuit of Fig. 1(b)
can be adopted. Applying the same procedure used for the direct
In steady state, with no damper winding currents, balanced axis, results
load, neglecting the armature resistance and taking the angular
speed equal to 1 p.u. (14)

When there is no damper winding in the quadrature axis

(7)
(15)
Using (2), one can obtain the initial conditions of the direct
and quadrature linkage fluxes
C. Description of the Load Rejection Phenomena
The machine behavior in a load rejection transient process can
(8) be obtained by composing the phenomena which occur before
244 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JUNE 2002

TABLE I These are the basic expressions to the load rejection descrip-
RATED CHARACTERISTICS tion and they could be used to identify the synchronous ma-
chines parameters. The expressions (21) and (22) describe par-
ticular load rejections cases. The expression (20) describes the
load rejection under an arbitrary condition. Thus, one can pro-
pose two procedures.
• Determine all the synchronous machines parameter with a
and after to the load rejection. Thus, the linkage flux in the direct load rejection under an arbitrary condition using (20); or,
axis will be • Make a load rejection test in the direct axis, using (21) to
determine the direct axis parameters, and make another
load rejection, under an arbitrary axis, to calculate the
(16) quadrature axis parameters with (20), using the previous
calculated direct axis parameters as constants.
In the same way, for the quadrature axis These procedures can simplify the identification process, and
can spread the use of load rejection tests. It is important to notice
that the field current behavior can also be modeled and used to
(17) improve the parameter identification task.

With these values in the (6), taking and neglecting the
armature resistance, one can obtain
(18)
The and parcels represent the transformer ef-
fect which occurs in the machine when the load is suddenly
changed, producing nonperiodic and second harmonic compo-
nents in the armature quantities. This phenomena can be ne-
glected without including large errors [11]
(19)
Substituting (3) for (19), yields
III. PARAMETERS IDENTIFICATION
The synchronous machines parameters will be identified in
order to minimize the error between the theoretical model (20),
(21) or (22) and the experimental data obtained by test. The Lev-
enberg–Marquardt method [10] will be employed to minimize
the error function.
This technique was selected because it combines the major
characteristics of two other methods—the steep descent and the
conjugate directions, or in other words, for large errors the ste-
pest descent is used, but as the error decreases, the conjugate
directions begin to be used.
The transition with the methods is made intrinsically by the
Levenberg–Marquardt technique. Another advantage of this
method is that it avoids the destruction of a convergence work
when a parameter runs away from its real value. The goodness
function is defined as
(23)
in which is the parameter vector, and are the measured
and the calculated values at the instant .
The parameter vector will be iterativelly calculated in order
to minimize the goodness function, as follows:

(24)
(20)
where is a calculated vector responsible for the transition with
When there is no current component in the quadrature axis the previous methods [10], and is the iteration counter.
( and ) Naturally, it is important to notice that any identification
method has its performance improved if the iterative process
begins with adequate initial approximations for the unknown
parameters.
(21)
In this case, considering the typical voltage behavior in face
of a load rejection in the -axis and in the -axis, the initial
On the other hand, when there is no direct axis current com-
parameters could be obtained by using the basic relationships
ponent, results
presented in [2].
On the other hand, one can observe in several textbooks that
the synchronous machines parameters are within a well known
(22) range as a function of the machine characteristics.
BORTONI AND JARDINI: IDENTIFICATION OF SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE PARAMETERS 245

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Load rejection—direct axis.

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Load rejection—arbitrary axis.

Thus, in the absence of more detailed data, one can use A. Direct Axis Parameters
these information as initial conditions. This technique will be
employed for the direct and quadrature axis time constants, The quantities values in the instant immediately before the
avoiding the laborious graphical approximation. rejection are

IV. APPLICATION MW p.u.

Mvar p.u.
The proposed method was applied to one rounded rotor
synchronous machine, the rated characteristics are presented in V p.u.
Table I. A p.u.
It was not possible to determine the quadrature axis during the
tests, thus the test in this axis could not be done. However, load
After the transient process, the terminal voltage became equal
rejection tests under an arbitrary axis and under the direct axis
to the induced voltage, with its value stabilized in
was made. Fig. 2 shows (a) the transient and (b) subtransient
response for the direct axis. Fig. 3 shows the (a) transient and
(b) subtransient response for the arbitrary axis. V p.u.
246
The identification process starts obtaining the initial guesses.
Using the expressions given in [2], yields
p.u.
p.u.
p.u.
The following typical values were adopted as initial guesses
for the time constants
s
s Applying the proposed technique to expression (20), one
Applying the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm to the expres-
sion (21), one can obtain the following refined parameters, with
relative error smaller than 1%, after six iterations.
It is important to notice that in this test the field voltage was
kept constant, since the synchronous machine was indepen-
dently excitated using a dc generator (see Table II).
B. Quadrature Axis Parameters
The electrical quantities values at the instant immediately be-
fore the load rejection are
MW p.u.
Mvar p.u.
V p.u.
A p.u.
In the steady state, after the rejection, the terminal voltage
was
V p.u.
In practice some care must be taken regarding the influence
of the speed variation over the voltage values registered in the
test, since the rotor will always be accelerated in a active load
rejection. This influence can be neutralized simply dividing the
voltage record by the speed value in per unit for the same in-
stant of time. This problem practically inexist in the direct axis
rejection since there is no or few active power.
The saturation level is another important point to the success
of the method application. It is important to maintain the ma-
chine under excitated in order to obtain unsaturated quantities.
Since the studied machine was a rounded rotor type, the same
initial guesses for the direct axis was adopted. Furthermore, the
load angle will also be identified, its initial guess is obtained
through the following approximation:
It is important to notice that this value will be grater than the
true for salient pole machines, and will be very approximated
for the rounded rotor ones.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JUNE 2002
TABLE II
DIRECT AXIS PARAMETERS
TABLE III
QUADRATURE AXIS PARAMETERS
can obtain the following refined parameters, with relative error
smaller then 1%, after nine iterations (see Table III).
V. CONCLUSION
The work showed a mathematical modeling of the load re-
jection phenomena, allowing the parameter identification with
numerical methods. This technique avoids the employment of a
load angle meter, making possible its generalized use.
The parameters identification explores all the transient, sub-
transient and steady state information, and not only specified
points, reducing the errors and conducting to more representa-
tive parameters.
With the use of data acquisition systems and monitoring other
quantities of interest, one can obtain other useful parameters
through the load rejection test and speed decay, like moment
of inertia , efficiency and others.
REFERENCES
[1] IEEE Guide: Test Procedures for Synchronous Machines, IEEE Std. 115
A, 1983.
[2] F. P. de Mello and J. R. Ribeiro, “Derivation of synchronous machine
parameters from tests,” IEEE Trans. Power Apparat. Syst., vol. 96, pp.
1211–1218, July/Aug. 1977.
[3] E. C. Bortoni, “Parameter Identification and Modeling of Salient Pole
Synchronous Machine Using Frequency Response Methods,” Ph.D.
thesis, Univ. São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil, 1998. in Portuguese.
[4] F. P. de Mello, “Measurement of synchronous machine rotor angle from
analysis of zero sequence harmonic components of machine terminal
voltage,” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 9, pp. 1770–1777, Oct. 1994.
[5] E. Bortoni, E. Beltrame, A. H. M. Santos, and E. K. Diederich, “Iden-
tification of characteristics and parameters replan generators groups,”
GENERCO Rep., Petrobras, 1994/1995. in Portuguese.
[6] P. A. E. Rusche, G. J. Brock, L. N. Hannett, and J. R. Willis, “Test and
simulation of network dynamic response using SSFR and RTDR derived
synchronous machine model,” IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol. 5, pp.
145–155, Mar. 1990.
[7] T. H. Ling, T. N. Wen, T. D. Sheng, and L. J. Yu, “Mathematical model
of synchronous machine in transient process,” in Proc. ICEM’88—Int.
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[8] I. Kamwa, P. Viarouge, and E. J. Dickinson, “Optimal estimation of
the generalized operational impedances of synchronous machines from
short-circuit tests,” IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol. 5, pp. 401–407, June
1990.
[9] , “Identification of generalized models of synchronous machines
from time-domain tests,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng. C, vol. 137, no. 6, pp.
445–452, 1991.
[10] W. H. Press, B. P. Flannery, S. A. Tenkolsky, and W. T. Vetterling, Nu-
merical Recipes in C. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988.
[11] P. C. Krause, F. Nozari, T. L. Skvarenina, and D. W. Olive, “The theory
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BORTONI AND JARDINI: IDENTIFICATION OF SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE PARAMETERS
Edson da Costa Bortoni (M’94) was born in Maringá, Brazil on December 1,
1966. He received the B.S. degree from the Itajubá Federal Engineering School
(EFEI), Brazil, in 1990, the M.Sc. degree in energy systems planning from UNI-
CAMP, Brazil, in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in synchronous machines param-
eters identification and modeling from the University of São Paulo, São Paulo,
Brazil, 1998.
He was a Professor at EFEI and Amazon Federal University. Presently, he is
an Assistant Professor at São Paulo State University, Guaratinguetá. His areas
of interest are power generation systems design and control, synchronous ma-
chines, and energy conservation.
247
José Antônio Jardini (M’66–SM’78–F’90) was born in Espírito Santo do
Pinhal, Brazil, on March 27, 1941. He received the B.S., M.Sc., and Ph.D.
degrees from Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (EPUSP), São
Paulo, Brazil, in 1963, 1971, and 1973, respectively.
His professional experience included the Themag Engineering, Ltd. (an en-
gineering company), Brazil, for 25 years, where he conducted many power sys-
tems studies and participated in the Itaipu transmission system project. He is
a Professor at EPUSP, teaching power system analysis and digital automation.
He is also Coordinator at the Distribution Excellence Center (CED), where he
is responsible for projects like load profile evaluation.