Improving Frequency Resilience of Power Systems

Through Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding

A. Hasib Chowdhury, PhD

Professor, Dept. of EEE
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

11 September 2023
Outline

• Control Coninuum

• Power system resiliency

• Load shedding schemes

• Dynamic-adaptive load shedding methodology and its performance

• Conclusion
 Control Continuum

Control Continuum

▪ A primary focus of the power system

controls in the control continuum is to
maintain nominal frequency under all
conditions

Balancing and frequency control occur

over a continuum of time using different
resources that have some overlap in
timeframes of occurrence
 Control Continuum
• Point D beginning of recovery from loss
Typical frequency trend for the loss of a generating resource
• Arresting Period (when frequency
decline is arrested)
• Rebound Period (where frequency
begins to recover towards nominal)
• Stabilizing period (where frequency is
stabilized)
• Recovery period (where frequency is
recovered to nominal)
• Point A pre-disturbance frequency
• Point C or Nadir maximum deviation
due to loss of resource
• Point B stabilizing frequency
of resource
 Control Continuum

Inertial Control
• More of an effect than an actual control since it is governed by physical principles for most
resources and emulated by others
• Rotating mass in a typical generator combined with speed at which it is rotating creates a large
amount of stored energy
• If a decelerating force is applied (e.g., a large drop in system frequency), energy is transferred
from rotating mass and into system
• When mismatch between injected and consumed energy occurs, energy flows from rotating
masses of connected resources into power system
• Propagation of this effect across an interconnection happens within a few seconds
• Inverter-based resources are not typically governed by same physical principles → might not
possess inertia per se from → inertia can be emulated by using sensing and control
 Control Continuum

Primary Control
• Commonly known as primary frequency response (PFR)
• PFR also includes inertial response described under Inertial Control as well as other types of
frequency response actions
• Does not require external inputs and begins to occur within first few seconds following a change
in system frequency (disturbance)
• Frequency response is provided by the following:
• Governor Action: governor sense changes in local system frequency and adjust energy output of the
resource to counteract that change
• Demand Response: speed of directly-connected motors will change in direct proportion to frequency
changes → as frequency drops, motors will turn slower and consume less energy
• Rapid reduction of system load may by automatic operation of under-frequency relays
 Control Continuum

Secondary Control

• Typically includes balancing services deployed in “minutes” time frame

• Some resources (e.g., hydroelectric generation or fast electrical storage) can respond faster

• Secondary control is accomplished using supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and
energy management system (EMS), and manual actions taken by dispatcher to provide additional
adjustments
 Control Continuum

Tertiary Control

• Tertiary Control encompasses actions taken to get resources in place to handle current and future
contingencies

• Reserve deployment and reserve restoration following a disturbance are common types of
Tertiary Control
 Control Continuum

Time Control

• Frequency and balancing control are not perfect → occasional errors due to instrument
transducer inaccuracy, problems with SCADA hardware or software, or communications errors →
due to these errors and normal load and generation variation, ACE in an Interconnection cannot
be maintained at zero. In fact, the average value of ACE over many time frames is non-zero → ACE
must be managed such that its magnitude is relatively small
Control Continuum

Control Continuum Summary

Power System Resiliency
Some definitions of resilience:
• FERC: “The ability to withstand and reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events,
which includes the capability to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and/or rapidly recover from such event”
• DOE: “The ability of a power system and its components to withstand and adapt to disruptions and
rapidly recover from them”
• IEEE Technical Report PES-TR65 and FERC Docket No. AD18-7-000: “The ability to withstand and
reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events, which includes the capability to
anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and/or rapidly recover from such an event”
Power System Resiliency
• Resiliency of a grid is the ability of the grid to
withstand stress events without suffering
operational compromise or to adapt to it
through planned degradation

• A resilient grid can withstand operating

excursions outside normal operating state
with an inherent tendency to return to
operations within the normal state
Power System Stability

• Power system stability is the ability of an electric power system, for a given initial
operating condition, to regain a state of operating equilibrium after being
subjected to a physical disturbance, with most system variables bounded so that
practically the entire system remains intact

• A more resilient grid is less susceptible to instability

Resiliency and Stability
Bangladesh grid failure, 14 Dec. 2007

Resiliency problem
Stability problem
 Frequency, Hz

44
45
46
47
49
50
51

48
1/01/2014 11:27:26.496

1/01/2014 11:27:35.136

1/01/2014 11:27:43.776

1/01/2014 11:27:52.416
Resiliency and Stability

1/01/2014 11:28:01.056

1/01/2014 11:28:09.696

1/01/2014 11:28:18.336
Bangladesh grid failure, 1 Nov. 2014

1/01/2014 11:28:26.976

1/01/2014 11:28:35.616

1/01/2014 11:28:44.256
Power System Resiliency
• Resiliency is an intrinsic characteristic of a grid or portion of a grid

• Network topology, generation reserves, demand response, automatic load

shedding, islanding etc. falls within the domain of grid resilience
Need For Resiliency
• Trends and events
• Increased electrification
• Intermittency of renewable resources
• Increasing frequency of natural disasters and extreme weather
• Aging infrastructure

• Grid resilience is a foundational building block for clean energy future, which
requires renewable resources, energy storage, and electrification

• Safe operation of power systems is critical for energy security and effective
functioning of all infrastructures
Need For Resiliency
• Increased resiliency harden the power system against and quickly recover from
high-impact, low-frequency events, such as

• Severe weather or natural events • Severe geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs)

• Typhoons and consequent flooding • Cyber attacks
• Tornadoes • Physical attacks
• Earthquakes and consequent tsunamis
• Electromagnetic pulse (EMP), high-altitude
• Wildfires
EMP (HEMP), intentional EM interference
• Ice storms
(IEMI) attacks
Aspects of Power System Resiliency
• Three areas to focus for enhanced power system resiliency
• Damage prevention (hardening)
• Examples: • Selective undergrounding of T&D facilities • Reinforcing overhead lines

• System recovery
• Damage Assessment • Outage Management • Visualization • Spares Strategies

• Survivability
• Basic Level of Service • Urgent Service
Frequency Resiliency

• Power system
frequency can be
considered as the
“pulse” of the system,
reflective of the
underlying health of
the system
Frequency Resiliency

Bangladesh power system frequency

Load Shedding

• Options for frequency resiliency

• Generation resources
• Energy storage
• Load shedding

• Load as a resource to enhance resiliency and stability

• Currently practiced load shedding schemes

• Traditional Load Shedding Scheme (TUFLS)
• Semi-adaptive Load Shedding Scheme (S-AUFLS)
• Adaptive Load Shedding Scheme (AUFLS)
Load Shedding
Traditional Load Shedding

• Most used scheme; simple, no sophisticated relays required

• Sheds different amount of loads at different frequency thresholds

• Thresholds and amount of load shed decided offline, based on

experience and simulations

• Conservative settings

• Prone to shedding lesser loads at large disturbances

Semi-Adaptive Load Shedding
• Uses frequency decline rate as a measure of generation shortage

• Activation depends on rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) when system

frequency reaches a certain threshold

• Amount of load shed depends on ROCOF

• Checks speed at which threshold is exceeded: higher speed, more load shed

• ROCOF thresholds and size of load blocks to be shed at different thresholds

decided offline on the basis of simulation and experience
Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Activation depends on frequency threshold as well as ROCOF

• Adaptive load shedding scheme sets ROCOF thresholds and size of load blocks to
be shed at different thresholds decided real time
Limitations of Adaptive/Semi-Adaptive Load Shedding

• Rate of change of frequency in a power system is affected by

• Loss of active power generation

• System inertia

• Frequency support through tie lines

• Frequency dependence of load (i.e., load damping factor)

Limitations of AUFLS/S-AUFLS Schemes

• If estimated disturbance magnitude is not sufficiently close to actual power

imbalance, it may cause inaccurate load shedding

• Power flow in a feeder varies from peak to off-peak in a day as well as from
season to season around the year

• Cannot deal with feeder load variation due to lack of adequate adaptability
Limitations of AUFLS/S-AUFLS Schemes

Under-frequency load shedding stalls falling frequency

• Event happened
in the morning,
not enough load
under load Under-frequency load
shedding shedding could not prevent
scheme blackout

• Voltage collapse
issue not
considered in
load shed
scheme

Frequency during blackout from DFDR records, 14 Dec. 2007

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Uses both voltage and frequency information provided by PMUs

• Real time and accurate calculation of load shedding amount

• Dynamic selection of feeders and dynamic correction of load shed size

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Assumptions

• Power system is divided into several operational zones

• National load dispatch centre controls the system

• High speed communication infrastructure is included in the power system

• PMUs installed at PV and PQ buses

• Quantity of real-time data is reasonable that can be dealt with modern infrastructure

• Lower/higher level data fusion can be applied to further reduce data bandwidth

• Both voltage and frequency dependency of loads

Dynamic-Adaptive
Load Shedding
Methodology

Bangladesh power
system network (BPSN)
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Physical zones in Bangladesh power system

North-East
region

Northern region

Central region

South-East region

Southern region
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology
Low grid voltage in BPSN at different buses at the 132 kV level
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology
Low grid voltage in BPSN at different buses at the 230 kV level
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Parameters considered
i. Frequency excursion

ii. Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF)

iii. PQ bus voltages

iv. Active power generation from generating units

v. Reactive power demand of PQ buses

vi. Typical window size used for ROCOF measurement is 0.02 s.

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-1: Measurement
• Active power and frequency of each generator
• At steady state, frequencies of all generating units essentially equal → fg1 = fg2 = . . . =fgi = fsys
Step-2: Detection of generation loss event
• For each generator, present and previous samples of active power generation are compared in
order to find a generation loss event

Pgi (n) – active power generation of i-th generator at n-th instant (i.e., present value)
Pgi (n–1) – active power generation of ith generator at (n–1)-th instant (i.e., previous value)
ε – threshold value (in %) to decide whether load shedding scheme should be enabled; decided based on the frequency
management strategy
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-3: Assessment of frequency recovery due to load damping

• After detecting an actual generation loss event at any PV bus, the proposed scheme first assesses
frequency recovery due to load damping, calculated as follows
Ploss – magnitude of generation loss (in MW)
N – total number of generators incurring the loss of generation
Δf – frequency deviation from pre-disturbance frequency (in Hz)
R – governor droop (in %)
D – frequency sensitivity due to load damping factor (in MW/Hz)

• In order to keep system frequency above the lower acceptable threshold (fTH in Hz), following
condition must be satisfied

Note: load damping factor implies the percentage of load change for every 1% change in system frequency;
usually varies between 1% and 3%
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-4: Calculation of total amount of load shed

• The required amount of total load shedding (Pshed in MW) to retain system frequency above fTH is
calculated by
Pshed – magnitude of total load shed
Δf – frequency deviation from pre-disturbance frequency
R – governor droop (in %)
D – frequency sensitivity due to load damping factor (MW/Hz)

• Total load shed is divided amongst all zones across the whole network according to their
frequency disturbance profile
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-5: Calculation of Centre of Inertia (COI) frequency

• Frequency response of individual synchronous machines to a disturbance depends on their inertia

and synchronizing power coefficients

• Frequency is calculated based on COI to remove small variations in measured frequencies of

different machines in a zone

• Frequency of any zone z (fCOI_z in Hz) is determined by

Hi – inertia constant of i-th generator (in s)

MVAi – rated MVA of i-th generator
fgi – frequency of i-th generator (in Hz)
m – total number of committed synchronous generators
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-6: Frequency disturbance profile

• Frequency disturbance profiles of each zone given by rate of change of average frequency decline

fsys – pre-disturbance frequency (in Hz)

tsys – time instant when fsys is measured (in s)
t(n) – time instant when fCOI_z is measured (in s)

• dfcoi_z/dt (Hz/s) of a zone indicates the rapidity of frequency drop due to generation loss

• Higher dfcoi_z/dt implies that this zone is more vulnerable in terms of frequency response due to
active power disturbance, and larger amount of load shed is required at that zone
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-7: Zonal load shed weight

• Total load shed size (Pshed) is distributed amongst all zones of a power system according to severity
of frequency disturbance

• Zonal load shed weight p – total number of zones

Step-8: Load shed amount in a zone

• Load shed amount for each zone is calculated

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-9: Load shed size for each PQ bus in a zone

• Higher amount of load shed at relatively weaker bus and less amount of load at relatively stronger
bus inside a zone to maintain the voltage stability

• Total zonal load shed quantity is distributed amongst all PQ buses within a zone according to their
bus ranking (buses are ranked using Fast Voltage Stability Index (FVSI))

• Load shed size for each PQ bus (Bzk in MW) inside a zone

FVSIz_k – normalized FVSI of k-th bus of zone z

FVSI is a tool for bus classification, which is widely utilised in voltage stability analysis
< details of FVSI discussed later in ‘FVSI Subroutine’ section >
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-10: Selection of (circuit breakers of) feeders

• Usually, a PQ bus consists of number of feeders

• Feeders are selected such that the summation of power flow of selected feeders is very close to
bus load shed size (Bzk)

Pi,z – power flow of i-th feeder (in MW) in zone z

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-11: Dynamic correction of bus load shed size of substations within a zone

• Total power flow (ΣPi) of selected feeders is checked for close match to bus load shed size (Bzk)

• Any difference (εb) is adjusted to the next substation load shed amount

• For substation no. 1 of zone z (k = 1)

• Difference is added to next substation (k = 2) load shed size to modify it

• Process continued for subsequent substations (i.e. k = 3, 4, …) until following condition is satisfied
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

Step-12: Dynamic correction of zonal load shed size

• If in a zone ΣBzk is not very close to Loadz, the next zonal load shed size is modified by deviation εz

Bzk – Load shed size for each PQ bus

• Process continued for z3, z4, and so on until ΣBzk is very close to Loadz

• Dynamic corrections of sub-station and zonal load shed sizes are done in two phases so that total
load shed does not exceed Pshed
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Step-13: Steps-9 to 12 repeated to select feeders of all zones in a power system

Step-14: Trip signals

• Trip signals sent to all selected feeder circuit breakers of all zones using communication
infrastructure to arrest rapid frequency decline while maintaining voltage stability

• Tie line security scheme is enabled after activation of main scheme

FVSI Subroutine
• FVSI subroutine ranks PQ buses from weaker to stronger in terms of voltage stability inside a zone prior to
any disturbance (i.e., in healthy state)
• Sequential steps of FVSI subroutine:
• Step-A1: State variables recorded at PQ buses – (i) Bus voltage (Vzk in kV) and (ii) Reactive power (Qzk in
MVAr)
Z – line impedance (in Ω)
• Step-A2: FVSI of k-th bus of zone z (FVSIzk) X – line reactance (in Ω)
Vs – sending end voltage (in kV)

• Step-A3: Normalization of all FVSI in a zone FVSIz_k – normalized FVSI of k-th bus of zone z
N – total number of PQ buses in zone z

• Step-A4: All PQ buses are ranked according to their normalised FVSI within their own zone
• Normalized FVSI (FVSIz_k) values are used in main scheme to distribute zonal load shed size amongst PQ
buses inside a zone
Tie-Line Security Scheme

Step-B1

• After getting signal from step-14 of main scheme, tie line security scheme waits for a while (Twait)

• This allows time for all circuit breakers selected by main scheme to operate for load shedding and
also to redistribute power flow through tie lines

• Twait considers opening time and arching time of circuit breaker, signal transmission time from
control centre to the most distant circuit breaker and so on

• Twait should be less than thermal runway time (Tthermal) of tie lines
Tie-Line Security Scheme

Step-B2

• After elapsing Twait period, this scheme measures either sending end MVA (MVAmeasured) or current (Imeasured)

• Compare magnitude of measured MVA or current with their respective permissible limits

ILimit – thermal limit of tie line in terms of current

MVALimit – thermal limit of tie line in terms of MVA

Step-B3
• If a tie line is overloaded loads are shed at receiving-end zone

• Amount of load shed

LT-shed – amount of load shed in receiving-end zone (in MVA)
Imeasured – measured current through a tie line
Vmeasured – measured bus voltage (in kV)
Tie-Line Security Scheme

Step-B4: Calculation of additional load shed amount

• LT-shed is distributed among buses of receiving-end zone according to bus ranking (FVSI)

Czk – additional load shed amount at k-th bus in zone z

Step-B5

• Summation of power flow of selected feeders maintained close to load shed amount (LT-shed)
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Methodology

• Determination of frequency threshold at which load shedding will be initiated

fsetting – load shedding starting point (in Hz)

df/dt – ROCOF (in Hz/s)
FT1 – maximum ROCOF when disturbance size is equal to spinning reserve
FT2 – maximum ROCOF in lower band of large disturbances
FT1 and FT2 are calculated such that they cover possible operating conditions

Mehrabi K, Afsharnia S, Golshannavaz S. Toward a wide-area load shedding scheme: Adaptive determination of frequency
threshold and shed load values. Int Trans Electrical Energy Systems 2018;28(1):1–14.
Test Network
IEEE 39 bus test network

• Total load 6243 MW

• System divided into 6 zones
• Zones based on geographical
proximity of generators
• Target lower limit of
frequency after a disturbance
49.1 Hz
• Load damping factor 1.5%
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Performance
Frequency excursion for 600 MW generation
Case - 600 MW generation loss in Zone-3 loss using the proposed scheme

• Calculated total load shed size 430 MW

Red curve from worst affected zone 3
• Frequency sensitivity due to load Blue curve from least affected zone 6
damping 187.29 MW/Hz

• The scheme selects a group of feeders

from each zone for load shedding

• Actual total load shed 433 MW

Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Performance
Frequency excursion for 900 MW generation
Case - 900 MW generation loss in Zone-3 loss using the proposed scheme

• Calculated total load shed size 730 MW

Red curve from worst affected zone
• Actual total load shed 732 MW Blue curve from least affected zone
Dynamic-Adaptive Load Shedding Performance

Case - Monitoring of tie line security for 400 MW generation loss in Zone-1

Before disturbance

• Current through two tie lines between zones 1 and 2 were 232 A and 389 A

After generation loss in zone-1

• Currents through the two lines increase to 528 and 691 A

After applying load shedding

• Current through the two tie lines decreases to 451 A and 596 A
Critical Parameters

• Critical parameters of the dynamic-adaptive load shedding approach

• Disturbance size

• Frequency sensitivity due to load damping factor

• Governor droop

• Lower limit of the acceptable system frequency

• Rate of frequency decline

• Fast voltage stability index

• Power flow limits of tie lines

Time Delays

Various operations involve time delays

• Delays in PMUs

• Round-trip communication latency

• Circuit breaker operation

• Computational time
Impact of VRE

• Reduction in total inertia and primary reserve

• With a sudden loss of generation, frequency response performance deteriorates (compared to no

VRE case)

• More load shedding will be required

• The required amount of load shedding can be determined by the proposed algorithm
Performance Comparison

• Comparison between D-AUFLS and AUFLS for 900 MW generation loss in zone-3

i. Case 1: Not enough load shed

ii. Case 2: More than required load shed

• AUFLS works
based on df/dt
and under
frequency (U/F)
relays
Performance Comparison

Case 1: Not enough load shed

Performance Comparison

Case 2: More than required load shed

Conclusion

• Dynamic-adaptive load shedding takes into account disturbance size, load

damping coefficient, frequency response characteristics and load bus ranking
based on voltage stability index

• Appropriate amount of load shedding ensured by dynamically correcting the load

shed size at bus and zone levels

• Retains tie lie security by averting the risk of thermal overloading

 Thank you

A. Hasib Chowdhury, PhD

Professor, Dept. of EEE, BUET
e: hasib@eee.buet.ac.bd
m: +880 1711 901568