Power System Stability

1 Power System Stability

Power system stability is the ability of the system to remain in a state of
operating equilibrium under normal operating conditions and to regain an
acceptable state of equilibrium after being subjected to a disturbance.
Stability is broadly classified as

• Rotor angle stability

• Voltage stability

1.1 Rotor Angle Stability

It is the ability of interconnected synchronous machines of a power system
to remain in synchronism.
Under steady state conditions, there is equilibrium between the input
mechanical torque and output electrical torque of each machine. When this
equilibrium is upset because of any perturbation in the system, the machine
rotors may accelerate or decelerate. Loss of synchronism can occur between
single machine and the rest of the system or between groups of machines.
The change in electrical torque has two components, expressed as

∆Te = TS ∆δ + TD ∆ω (1)

where, TS ∆δ is the synchronizing torque component, TS is the synchronising

torque coefficient, TD ∆ω is the damping torque component, and TS is the
damping torque coefficient.
Lack of sufficient synchronising torque causes instability through an ape-
riodic drift in the rotor angle whereas lack of sufficient damping torque re-
sults in oscillatory instability. Rotor angle stability is characterised into the
following two categories

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a) Small signal (or small disturbance) stability It is the ability of the
power system to maintain synchronism under small disturbances. Instability
can be of two forms: (i) steady increase in rotor angle due to lack of sufficient
synchronising torque, or (ii) rotor oscillations of increasing amplitude due to
lack of sufficient damping torque. In today’s practical power systems, all
generators are equipped with automatic voltage regulators. Hence small
signal stability is largely a problem of insufficient damping of oscillations.
We are interested in the stability of the following types of oscillations

• Local modes or machine system modes are associated with the swinging
of units at a generating station with respect to the rest of the power
system.

• Interarea modesare associated with the swinging of many machines in

one part of the system against machines in other parts.

• Control modes Poorly tuned exciters, speed governors, HVDC convert-

ers, and SVCs are the causes of instability of these modes.

• Torsional modes are associated with the turbine-generator shaft system

rotational components.

b) Transient stability is the ability of a power system to maintain syn-

chronism when subjected to severe transient disturbance like bus, trans-
former, or transmission line faults. The system responds with large excur-
sions of generator rotor angles. The transient instability may be due to first
swing instability or it could be the result of superposition of several modes of
oscillations causing large excursions of rotor angle beyond first swing. Usu-
ally transient stability study period is 3–5 seconds following the disturbance.

1.2 Voltage Stability

Voltage stability is the ability of a power system to maintain steady accept-
able voltages at all buses in the system under normal operating conditions
and after being subjected to a disturbance. The main reason for voltage
instability is the lack of sufficient reactive power in the system.
A system is voltage stable if V–Q sensitivity is positive for every bus and
voltage unstable if V–Q sensitivity is negative for at least one bus. Voltage
collapse is the result of a sequence of events accompanying voltage instability
leading to a low voltage profile in a significant part of power system. Voltage
stability is broadly classified into

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(a) Large-disturbance voltage stability is the ability of the system to
control voltages within acceptable steady state values following large distur-
bances such as system faults, loss of generation, or circuit contingencies.

(b) Small-disturbance voltage stability is the system’s ability to con-

trol voltages following small perturbations such as incremental changes in
system load.

2 Frequency Stability
The frequency of a system depends on the active power balance. In an in-
terconnected system, change in power demand at any part of the system
will be reflected as a frequency change throughout the system. Primary
speed(frequency) control is provided by the speed governor the respective
machines while supplementary control is done by a central control that con-
trols generation.

Generator response to load change Any load change in power system

will cause a mismatch between the mechanical input torque(Tm ) and electri-
cal output torque(Te ), which reflects as frequency variations in the system
as determined by the equations of motion.
The relationship between power and torque is given by
P = ωr T (2)
When given a small perturbation, the equations become
P = P0 + ∆P
T = T0 + ∆T (3)
ωr = ω0 + ∆ωr
Equation 2 becomes
P0 + ∆P = (ω0 + ∆ωr )(T0 + ∆T )
Since the perturbation is small, we can neglect the higher order terms from
the above equation. It becomes
∆P = ω0 ∆T + T0 ∆ωr (4)
Therefore,
∆Pm − ∆Pe = ω0 (∆Tm − ∆Te ) + (Tm0 − Te0 )∆ωr (5)
In the steady state, Tm0 = Te0 . If we express speed in pu, ω0 =1. Hence
∆Pm − ∆Pe = ∆Tm − ∆Te (6)

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Load response to frequency deviation In power system there are fre-
quency dependent and independent loads. Motor loads are frequency depen-
dent. Overall frequency-dependent characteristics of composite load may be
expressed as
∆Pe = ∆PL + D∆ω (7)
where,
∆PL = non-frequency-sensitive load change
D∆ωr = frequency-sensitive load change
D = load-damping constant(expressed as a percentage change in load
for one percentage change in frequency)

Isochronous governor It adjusts the turbine valve to run the generator

at scheduled constant speed(isochronous). This is suitable for a generator
supplying isolated load. When two or more generators connected in parallel
are fitted with isochronous governor, all of them need to have precisely same
speed setting. Otherwise, they would fight each other to bring the system fre-
quency to its own setting. Hence for proper load sharing between generators,
governors with droop characteristics are required.

Governors with speed-droop characteristics The speed droop or reg-

ulation characteristic is obtained by adding a steady state feed back loop
around the integrator as shown in fig. 3 The block diagram and reduced
block diagram representation of fig. 3 is shown in 3.

Speed regulation or droop(R) is the ratio of speed deviation(∆ωr ) or

frequency deviation(∆f ) to the change in valve/gate position(∆Y ) or power
output(∆P )

percent speed or frequency change

%R = × 100
percent power output change
 
ωN L − ωF L
= × 100
ω0

where
ωN L = steady state speed at no load
ωF L = steady state speed at full load
ω0 = nominal or rated speed

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3 Concept of Load Sharing
When a no. of generators with drooping characteristics are connected in
parallel to share load, they will be operating at a unique frequency. We
consider two generators with droops R1 and R2 , and with outputs P1 and
P2 respectively operating at a nominal frequency f0 . If the total load on
the generators increase by ∆PL , governors increase output until they reach a
0
new common operating frequency f . The additional loads taken up by each
generator is
∆f
∆P1 = P10 − P1 =
R1
∆f
∆P2 = P20 − P2 =
R2
Hence,
∆P1 R2
=
∆P2 R1

3.1 Composite Regulating Characteristics of Power Sys-

tems
The power/frequency characteristics of power systems with no. of generators
in parallel depends on the combined effect of droops of all generator governors
and frequency characteristics of all loads connected. For a system with ‘n’
generators and a composite load damping constant ‘D’, the steady state
frequency deviation following a load change ∆PL is given by
−∆PL
∆fss =
( R11
+ 1
R2
+ ··· + 1
Rn
) +D
−∆PL
= 1 (8)
Req
+D

where
1
Req = 1 1 1 (9)
R1
+ R2
+ ··· + Rn

The composite frequency response characteristics of the system is

−∆PL 1
β= = +D (10)
∆fss Req

β is also known as stiffness of the system and is expressed in MW/Hz. The

composite regulating characteristics of the system is equal to β1

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Factors influencing frequency decay
 t

∆f = −∆L 1 − e− T K (11)

where, K= D1 and T= M
D

4 Voltage Stability in Single Machine Load

Bus System
The excitation system is represented by a simple transfer function given by
KE
Ef d = (Vref − Vt ) (12)
1 + sTE
The electrical torque Te is given by
0 0
Te = Eq iq − (xq − xd )id iq (13)

Neglecting armature resistance, the stator equations become

0 0
Eq + xd id = vq (14)
−xq iq = vd (15)

The network and load equations are

vq = −xe id + Re id + vqL (16)

vd = Re id + xe iq + vdL (17)

PL + j(QL − VL Bc2 )
vqL + jvdL = (18)
(iq − jid )

where
q
2 2
VL = vdL + vqL (19)
 mp
VL
PL = PL0 (20)
VL0
 mp
VL
QL = QL0 (21)
VL0

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Linearising equations (13) t0 (21) and simplifying, we get
0
∆id = Yd ∆Eq (22)
0
∆iq = Yq ∆Eq (23)
0
and ∆Te = K2 ∆Eq (24)
(25)

In case of single machine infinite bus system, the torque deviation ∆Te is
given as
0
∆Te = K1 ∆δ + K2 ∆Eq (26)
Thus from Eqn. (24) it is observed that a SMLB system does not exhibit
angular instability and the only dynamics is that corresponding to field flux
decay and excitation system(??). In the block diagram of Fig.(??) , K3 and
K6 are analogous to Heffron-Phillips constant.
The characteristic equation shown in Fig.(??) is
 
2 1 1 1 + K3 K6 KE
s + 0 + s+ 0 =0
Tdo K3 TE Tdo K3 TE

If KE K3 K6 >> 1, the criteria for stability are

1
0 > 0, K6 > 0
Tdo K3

If we assume a lossless network with unity power factor load, the received
active power and voltage are given by

Eg2 sin 2δ
P = = PL (27)
2X(1 − Bc X)
Eg cos δ
V = (28)
(1 − Bc X)

where X = xg + xe

Dynamics of Load Restoration If the load is voltage sensitive and if

there is a control mechanism(viz. OLTC or voltage regulator) to restore the
load, it can be modeled as
dV 1
= [P − P0 ] (29)
dt Tp

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where P0 is the nominal power to be maintained at all voltages. The stability
of the equilibrium point is determined as
dP
<0 (30)
dV
At the load bus, using Jacobian
    
J1 J2 ∆δ ∆P
= (31)
J3 J4 ∆V 0

where
∂P ∂P ∂Q ∂Q
J1 = , J2 = , J3 = , J4 =
∂δ ∂V ∂δ ∂V
If J3 is non-singular, then
dP
= J2 − J1 J3−1 J4 (32)
dV
dP
If Jacobian is singular, dV = 0. The determinant of Jacobian indicates
proximity to voltage collapse. Eqn. (29) can be written as

dV ∂W
Tp =− (33)
dt ∂V
RV
where W = V1 (P0 − P )dV is the potential energy. The energy margin given
by Eqn. (34) can be used as an index for voltage security.
Z V2
∆W = (P0 − P )dV (34)
V1

If the active power is assumed constant, Q–V curve can be used for evaluating
the stability margin. Eqn.(29) can be written as

dV 1
= [Q(V ) − Q0 ] (35)
dt Tq

Eqn.(34 is replaced as
Z V2
0
∆W = (Q0 − Q)dV (36)
V1

At the load bus,

Q = QL − QC (37)

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where Q is the received reactive power, QL is the reactive power requirement
of load, and QC is the reactive power supplied by the reactive compensator
at the load bus. The reactive compensator is described as
1 dQC
= = V0 − V (38)
Tc dt
The criterion for stability is
dV
>0 (39)
dQC

Remarks In a SMLB system

1. There is no angular stability issue.

2. Dynamics of load restoration is mainly responsible for voltage instabil-

ity in addition to the voltage dynamics of generator.

3. Disabling of OLTC helps to overcome voltage instability.

4. The proximity to voltage collapse can be get from the determinant of

Jacobian

5. To study voltage stability, system dynamics need to be considered.

References
[1] P. Kundur, N. J. Balu, and M. G. Lauby, Power System Stability and
Control. McGraw-hill New York, 1994, vol. 7.

[2] K. Padiyar, Power System Dynamics: Stability and Control. BS Publi-

cations, Hyderabad, 2002.

[3] P. W. Sauer and M. A. Pai, Power System Dynamics and Stability. Pear-
son Education(Singapore) Pte Ltd., Delhi, India, 2002.