POWERENG 2009
Electro-Mechanical Transients of Small Plant
Generators Connected to a Transmission Grid
Jorge Guillermo Calderón-Guizar*, Senior Member IEEE, and Hugo Francisco García de Alba,
Abstract—Small generators are commonly incorporated in the
electrical systems of large industrial plants, i.e. oil, gas, and
petrochemical industries, for ensuring continuous and high
quality energy supply to critical loads. In case that local
generation is enough to satisfy the demand of the plant, then the
interconnection with the public grid is commonly used as an
important support for emergency conditions. As a result of the
deregulation of electric industry the number of industrial plants
with local generation has increased, as well as the
interconnections with the transmission grid aiming to sell the
excess of power generated. This paper reports on the impact
study on the dynamical performance of interconnected industrial
power systems after loosing the interconnection with the public
grid under exporting an importing conditions.
Index Terms—Industrial power systems, load shedding, local
generation, transient stability.
I. INTRODUCTION
S MALL size generators are usually incorporated into the
electrical systems of large industrial plants, i.e. refineries,
paper mills [1,2]. Despite this, the design and the analysis of
those electrical systems are mainly based on short-circuit,
load-flow, protective-device coordination, motor starting and
arc flash studies [3,4,5]. Although, transient stability studies
are fundamental in determining the nature of the corrective
measures aiming to mitigate the negative effects in the system
performance following to the occurrence of severe
disturbances [5]. Transient stability studies are seldom
required during the design of these electrical systems. Why
stability studies are less frequently performed than short-
circuit, load flow and coordination studies in the design of
industrial power systems is analyzed and some reasons of this
are highlighted in reference [5].
The natural evolution of the industrial plants due to the
integration of new production processes usually results in an
important demand of different types of energy, i.e. steam,
electricity [1]. This need of additional forms of energy,
together with the electricity market deregulation have became
an important incentive for increasing the amount of local
generation and interconnecting the industrial power systems
J. G. Calderón-Guizar and H. F. García de Alba are with the Gerencia de
Análisis de Redes at the Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas, Cuernavaca,
Morelos, 62490, México (* corresponding author phone: +52-777-3623811 x
7448; fax: +52-777-3623811 x 7448; e-mail: jgcg@ iie.org.mx).
978-1-4244-2291-3/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
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Lisbon, Portugal, March 18-20, 2009
with the public grid [1,6].
As a consequence of the deregulation of electric industry,
industrial plants with local generation are allowed to sell the
excess of power generated either to the utility or to a third
party. Therefore, the possibility of a double direction in the
power flow over the industrial-utility tie results in new
requirements for ensuring a safe and reliable system operation.
In this new context, stability studies of industrial power
systems are essential and no longer might be ignored. Since a
proper setting of some protective devices is highly dependent
on dynamic performance of both utility and industrial plant
[7,8].
In general, power system stability may be defined as the
ability of the power system to remain in a state of operating
equilibrium and to regain an acceptable state of equilibrium
after being subjected to a disturbance [9]. Transient stability of
a power system focuses on the ability of the system to remain
in synchronism when subjected to a severe transient
disturbance. This ability is greatly affected by both the initial
operating condition and the magnitude of the disturbance. The
resulting system response is influenced by the non-linear
power-angle and characterized by large excursions of
generator rotor angles [9]. In the case of industrial power
systems, transient stability studies are mainly intended to
assess and implement cost-effective measures to reduce the
risk of shutdowns of the industrial facility due to a sudden loss
of an important portion of either local-generation or load, or
the loss of the connection to the utility grid and to the starting
of large induction motors direct-on-line [8].
In México, the electrical systems of the gas and
petrochemical plants were originally designed to operate
isolated from the public grid. With the aim of ensuring
continuity in the electrical supply the on-site generation
capacity of these systems was usually twice the value of the
connected load [6]. Since, current laws of the Mexican
electricity industry authorize independent power producers
(IIPs) to sell the excess of their generated power to the
Mexican Electric Utility (CFE), to a third party or to wheeling
it over the transmission system from one industrial facility to
other of the same owner, many of these isolated systems are
being interconnected with the public grid.
This paper reports the results of an impact study on the
dynamical response of an industrial power system after a
sudden loss of the industrial-utility tie. The impact study, is
focused on the following two general operating conditions:
--The power generated at the industrial facility supplies the
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POWERENG 2009
entire facility load and the excess is delivered to the public
grid.
--A portion of the facility load is supplied by the local
generation and the remainder is imported from the utility.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
A . One line Diagram of the Study System
A simplified one line diagram of the industrial power
system is shown in figure 1. To prevent releasing any
proprietary information of the study system, both the industrial
plants and their buses have been renamed.
Fig.1 Simplified one line diagram of the Industrial Power
System.
A.2 System Component and Loading Conditions
The study system is composed by two industrial plants,
initially designed to be operated as isolated systems. Each
industrial plant contains three generators. The three generators
of Plant C are gas-turbine type and their governor systems
operate in isochronous mode. On the other hand, in Plant NP
one is gas-turbine type and the other two are steam-turbine,
the governor systems of the generators operate in droop mode.
For the two general operating conditions described in the
previous section of the paper the loading conditions of Plant C
were 33 MW and 36 MW, while the loading conditions of
Plant NP were 47.7 MW and 40 MW, when delivering power
to and importing power from the public grid respectively.
III. STUDY OBJECTIVES
Each of the industrial plants shown in de one line diagram
operated for several years as isolated systems. Since the two
systems are physically close and the amount of on-site
generation in each one is approximately twice the amount of
the maximum load level, it was decided to interconnect them
as shown in figure 1. The main goal of the studies on the
interconnected system was to assess its performance, after the
interconnection with the public grid is suddenly lost. With this
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Lisbon, Portugal, March 18-20, 2009
aim a number of simulations were carried out. The system
behavior for the critical conditions is the main subject of this
work.
A. Industrial Plants Delivering Power to the Public
Grid
For this generic scenario, the critical operating condition
results when the three generators of each industrial plant are in
service supplying the entire demand of each system and
delivering 45 MW to the public grid, 20 MW from plant C and
25 from plant NP. In this case, after the loss of the
interconnection to the public grid the following two post-
disturbance conditions were considered:
A.1 Both industrial plants remain connected.
A.2 Industrial plants are separated immediately after the
loss of interconnection with the public grid.
The above post-contingency conditions were considered to
assess the benefits of the interconnection between the
electrical power systems of the industrial plants. Since the
interconnection of the power systems of the two industrial
plants is rather new and the interconnected system
performance was still under evaluation, post-contingency
condition A.2 reproduces the way in which these industrial
systems were formerly operated.
B. Industrial Plants Importing Power from the Public
Grid
For this generic scenario, a critical operating condition
results for the following operating conditions:
B.1 Demand of industrial plant C is 36 MW, two of its
generators are out of service, the one in service is at full load
and supplies 18 MW, the other 18 MW are imported from the
public grid. The demand of industrial plant NP is 40 MW, it is
entirely supplied by its three generators.
IV. DYNAMIC SIMULATION RESULTS
Due to space constraints, only the behavior of the
generators rotor angle, terminal voltages and system frequency
variables is shown.
IV.1 Simulation results for Generic Scenario A
The dynamical performance of the generators rotor angle,
figures 2 (both industrial plants remain connected after de
disturbance condition A.1) and 3 (the electrical systems of the
industrial plants are separated immediately after the
disturbance condition A.2), indicate that the generators of both
industrial plants remain in synchronism after the sudden loss
of the industrial-utility tie. At first glance, figure 3 suggests
that the system is unstable, since the magnitude of the rotor
angle of some generators exhibits a monotonically grown. The
rotor angles with this trend are associated with the three
generators of industrial plant NP. However, the transient
stability condition of a power system is determined by the
difference between the rotor angles of the system generators.
It is, if the angular difference between any two generators in
POWERENG 2009 Lisbon, Portugal, March 18-20, 2009

the system does not grow indefinitely, in other words if after a

while the angular difference remains constant, the system is
stable {9}. Therefore, since the angular difference between
any two generators of industrial plant NP remains constant, it
can be inferred that its three generators remain in synchronism
for the operating condition of concern (A.2).
The main reason for having a different performance on the
rotor angles generators of industrial plants C and NP during
this operating condition is due to the electrical separation of
the industrial plants immediately after the disturbance.

Fig.4. System frequency for operating conditions A.1 and A.2

industrial plants remain connected after the disturbance (A.1),
while when they are separated immediately after the
disturbance (A.2) only in plant C the frequency recovers its
pre-disturbance value (60 Hz) while in plant NP the frequency
increases to about 60.55 Hz. In the case of plant C, the
governor-system operation “isochronous” mode makes
possible that the post-disturbance system frequency returns to
the pre-disturbance value. On the other hand, in plant NP the
post-disturbance system frequency is greater than the pre-
disturbance value because its generation before the
disturbance is greater than its local load and the governor-
systems of its generators operated in “droop” mode.

Fig.2. Generators rotor angle, operating condition A.1

Figure 4, indicates that after the transients due to the

Fig. 5 Generators terminal voltage, operating condition A.1

Fig.3. Generators rotor angle, operating condition A.2

disturbance have die out the frequency in both industrial plants

stabilizes at the pre-disturbance value, i.e. 60 Hz when both

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POWERENG 2009 Lisbon, Portugal, March 18-20, 2009

to its pre-disturbance value 15 seconds after the industrial-

utility tie is lost.
It is also appreciated in figure 8 that the behavior of the
terminal voltage of generators in plant C is more oscillatory
than the one associated with generators in plant NP. This
behavior is attributed to the different type of exciters used by
generators in each industrial complex, rotating and static types
in plant NP and C respectively.

Fig. 6 Generators terminal voltage, operating condition A.2

Figures 5 and 6 describe the performance of the generator

terminal voltages following the sudden loss of the industrial-
utility tie. It is inferred that the voltage performance of
generators in plant C is less oscillatory when both plants
remain interconnected and the voltage magnitude recovers Fig.7. Generators rotor angle, operating condition B.1
almost to its pre-disturbance value in approximately 20
seconds. The time increases to an approximately 30 seconds
when plants C and NP are separated immediately after the
industrial-utility tie is lost.
The difference on the performance of the generator
terminal voltages between operating conditions A.1 and A.2 is
due to the fact that, generators in plant NP are fitted with
rotating exciters (slow response) while those of plant C are
fitted with static ones (fast response). Additionally,
isochronous governor action exerts influence on the response
of generators in both plants during A.1, while during A.2 this
action only influences the response of generators in plant C.

IV.2 Simulation results for Generic Scenario B

Fig.8. System frequency, operating condition B.1
The dynamical performance of the generators rotor angle,
figure 7 indicates that the generators of both industrial plants
remain in synchronism after the sudden loss of the industrial-
utility tie.
Regarding the system frequency, from figure 8 it is inferred
that this does not restore to its nominal value (60 Hz).
However its new steady state value is quite acceptable, nearly
59.9 Hz. This is due to the fact that all of the governor
systems associated with generators in NP operates in the drop
mode and the generator in plant C operates at full load before
the trip of the industry-utility tie. Since, under this operating
condition, the only generator in the interconnected system, the
one in plant N, which governor system operates in
isochronous mode has reached its upper limit, it can do
nothing to eliminate the frequency error in the new steady
state condition.
Fig.9. Generators terminal voltage, operating condition B.1
The generators terminal voltage performance is shown in
figure 9. It is also quite acceptable, since it practically restores

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POWERENG 2009 Lisbon, Portugal, March 18-20, 2009

V. CONCLUSIONS
The results presented in the paper highlights the importance
of dynamical studies on industrial power systems if they
become interconnected with the public grid or to assess the
benefits of interconnecting two isolated industrial power
systems.
For the study system considered in the paper, it was found
that the negative effects on the system frequency of the NP
industrial plant, following the sudden loss of the industrial-
utility tie when the industrial plants supply electrical power to
the power grid are greatly attenuated if the electrical systems
of the industrial plants remain connected after the disturbance.
For an acceptable system operation after the loss of the
industrial-utility tie when one of the industrial plants import
electrical power from the public grid a load shedding scheme
is needed. The design of any load shedding scheme should be
evaluated using transient stability simulations for a number of
operating conditions.

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[3] Smith Thomas P., “Power System Studies for Cement plants”, IEEE
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[4] Dommen Mathew P. and Kohler Jeffery L., “An Improved Model for
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Jorge Guillermo Calderón-Guizar (M’89–SM’01) obtained the degree of

Electrical & Industrial Engineer, Msc in Electrical Engineering and PhD in
Electrical Engineering in 1983, 1896 and 2005 from the Instituto Tecnológico
de Morelis, Mexico, ESIME-IPN México and University of Manchester
Institute of Science & Technology in the UK, respectively. Since 1985 is with
the Network Analysis Department at the Instituto de Investigaciones
Electricas in Cuernavaca Morelos, México. He was the chair of the IEEE
Morelos Power Chapter from 2002 to 2003 and the IEEE Morelos Section
Chair from 2005 to 2006. His research interests include small-signal, voltage
and transient stability of interconnected and industrial power systems.

. Hugo Francisco García de Alba obtained the degree of Electrical &

Electronics Engineer in 2000 from the Universidad Lasalle de Cuernavaca. At
present he is with the Network Analysis Department at the Instituto de
Investigaciones Eléctricas in Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. His research
interests include voltage and transient stability of interconnected and
industrial power systems.

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