332

IEEE TRANSACTIONS

ON AUMUTIC

CONTROL, VOL.

ac-16,

NO.

4,

AUGUST

1971

Direct Methods for Transient Stability Studies

in Power System Analysis
JACQUEs L. WILLEMS

Absfruct-This paper deals with recent advances in developing

direct methods for studying the transient
stability problem of singlemachine and multimachine power systems. The paper starts out
is usually
with the construction of the mathematical model that
employed in the analyis of power system transient stability. Computer simulation methods are then briefly discussed, and it is indicated why accuratedirectmethodsfortransient
stability investigations would be most welcome. It is shown that the classical
directmethods, which are based on energyconsiderations,can
be derived and generalized by means of Lyapunovs second method.
The mainpurpose of the paper is to give an exposition of the interesting results that have been obtained
by applying Lyapunovs second
method to the transient stabilityproblem of single-machine and
multimachine power systems. In the final portion of the paper some
are discussed.
areas for further research

I. INTRODUCTION

HE PROBLEM of transient
stability
of power
systems becomes increasingly important as t,he size
of the interconnected areas becomes very large. Indeed,
the tendency of a system to lose synchronismand disintegrate, and theresulting possibility of oscillations in the
power transfer between interconnected areas is much more
prevalent for large systems than it is for relatively small
isolated groups. Optimumcontrol andstability investigations are presently used to a large extent in theanalysis
and design of power systems. A comp1et.e survey of the
application of optimumcontrol to power systems wa.s
presented at the1968 Joint Automa.tic Control Conference
[l].It is the aim of this paper to give an exposition of
recent
results
and
mbthods concerning thetransient
stability problem of power systems. The writing of t.his
paper is motivated on one hand by a desire t.0 expose
this problem to the cont,rol audience a t large, and on the
otherhandby
the timeliness of illustrating an area of
application for sophisticated stability analysis techniques
to a practica.1 real-world problem. This is done inthe
hope that such an exposition could. lead to a contribution
in bridging the well-publicized gapbetween t.heory a.nd
practice. r\ot,ethat, even in theoptimization of t,he steadystat.e operation of power systems [I],stability crit,eria are
important, since they const,itute some of the opthizat,ion
constraints.
I n recent y e m a large amount of papers on stability
hasbeen published int,heautomaticcontrolliterature.
toactual
The applicat,ion of theseideasandmethods
Manuscript received May 29, 1970; revised January 26,1971.
Paper recommended by E. F. Infant,e, Chairman of the IEEE S C S
Stability Theory and Nonlinear Systems Commit.tee.
The aut.hor is with the Division of Engineering and Applied
Physics, Harvard University,Cambridge,
Mass. 02138, onleave
from the University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.

systems has, however, rema,ined rather limited. The area

of power systemstability is an except,ion t,o thisrule,
since some interestingresultshavebeenobtained
using
t,hese methods. I n particular,muchresearchincontrol
theory has been devot,ed to the problem of the stability of
syst,ems 1%-itha single-variable or multivariable nonlinear
feedback
element
[2]. Interesting
results
have
been
obtained for the t,ransient, stabilit,y of power systems by
representing a. pon-er systembya
nonlinear feedback
system,and,in
part,icular, by using t.he t.echniques
developed for the construction of Lyapunovfunctions
for the proof of the well-known Popov criterion and its
generalizations.
Two main approaches can
in general be taken t.0 the
problem of system stability: one relies on the concept of
input-outputstability,theother
on the concept of
dynamicsystemst.ability
inthe
sense of Lppunov.
Although t.he idea of input-out.put st,a.bility appears t o be
more suited for certainapplications,
inparticular
for
syst.ems driven by constantly acting disturba,nces,it is not
well suited to dea.11vit.h the stability problem of power
syst.ems. Indeed, the stability problem ofpow-er syst,ems
arises as follows. A fault occurs somewhere in the system,
which dist.urbs the operat,ing conditions. This triggers a
sequence of events; the fault is cleared and the system is
restored to a healthy post-fault condition. The stateof t,he
system after fault
clearing is in general not the desired
equilibrium &ate of the post.-fault syst.em. The question
is whether or not the system will converge to this equilibriumstatme. This is hence a typical example where
asymptotic stability in the sense of 1,yapunov is of prime
importance. It should also be emphasized that t,he stability
problem as encountered in pon-er systems is not a problem
of globd st:abilit,y,but. a problem of estimat,ing the domain
of attrac.tion of an equilibrium state of the syst,em. Power
syst,ems arenever
asympt,ot.ically stable in t,he large.
The aim of transient.stabilitystudies is hence to compute regions of asymptotic stabilitry of equilibrium solutions. This particularity of thestability
problem is
responsible for the fact that. thedirect methods described
in this paper almost exclusively deal with the a.pplication
of t,he direct method of Lya.punov. Although it appears t.0
be a fair appraisal that forinput-output.st,ability
and
asymptotic stability in t.he large, Lyapunov methods have
been surpassed by operator techniques [3]-[6], they are
at, t,he present time the only general procedure available
forcomputingstability
regions. Thestudy of the construct,ion of Lyapunovfunctionsremains
hence a very
fruhful area of research.

WIJAFXS: TRdNSIENT STABILITY

333

STUDIES

The main purpose of this paper is to review the results

that have been obtained for developing direct methods for
the study of transient stability of power systems, and to
indicateareas for further research. The format of the
paper is as follows. I n Section TI the mat,hematical
model of a multimachine power system is considered and
it is pointed out how the transientstability problem
arises. Section 111 deals briefly with simulation, which is
the routine procedure used in power systemstability
analysis. The purpose of this section is mainly to show
why accura.te direct methods for stability
invest.igations
would be most welcome. Classical direct methods are also
introduced, mainly to point outthattheyconstitute
aparticularapplication
of Lyapunov'sdirectmethod,
and that theyare generalized by the Lyapunov approach.
Sections N and V are the main sections of the paper;
they review the progress that has been made concerning
the application of Lyapunov's second method to thepower
systemtransientstability
problem. These sections also
contain some unpublishedresults.
The Lyapunov approach is illustratedby some numerical examples and
compared with simulation methods. However, it should be
realized that further improvements are necessary to make
the Lyapunovapproach more competitivewithdirect
someof the important topics for further
research a,re therefore discussed in Section VI. It is hoped
prompt
furt,her research on
that this paper might
this important
practical
problem.

where t denotes time, 6i is the angle (in electrical degrees)

between the rot.or shaft of t,he ith ma.chine and a sha,ft
running at synchronous speed, M i is the inert.ia constant
of theith machine, ai its damping const.ant., Pei the
electrical power delivered by the ith machine, and P,,
the mechanical power input toit.
I n mosttransient
st.ability st.udies t,he mechanical
power input is assumed const,ant. This is a sat,isfactory
assumpt,ion for most practical cases, since the time constants of t,he governors are usually much larger than t,he
duration of the tra,nsient swings. It will be shown, however, that governor action can be takeninto a.ccount
rather easily at the expense of an increasing complexity.
Consider first the case of constant mechanical power
input.
The electrical power of the ith machine is the sum of
the power dissipatedby
its short-circuit conducta,nce
and the powers delivered to t.he transmission lines connecting the machine under consideration to the othermachines
of t,he power system:

Per = GiEj2

n
j= 1
j#i

E,EjYij COS (6, - 6, - ei,)

(2)

where Ei is t,he internal voltageof t.he it.h machine, G iis its

short-circuit Conductance, and yij a,nd eij are the modulus
and thephase angle of the short-circuit t.ransfer admittance
between ith
the
jt.h
and
the
machines. most
For
power
systems the transfer conductances G i j = Yij cos eij (i #
j ) are negligible, and only the transfersusceptances
11. MATHEUTICAL MODEL FOR A
Bij = Y i j sin Bij have to be takeninto consideration.
MULTIMACHINE POWER
SYSTEM
Thisassumption is also used in the following analysis;
Consider a power system consisting of n synchronous
the effect of the assumption n<11 be discussed in Sect.ion
machines (or groups of machines). The usual assumpt,ions
VI. Thus
used in setting up the mathematical model are as follows
n
[71.
Pei = GiE,2
EiEjBIjsin (Si - S,),
1) A synchronous machine is represented by a constant
j= 1
j#i
voltage behind itstransient reactance; in other words,
i = 1, . . . , n.. (3)
it is assumed that the flux linkages are constant during
the transient period. Flux decay and voltage regulation If the mechanical power input is assumed constant, then
are hence not taken into consideration. This assumption the equilibrium st.at.es of the power system are the soluis valid in most practical cases since the time const,snts tions of t.he set. of 272 equations
involved aremuchlarger
than t.hose of thetransient
phenomena., which are of interestintra.nsientstabilit,y
analysis.
2) Damping power is assumed proportional to slip
velocit.y, and is t.hus assumed to be due mainly to me- with w i = d&/clt denoting t,he difference betxeen actual
angu1a.r machine speed andthe
synchronous
speed.
chanical friction and asynchronous torques.
Alt.hough both assumptionsare good approximations Although t.he equations only contain 211. - 1 unknowns,
a.nd satisfa.ctory formost applications, it is sometimes wl, w2, . . . , w n , 61 - ti,, ii2 - 6,, linP1 - 6 , , t.he set of
desirable to consider a more exact mathematical model. equations is not overdetermined. Indeed, an equilibrium
This will be discussed in Section VI. Furt,hermore, for can occur only if the total mechanical power input equals
mat.hematica1 simplicity, only round-rotor machines will the t.ot.alpower dissipated. Hence
be considered in this paper. The motion of t,he ith machine
n
n
Pmi= Ei2Gi
is then described by t.he differential equation

i=1

d26,(t)
M i

dt2

+ Pet@)- P,,(t)

0,

1, . . ,n (1)

i=l

is a. necessary condition for t,he existence of an equilibrium,and thus one of the equations of the set (5) is
redundant. The above power syst.em model is hence not

334

ONIEEE TRANSACTIONS

AUTObCATIC CONTROL, .AUGUST

1971

of order 2n, but only of order 2n - 1 with state variables

01, WZ,

...

wn, 61 - 6,,

..

6,-1

- 6,-

Since the differential equa,tions (l), which govern the

behavior of t.he power system are nonlineax, there are two
import,antstability
concepts to be discussed, namely
local and nonlocal stability of an equilibrium stat.e. The
following stability definitions are frequently used in poxer
system analysis [SI, [9].
1 ) Dynamic Stabilitg: An equilibrium state of a power
system is said t.o be dynamically stable [ l o ] ,[ l l ] if
under t,he preceeding assumptions t,he state of the power
syst,em remains close to the equilibrium state for small
initialdeviations of the systemvariables (power input,,
load angle, machine speed,etc.) from their equilibrium
values. The system does not, lose synchronism for small
variations of the variables.Thisproperty
is equivalent
to local stability in the sense of 1,yapunov [ E ] , and can
be a.nalyzed by considering t,he linearized power system
model and applying classical stability criteria. (Routh,
Hurwitz,
Kyquist,).
2) Transient Stability: Consider a. dynamically stable
equilibriumst,at,e of a power syst.em. If t.he system is
perturbed from this state due to a change of the pou-er
input, or to a fault, in the system, then the system converges to its equilibrium for sufficienblg small values of the
deviations. Hou-ever for largeperturbat,ions, t.his is not
necessarily true. This is a nonlinear phenomenon, and t.he
problem of determining whether or not convergence to t.he
equilibrium nil1 occur is called t,hetransient.&ability
problem. Its studyrequires the determination of est$imates
of the domain of att,rac,tion of equilibrium states, which is
called the t,ransient stabilityregion.
A very important characterist.ic of transient stability of
a power system is it.s crit.ica1sn-itching time. When a fault
occuls in t,he syst.em a t.ransient, phenomenon is start.ed;
aft,er clearing the fault, the system will converge to its
equilibrium if the system state afterfault
clearing is
mit.hin thetrmsient st<abilit,y region of thepostiault
syst,em. The critical switching t,ime is defined as the
maximum allowed fault durat,ion for transient. stabihy.
The remainder of t.his pnper deals with the transient
stability problem. For t.he furt,her developnlerlts it. will be
useful to write the differential equations of t.he power
system in a canonical form. Let,, therefore, 610, 6$, . . . , S n 0
denote the equilibrium load angles for which t.ransieut
stability has t,o beinvestigat,ed; of course t.he angles
involve arbitraryconstants
since only their differences
have physical meaning. Define the column vect,ors
z = (to1 (21,
x = col

22,

'

( W l , wg,

'

, x,)

. . . , w n , 21,

'

. . , 2,)

where
2 1.

= 6.1 -

62,

(i = 1,2, . . . , n)

denot,es the difference betu-een the load angle of the ith

machine and its equilibrium value. Define t,he diagonal
(?a x n ) ma.t,rices

and thematrices

where m = n(n - 1)/2, In, denotes the (n X n) identity

matrix, Ojk the ( j X k) zero matrix, D is a.n (m X n)
matrix such that 3 = Dz has the components Cl = z1 Z Z ~{2

~ 3 ., . ' , {n-1
= ZI - z,, { n = zz - 24, . . . 2
z,, and the superscript T denotes transpose.
X 2n), B an (2n X m), and C an (m X 2n)

= ZI -

crn = z,-l

A is an (2n

matrix.Let
f(() be a vect,or-valued functionwith
m
components, which is of the diagonal uncoupled type,
i.e., t.he i t h component of f(3) only depends on the ith
component! of 3. The function is defined by

fi(ri)= E,E,B,,[sin

(ri

+ si")

sin

{?I

where {4 is the ith component of p = D eo1 ({lol . . . ,

ano)),and \\-here p and q are the indices of the components
of z on which {, is dependent. Then it is easily checked
that the set. of differential equations (1) is equivalent t.0
the st.at,e vect,or differential equation
d ~ ( t ) / d t= Ax(t) - Bf[Cx(t)].

(6)

The study of t.he shbility of the equilibrium state under

considerat,ion is now reduced to the studyof the stability
of t.he null solution of (6). System (6) is of the multivariable Popov type whose st,ability propert.ies have been
studied quit.e ext.ensively by cont,rol theorists in the last
decade [2].
It is sholvn next that the mat.hematica1 model of t,he
poxer syst,em is also of the Popov type, even if t.he assumpbion of constant poxver input is dropped. Let, some
or all of the machines of the power system have governors
that, are very fast,
such t.hat.the rela.tive values of governor
time constants and t,he t.ransient period do not allow the
assumption of const.ant mechanical power input. Let the
governors be linear elements. The mechanical pori-er input
to the ithmachine is
Pmi =

Pn,,O

+ pmt

where Pn,p is c.onst,ant, and pmi is related to

relation betxeen the Laplace transforms
Pmi(4

wi

by t,he

-Ht(+,(s)

with H i ( s ) the transfer function of the governor, which

is assumed rational. Let Ai, bi, and c, be a realization of
H i ( s ) , i.e., [13]

B ~ ( s=) c ~ ~ ( s IAi)-lbi.

(7)

Then the different,ial equations describing the dynamics

of t,he i t h machine a.re

335

WILLEYS: TRANSIENT STABILITY STUDIES

+ bia,

&c(t)/dt

At~yi

&Jdt

Wf

M,dw,/dt

(8)

i- P J - ciTyj - Pet

where yi is the state of the governor. It is clear tha.t this

power sgst.em model can also be reduced t.o the form given
by (6) and hence t.0 the Popovtype. T o keepmatt,ers
somewhat. simple, inthe remainder of t.his paper meFig. 1. Equal area criteria.
chanicd power input is assumed constant.
The procedure out.lined in t.his section to set up the
mathemat,ical model can also be used for a set of n - 1 exclude simulation. The generalapproach
used when
machines connected to an infinite bus. Then it suffices to direct. methodsare applied is as follows. The t,ransient
let M
, + 03, sucht.hat w , = 0, 6, = const.ant,. The st.abilit,y region of the post.-fault poxersystem or a.n
constant 6, is then usually t,aken as the reference a.ngle.
estimate of it is comput,ed by means of T. direct method.
Thenthe syst,em is simulated on a computer,and by
111. SIXULATIOX
AKD CLASSICAL
DIRECT
~ I E T H O D S integrating t,he syst,em differential equations during fault
The routine procedure for transient stability a.nalysis of conditions the post-fa.ult, initial state is obtained. It. is
power syst,ems is simulat,ion on an analog [la-]or a digkal checked It-hether or not. tha.t statelies n-ithin t,he computed
domain.
For
other
applications t,he critical
comput,er [15]-[17]; t,he former met.hod is only applicable stability
for low-order syst,ems. In t,his xvay the differential eclua- swit,ching t,ime is computed by integrat.ing t,he equations
its t.raject,ory reaches t,he
t.ions of t.he syst,em a.re integratedeitherby
elect.rica1 of t.he faultedsystemuntil
analogy or numerically. The main a,dvant,ageof simulation boundary of the stability region. Hence the usual direct
and
direct
is t,hat improvements in the mathemat,ical model can be met,hod applications combine simulation
taken into accountwit,hout difficu1t.y. Its disadvant,ages analysis. The direct. met,hod only subst.itut,esfor simulation
as far as the comput,at,ionof the transient stability region
are as follows.
1) To find t,he boundary of the transient stabilityregion of the post-fault syst.em is concerned. However t.his is the
most. time consuming
the equat,ions must be integrat,ed fGr many initial condi- most important,andbyfarthe
tions; especially for high-order systems this is a time part. of a. st.abilit,yanalysis by computer simulation.
Power system engineers have been using direct methods
consuming and expensive task.
for
t,ransient,stabilityinvestigations
long before Lya2) The procedure must be carried throughseparately
for each numerical example. This is part,icularly import,a.nt, punov's direct, method beca.me popular in system theory
at, the design level where systemparametersare
fre- research. The early direct methods use the energy concept
quent.ly changed. There one would prefer analyt.ica1 (even [48] of which the idea of a L p p u n o v function is a generalconservative) expressions of the stabilityboundary
in ization. It is mainly for single-machine systems (that is a
system consisting of a single machine connected to a
t,he system parameters.
const,ant. mechanical
3) For large int.erconnected systems extremely large busbar of infinite capacity)with
computersystemsare
necessary to a,ccurately represent power input that, a. direct method called the equa.l-area or
useful [9], [21],
the high voltagegrid. Because of t,he large inert*ias in- energy-integral criterion hasbeenvery
volved and the long ties, swings must, be carried out for [22]. In Fig. 1 the electrical pou-er output of t.he machine
several seconds or more. This indeed amounts to a lot of is plotted versus the load angle. The criterion states t,hat
an initial load angle 6 0 of the machine and an initial speed
expensive computer t,ime.
from t.he synchronousspeed
Therefore, especia,lly at the design level of a power deviation wo = [dS(t)/~Zt]~
system or a part of it, one prefers to have a direct method give rise to a stable t'rajectoryif
for stability analysis a t intermediate st,eps to be able t,o
Mw02/2
Area(ABC) 6 kea(CDE).
(9)
study transient stabilitywithout. solving the syst,em equations, and to obtain analytical expressions of the st.a.bilit,y This is the energy-int,egral criterion. If the init.ia1 speed
b0unda1-37 in terms of the system parametes, or at least equals the synchronous speed, then we obt,ain the equalest.imates of this bounday. Simulation would then ma.inly area criterion
be used to check the transient stability properties of the
Area(ABC) 6 Area(CDE).
( 10)
find design.
A mcthod that. is closely related to simulation is phase- This crit,erionis very simple and is very useful for obt,aining
pla.ne or state-space a n d p i s [18]-[20]. This procedure is a quick estimate of the sta,bility region. I t s main dra,n-only feasible for second-order systems; its main merit is backs are as follows: 1) t.he criterion does not show any
that it can lead to some classical direct. methods such as improvement of the stabilit,y region due t,o damping
the equal-areaand
energy-integral criteria, which are torques, although it is valid for any nonnegative value of
dealt svit,hin thenext section.
the damping constant;2) the method cannot begeneralized
It. should be emphasized t,ha.t direct, methodsdo not t o t.ake t.he effect of fast, speedgovernors into account.

dS(t)
d26(t)

111 -

at2

+ a+ Pe(t)- P,(t)
dt

0.

(11)

If t,he mechanical power input is const,ant,t,hen t.he

system is of the second order; if the effect)of fast governors
is takeninto considerat,ion, t,hen the system order is
higher. I n any case the systemcontains a single non1inearit.y; it. is t,he nonlinear relationship between the
electrical pou-er output of the machine and its load angle.
For round-rot or machines this relationship is sinusoidal.
The system hence belongs tothe t.ype considered by
Popov p2] of systems 11-it.11a.nonlinear feedback element.
Various techniques can be used for constructing Lyapunovfunctions for thissystem. For lox-ordersystems
trial-and-error procedures yield useful Lyapunovfunrtions; suchtechniques Irere used in the early papers on the
application of Lyapunovmethods
t.o transient power
system analysis by Gless [23], and Fallide and Pate1
[24]. I n this way results u-ere obtained equivalent to the
energT integral crit,erion. More general results were
obtained by Dharma Rao [ 2 3 ] , [%I. It. is, hon-ever, clear
that, trial-and-error methods are only feasible for l o ~ r ordersystems.Anotherapproach
is the application of
Zubov's method [27], u-hich theoret.ically could lead t.0
the exact doma.in of attraction of an equilibrium st.ate.
Hon-ever this met,hod is also limited to low-order systems,
and requires a great dealof computation. The same resu1t.s
can be obtained more easily by ot.her techniques.
Very interest.ing Lyapunov functions we generated by
observing thatthe system is actually of t.he nonlinear
feedback system type considered by Popov. The stability
of suchsystemshas
been extensively studiedinthe
automaticcontrol area. One of the outst,andingresults
that have been obtained for t.his type of sJ-stem is 6he
celebrat,ed Popovcriterion [2], xhich gives a sufficient,
condition for the asympt.otic stability i n the large of
nonlinear feedbacksystems if the characterist,ic of the
single nonlinear element sat,isfies the condit,ion

uf(4 3 0

u = - a and u = b are hyperplanes in the state space of

the system. The technique used in most papers to derive'
stabilit,y regions from t,he Lyapunov functions is to find
the largest region bounded by a surface V ( x ) = constant,
which lies between t,hose two hyperplanes, where V ( x )
denot,es the Lyapunov funct,ion under consideration
[24]-[26], [29]. Thismethod w-as proposed by Weissenberger [30], and by Walker and AIcClamroch [31]. However,larger&ability
regions oftencan be obtainedby
means of the same Lyapunov funct,ions, using a technique
proposed in [ Z S ] and [32] for second-order systemsand
later generalized t.0 syst.ems of any order [33]. The basic
idea is to compute a region bounded by a surface V ( x ) =
constant., and by parts of the hyperplanes u = - a and
u = b, sucht,hatalltrajectories
passing throughthose
parts of t.he hyperpla.nes are directed inwa.rd to t.he enclosed
region. To illustrnt.e the improvement that canbe obtnined consider the stability diagram for a system of the
second order of Fig. 2 with normalized parameters M = 1,
P, = sin6, P, = 0.S67, a = 0.5. Curve A is t,he boundary
of t.he stability region obtained by means of the classical
curve
B are
energy-integal crit.erion. Curve C and
obt,ained [2S] by mearls of the Lyapunov functions derived
from the proof of the Popov criterion; the boundaries are
obtnined respectively by meam of the t.echniques of the
open and t.he closed Lyapunov cont,ours.
An import,ant pra.ct>icnlproblem is the determination of
the load mgle range t,hat guarantees transient. stabilityfor
the case thatthe initia.1 speed equals the synchronous
speed. This is an important pract.ica1 c,ase since it occurs
for inst.ance when one of t.he feeders connecting the
machine to t,he busbar is t>rippedor when the mechanical
power input, suddenly changes. If governor action is not
considered, thenthe
equal-area criterion discussed in
Section IV yields a sufficient condit,ionfor synchronization.
For systems with damping torque, this criterion can be
generalized by means of the Lyapunovmethod.
The
obtained sufficient condition for transient, &ability [34J
is (Fig. 1)

Area(A3GCA) 6 Area(CDEFC),
(12)
for all u. Various techniqueshavebeen
proposed in
controltheory
t.o const.ruct Lyapunovfunctions
t,hat where So is the initial load angle, and where BG and FE are
demonstrat*ethe validity of t,he Popov criterion. Alt,hough parallel such that tan fl = a2/M.
The single-machine problem is not only important for
the non1inearit.y involved in thepoxer system model
does not. sat.isfy the above inequality for all values of t.he t,he study of the stabilityproperties of an isolat.ed machine
argument u., the same Lyapunov functions can neverthe- tied to an infinite bus; it is also important because oft,en a
of multimachine
a
syst,em canbe
less be used t.0 compute t,ransient, st.abilit,yregions for the stabilit,yproperty
considering separatelyeach
p o w r syst.em. This idea. was used in [ Z S ] and [29]. In the analyzedapproximatelyby
latter paper IZalman's procedure for comput.ing Lyapunov machine of the system while theset of ( n - 1) other

337

WILLEMS: TRANSIEST ST.4BILITF STUDIES

thissection;
for sinlplicity,constant,
power input is
assumed, ahhough governor action ca.n equally well be
t.aken into acc.ount. [39]. Anderson proves t,hat
V(X)

*,,s-s,

+ 2 LCX
j(f)'Qd<

= XTPX

(13

is a Lyapunov funct,ion for system (6) if Q and N are

positive semidefinite diagonal nmtrices, t,he sum
being
Qs)C(ls - A)-lB =
posit,ive definite, such that ( N
H ( s ) is a poshive real matrix, arid if P is a positive definite
solution (n-hich always exists) of the equations

PA

+ ATP = -LLT
=

CTN - LW

QCB

PB

W'W

+ ATCTQ

(16)

+ BTCTQ

where W and L are auxiliary matrices. The solution P

of the (16) can be found in various n-al-s, by solving the
nonlinear algebraic equations, or by spect.ra1fact.orizat,ion,
nlac.hies is then considered as an infinite bus \ i t h respect, 01 bg obiailling the steady-state solution of a ma,t,rix
to the machine under consideration [35],[36]. Moreover aRiccatiequation,
~,SaDurlov funct,ion (15) proves t,he
t,wo-machine system is exactly equivalent t,o a single- synlptotic
in the large of (6) if the nonlinearit,y
nmchine syst.em provided al/Ml = a2/M7rIp, t,hat is insatisfies
particular when damping is neglected (al = a? = 0).
fi(0)= 0,
V. LYAPUNOV
METHODS FOR MULTIMACHINE
SYSTEMS
fJ&)
> 0,
YE, # 0,
i = 1,2, . . . , m. (17)
Fig. 2. St.abi1it.yregions for a numerical example.

The early approaches t o the multimachlne problem by However for the transient st,ability problem, inequalit,ies
means of Lya.punov theory consist. of using the energy (17) are only satisfied for a limited range of the arguments
function as aLyapunov
f u n d o n [23], [37]. I n these a.bout, the zero values. Severt.heless 1,yapunov function
studiesstability
improvement, by means of damping (15) is useful to obtain an estimate of t.he stabi1it.p region.
torques cannot be a.tlalyzed, and governor a.ction is not For t,he mathemat,ical model of the pou-er system disincluded. Act.ually twotypes of energy functionshave
cussed in Section 11, we have
been used; t.he difference is t,he expression of kinetic
CB = BTCT = O,,,
energy. The first expression of kinetic energy is [23],
[371
and hence
n
Ekin

= (13).dfiW$'/2

i=l

whereas the second expression that has been used is

[211, ~ 5 1 1381
,
Ekin

x.

l1JiJfj(Wi -

Wj)2/(2cL1fj).

The set (16) becomes much simpler in th1, case:

PA

+ AZ'P= negative semidefinite

PB

(14)

1 ,I

It will be shown in the sequel that (14) is only a valid part

omm.

C'N

+ ATCTQ.

If P is partitioned

of a Lyapunov f u n d o n if damping torques are uniform,

i.e., if
aI/Ml = @ / M z

. . . = an/Mn.

A different approach tothe a.pplication of Lyapunov

methods t.o the analysis of power system stability is to
t,ake advant.age of t,he fact that the mathemat.ica1 model
(8) is of the multivariablePopov t.ype. The procedure
developed by Anderson for constructing Lya.punov functions for the multivariable Popov criterion for asymptotic
stability in the large can hence be used here to compute
finite stability regions [39], [40]. This approach is similar
to t.he procedure discussed in the preceeding section for
single-machine systems. It is discussed in some det,ail in

\i-e have
PIM-lR

+ M-lRPI + Pz + PZT= negative semidefinite

Pa

+ PJW'R

P1MP1DT

(18)

On,

(19)

D'Q

(20)

P2M-'DT = DTN.

(21)

Xoreover it. should be borne in mind thatthe multimachine power system (6) is not of order (212), but, of
order (2n - l ) , with st.at.evariables w,l w?, . . . , w n , 61 -

338

IEEE TRANSACTIOKS ON ~~UTOMATICCONTROL, AUGUST

6,, 82 - 6,, 6,-1 - 6,. The Lyapunovfunctionshould

hence be a function of the load angle differences only.
This requires

eP2 = eP3 = 0,

(22)

where e is a row vector u-ith n components :

[l 1 . - - 1 ] .

Considering the definition of A it is readily established

that sC(sZ - A ) -lB is a . positive real matxix for any
nonnegative values of the damping constants ul, . . . , a,.
Hence N = Om, and Q = Imm satisfy t,he conditions
of Anderson's theorem for t,he construction of Lyapunov
functions. This yields [40]

on,

(23)

+ pMEM

(24

Pz = P3 =
Pi= M
2R

+ p ( M E R + R E M ) nega.tive semidefinite

(25)

where p is a constant, and where E is an ( n X 7 . ) mat.rix

whose elementsareallequal
to 1. PI (and hence P ) is
positive definit.e if
p

> po

= -

1/(ZXi)

1) For p

0, the Lyapunov function

is obtained, -\vhic,his the energy funct.ion considered in

[23],[37]. It is valid for anyvalues of the damping
constants, andyields the transient stability
region bounded
by

i= 1

llriw*2/2

+ Jc;f(t)'dt

= 0.

It is obt.ained for p = pa, a.nd it is only valid if t.he damping

is uniform, that, is, if all U . ~ ; L W are
~
equal. It yields the
t.ransient. st ability region bounded by

(2.6)

(34)

and (25) holds if

Pl6P60
(27)
where p 1 is the negative solut.ion of the quadrat.ic equa.tion

M i - 1 = 0.
(ir1

(2s)

It is readily checked that p a and p l are equal if and only if

damping is uniform, i.e.,
UJlIfl

= U?/1142 =

(32)

2) The largest stability region that can be obt.ained by

means of t.he above procedure follows from t,he Lyapunov
function

- p1

971

... = UIL/M,.

(29)

Notet,hat cases 1) and 2) areequivalent if one of the

busbars is infinite.
3) For a given set of u i / M i , the best. obtainable Lyapunov func.tion is

Pcx

\There 0 2. p l 2 po, and p 1 depends on the const.ants ut

and
as explained above. The transientstabilit,y region
is bounded by

In all other cases po is smaller than p ] .

The derivative of the Lyapunov funct,ion is nega.tive
semidefinite in the whole state space, since Q is a matrix
(36)
with only zero elements. Using theorem 4 of [39], u-e
The rathersurprising result, is that. theobtained transient
conclude t,hat,the region conta.iningt,he origin and bounded
stability region can get smaller even if the damping
by the closed surface
constants increase; the important, factow are not only the
V(x) = V(P)
(30)
values of the damping constants, but, their relative values.
is a region of asymptotic stabilit.y, if xu is the unstable There are t.wo possible explanations for this phenomenon.
1) Lyapunov methods only yield sufficient, condit.ions;
equilibrium state of (6), which is closest to the origin in
the follon-ing sense. Consider the surfaces V ( x ) = k. For this means that from the comparison of the stabi1it)y
small k , these surfaces are closed and surround t,he origin. regions obtained for tn-o different systems from a class of
If k increases, t,hen the first equilibrium state (necessarily Ign,punov functions one cannot derive a valid comparison
unstable) hit by such a surface is called the closest. equi- of the actualdomains of attraction in both systems.
3 ) The result might give an indication that. the increase
librium stat.ex".
Note t,hat thevalue of V(xu)for the Lyapunov funct,ion of some dumping constants might lead to a, smaller
const,ructed above is independent of the value of the domain of attraction. I t could indeed be argued that
constant. p , since at. anyequilibrium state, w1, . . . , w n nonuniform damping in some \my deteriomtes the
equilibrium between the synchronizing torques of the
vanish. The largest stabilit,y region is hence obtained by
taking p as sn~nllas possible. From this remark the follon-- machines. An introductory simulat.ion study has confirmed
this conjecture, and has shown that the latker explanation
ing conclueions are immediate.

339

WILLEMS: mANSIENT STABILITY STUDIES

considered. The numerical data are given in the reference.

The criticalfa,ult clea,ring time following athree-phase
fault is computed.UsingLyapunovfunction
(33), an
dwl/dt = -alWl
0.5 - sin (X
~/6)
est.imat,e of the critical fault clea.ring time is obtained
equal to 0.43 s. Simulation of t,hesystemonadigital
drn2/clt = -u2w2 - 0.5 sin (z
~/6)
computer reveals that the act,ual critical switching t.ime
dx/clt = w1 - w2
is 0.44 s.
for initia.1 stat,es x(0) = 0, wl(0) = w2(0) = 00. Fora
These examplesshow that. forsystemsfor which the
uniformly damped system (a1 = @ = a ) , the solution is
mathematical model of Section I1 is sufficientJy accurate
the results obt,ained by means of t,he Lyapunov method
x(t) = 0,
are very sa.t.isfactory and in good .agreement with simulawl(t) = wg(t) = woe-at.
tion results. However t.0 maket,heLyapunovapproach
more competit.ive n i t h simulation
techniques
further
This shows tha.ts the initia.1 state underconsideration
results
are
needed
t
o
deal
with
improvements
in
the
belongs to the domain of attractmionof t.heequilibrium
mat,hematical
model.
This
is
necessary
in
some
cases,
as
sta,te (x = w1 = w2 = 0) forallpositive a. The case of
is
discussed
in
the
next
section.
nonunifornz damping a1 = 0.1, az = 2.0 was simula,ted
on a. digital comput.er; convergent solutionswere obt,ained
VI. AREASFOR FURTHER
RESEARCH
.for wo up to 1.5, butdivergent solut,ions for wo = 1.75
Further research onthe t,ransient.power system sta,bility
a.nd higher. This proves thatthe
generally accept,ed
problem
is needed at, least in the following two directions.
intuitive statement, t,hat da.mping always aids stability is
First,
the
ma,thematical model should be improved to
not true in all cases. Resultsin the samedirection are
approach
t,he
rea.1 physicalsystem, and second, better
report.ed by McLain [49].
methods
for
st,abilit,y
ana,lysis areneeded to go along
For dampedsystemsbetterLyapunovfunctionsand
vith
these
improvements
of the model.
hence improved est.imat,es of the t.ransient st.a.bilit.y
A
fist
topic
of
furt.her
research is how to include the
regions are obta.ined by considering amatrix N int.he
effect,
of
transfer
conductances.
Only in thesingle-machine
Andersonprocedure, which is a nonzero matrix. Then,
system
and
the
two-machine
system
withuniform damping
however, the derivat.ive is only nega,tive semidefinite for a.
(u1/Nl
=
a 2 / N 2 ) transfer conduct,ances are easy to deal
limited region in the state space. The computation of the
stability region then gets muchmore complex 1391,and the d h . Indeedboth cases are described by adifferential
idea of openLyapunovsurfacescanbe
a.pplied as ex; equation of the second order of the form
plained in the preceeding section [33].If stability condid*6(t)
dS(t)
-f LY
f B - A COS (6
e) = o (37)
tion (36) is used, then the computational difficulties are
dt2
cIt
rather mild. The most difficult aspect. is the determination
of the stable and unstable equilibrium stat,e by solving
t-he where 6 is the difference of t.he load angles [21], [25], 1381.
set. of nonlinear a.lgebra.ic equations (5). A common tech- This singIe-nonlinearit): problemcan easily be analyzed
nique is to use the steepest descent method t,o minimize by means of the methods discussed in SectmionIV. HowC r ( P e i- PmJe.For the unst.a.ble equilibriuma careful ever, consider the two-machine system with nonuniform
examination of t,he equations is necessary to obtain a good damping and constant,power input
initial guess in t.he it.eration procedure [3T].The computa- M 1 &
alii1 = Pml - EISG1 - EIE?YnCOS (lile12)
tion of t,he stability boundaly a.nd the critical syitching
time is straight,forward [38].The crit.ical swit.ch1ngtime is 1M2&
a,& = P,? - ES2G2 - E1E21r12COS ( 6 2
determinedas explained inSection 111, by numerically
- 61
e1s.
integrating t,he system equat,ions under fault conditions
until the trajectory
crosses the surface defined by (36).
Although this system is also of the mukivariable Popov
To compare t*he Lyapunov a.pproach svith simulation type, the application of the technique of Section V has
methods, some of the more successful results obta.ined for not. led to asatisfactoryLyapunovfunction.This
is a
numerical examples are discussed below. These examples fortiori t,rue for higher order syst,ems.El-Abiad and Nagaprelate to systemsfor
which the mathemat.ica1model
pan [37]looked into this case, but obtained a Lyapunov
of Section I1 is su%cient.ly accura.t.e.El-Abiad and Nagap- function whose derivative is indefinite. I n [21]and [38]
pan [37]consider a four-machine system and c0mput.e the aLyapunov funct.ion is derivedfor uniformly damped
critica.1 switching t.in1e for clearing a symmetrical t*hree- systems, which has azero derivative if in some terms (not
phase fault.Thestability
condit.ion (35), obtainedby
in all) of the system equations ei, is assumed to be 90".
t,he Lyapunov approach, yields an estin1at.e of the critical This procedure has the following apparent. drawbacks.
swhching time equal to 160 radians. Direct, simula,t.ionof
1) The result isonly applicable t.o uniforndydamped
t.hk system shows tha.t the actual critical swit.ching time system xithout. governors.
lies bet,n-een 160 and 165 radians. A more elaborate com2 ) The technique lacks consistency since in some
parison of Lyapunov results and simulationis described in terms eij is assumed go", but in other terms,involving the
1381, where a porn-er syst.em containing nine machines is same pall. of indices, it.is not.

is correct in some cases. Consider the two-machine porn-er

system

+
+

+
+

340

CONTROL, AUTOMATIC

3) In this way some t e r n of indefinite sign a.reneglected in V ( x ) , although the finally obtainedresult is
that V ( x ) vanishesidentically, so that onewonders to
what extent thesmall t.erms can beneglected.
4) From the setof n second-order differential equat,ions
of the multimachinesystem,a
set of n(n - 1)/2 different,ial equationsof the second order is derived involving
all load angle differences. This set is to some extent incompat.ible with the original systemequations because
of the approximations. However, experimentalresults
[38] show-thatthe obtained st,a.bilit.yregions arefair
approximations of the true stability regions.
An improved mathema,ticalmodel and better Lyapunov
functionsareneeded
to include flux decay,sa.t.uration,
voltageregulation, an excitat,ion dynamics.Fluxdecay
was consideredbefore [41], [42], but t.he results are not
entirely satisfact,ory. The difficulties stemmainlyfrom
the fact, t,hatthe mat.hematica1 model is not of the Popov
typeany
more, but multiplicative nonlinea.rities a.re
involved; for such systems much less st,ability results are
known in control theory.
It should also benoted that the directmethods discussed in this paper require the integration of tahesystem
equations during the fault periodwhere a series of SUCcessive events occurs, such as circuit reclosing, genera,t,or
and loaddropping, and capacitor swit.ching [43]-[46].
If one would try to include the fault period in the direct
stabilit,y analysis, one obt,ains a nonautononlous nonlinear
systemfor which stabilitytheory is notvery n-ell developed. Other aspects t,hat require further research are
the effect of t.he kind of fault that occurs, t.he dynanlic
modeling of loads [47], and the effect, of transient pole
saliency, which int.roduces a nonlinear damping term.
VII. CONCLUSION
I n this paper an exposition has been given of the power
system
transient
stability
problem. Some interesting
recent, contribut,ions and somenew
resultshavebeen
treated. The comparison of simula.tion and direct methods
is discussed. The core of the paper concerns t.he application of Lyapunov methods to single-machine and multimachinepower systems.Although some int,erest,ing and
valuableresultsarealreadyavailable,muchresearch
remains to be done; some of the areas for furt.her research
have beenindic.ated at. the end of the paper.
AC~YOWLEDGMENT
The aut,horgratefully acknowledges numerous useful
comments by Prof. J. C. Willems of N.I.T., Cambridge,
and by Prof. A. Va,n den Meersche of t.he University of
Gent, Gent,, Belgium. He also thanks G. Hoffman for his
assistance for the simulation described in Sect.ion V.
REFERENCES
[ l ] J. Peschon, Case study of optimum control of power systems,
1968 Joinf Automatic Control Conf., Ann Arbor, Mich.
[2] R. X. Brockett, The statusof stability theoryfor deternlinist.ic
systems, I E E E Trans. Automat. Contr. (Survey Paper),
vol. AG11, July 1966, pp. 596-606.

ONIEEE TRANSACTIONS

AUGUST

1971

the theory of physical

[SI I. W. Sandberg, Some resultson
systenls governed by nonlinear integral equations, Bell
Syst. Tech. J., vol. 44, 1965, pp. 871-894.
[41 G. Zames, On the input-out.put, stability of time-varying
nonlinear feedback systems-Part I: Conditions derived using
concepts of loop gain, conicity, and positivit,y, I E E E Trans.
Axtomat. Contr., vol. AC-11, Apr. 1966, pp. 228-238.
--,On
the input-output stability of time-varying nonlinear
feedback systems-Part 11: Conditions involving circles in t,he
frequency plane and sector nonlinearit.ies, ZM.,
vol. AC-11,
July 1966, pp. 465-476.
J. C. Willems, Stabilit,y,instability,invertibility,
and causality, SZAX J . Contr.
J. C. Willems, A survey of stabilit.y of distributed parameter
systems, 1969 Joint Automatic Control Conf., Boulder, Colo.
A. Mauduit., Installations Elecfrigues. Paris: Dunod, 1959.
S.B. Crary, Power Sysiem Stability. London:Cha.pman and
Hall, 1947.
E. W. Kimbark, Power System Stability. New York: Wiley,
1948, 1950, 1956.
&.I. A. Laughton, Matrix analysis of dynamic stabilityin
synchronous mu1t.i-machine systenls, Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng.,
vol. 113, 1966, pp. 325-336.
J. M. Gndrill, Dynanlic stabilit.y calculat,ions for an arbitrary
IEEE
number of interconnected
synchronous
machines,
Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS87, Mar. 1968, pp. 835-844.
W . Hahn, Stability of Mootion.. Berlin: Springer, 1967.
R. 1%:.Brockett, Fin.ite Dimensional Lineur Sysiens. New
York: Wiley, 1970.
J. Cenms and V. Hemata, An analog computer study of the
transient
stability
of synchronous machines, Acta Tech.
(Prague), vol. 9, 1964, pp. 567-589.
G. W. St,agg and A. H. El-Abiad, Computer Xethods i n Power
System Analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968, ch. 10.
K. Prabhashankar and W . Janischewsyj, Digital simulation
of multimachine power systems for stability, I E E E Trans.
Power App. Sysi., vol. PAS87, Jan.1968, pp. 73-80.
K. K. Stanton and S. X. Talukda?, T e w int,egration algorithms for t.ransient. stabilitystudies, I E E E Trans. Power
App. Syst., vol. PAS-89, Way/June 1970, pp. 985-991.
N. Dharma Rao, A new approach to the transient stability
problem, A I E E Trans., vol. 60, 1962, pp. 186-190.
N. Dharma Rao and H. N. Ramachandra Rao, Phase-plane
techniques for the solut.ion of t.ransient, stability problems,
Proc., Inst. Elec. En.g., vol. 110, 1963, pp. 1451-1$!1.
N. Dharma R.ao and H. N. Ramachandra Rao, An extension
tothe
solution of
of convent.iona1 phase planetechniques
nlultimachine transient stabi1it.y problems, I E E E Tra.ns.
Power App. Syst., Suppl., 1963,. pp. 69i-711.
P. D. Aylett,, The energy-Integral cnterion of transient
shbility limits of power systems, Proc. Inst. Ebc. Eng., vol.
lOj(C), 1958, pp. 527-536.
C. Szendy and B. Bokay, Transient, and steady-st.ate stability
conditions of power systems, Int. Conf. LargeElectricHighTension Systems, Rep. 308, 1960,
G. Gless, Direct method of Llapnnovapplied totransient
power system st,ability, I E E E Trans. Power App.Syst.,
vol. PAS-85, Feb. 1966, pp. 159-368.
1241 F. Fallside and LI. R. Patel, On the applicat.ion of t.he h a punovmethod
to synchronousmachine
stability, Int. J .
Contr., vol. 4, 1966, pp. 501-513.
I251 IC. Dharma Rao, Generat.ion of Lyapunov functions for the
transient stabilit,y problem, Trans. Eng. Inst. Canada, V O ~ .11,
Rep. C-3, Oct. 1968.
N.Dharma Rao,Routh-Hurwitz conditions andLyapunov
met,hods for
the
transient-stabi1it.y problem,, R O C . Inst.
Elec. Eng., vol. 116, 1969, pp. 539-547.
Y.P u and K. Vongswiya, Konlinear power system stability
study by Liapunovfunction andZubovsmet.hod, I E E E Tra.ns.
Pmer App. Syst.,vol. PAS-86, Dec. 1967, pp.,1480-1485.
J. L. IWlems, Improved Lyapunov function fortransient
power-system stability, Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., V O ~ . 115,
1968, pp. 1315-1317.
M . A. Pai, M . A. hiohan, and J. Gopala Rao, Power System
transient stabilit,y regions using Popovs method, I E E E
Trans. Powu App. Syst., vol. PAS89, i\lay/June 1970, PP.
788-794.
s. Weissenberger, ripplication of results from t.he absolute
stabilit,y problem to the comput,ation of finite stability domains, I E E E Trans. A-utonmt. Contr. (Corresp.), V O ~ . AG13,
Feb. 1968, pp. 124-125.
J. A. Walker enH. X. McClamroch, Finite regions Of attraction for the problem of Lure, Znt. J . Contr., V O ~ .6, 1967,
pp. 331-336.
X. Kerr, discussion of K.Darnla R.ao, Generation 2f LYaP
unov functions forthetransient
stabi1it.y problem, Trans.
Eng. Inst. Canada, vol. 11, Rep. G3, Oct. 1968.

IEEE TR.WS.4CTIONS

ON AUTOblIbTIC CONTROL, VOL.

AC-16, NO. 4,

AUGUST

J. L. Willems, The computation of finite stability regions

by means of open Liapunov surfaces, Int. J . Contr., vol. 10,
1969, pp. 537-544.
J. L. Willems, Generalization of the equal-area criterion
for synchronous machin=, Proc., h s t . Elec.Eng., vol. 116,
1969, pp. 1431- 143:;
J. Peschon et al., Power systemplanning and reliability,
Stanford Res. Inst.., Menlo Park, Calif., SRI-Rep., June 1968.
H. E. Brown et al., A study of stability equivalents, I E E E
Trans. Power A p p . Syst., vol. PBS-88, Mar. 1969, pp. 200-207.
A . H. El-Abiad and K. Kagappan, Transient stabilityregions
of mult.imachine power syst,enls, I E E E Trans. Power A p p .
Sysf., vol. PAS-85, Feb. 1966, pp. 169-179.
3.1. Ribbem-Pavella, Th6orie gbnbrale de lastabilitk transitoire de nmachines synchrones, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ.
LiBge, LiBge, Belgium, Oct.. 1969;
J. L. Willenls and J. C. Willems, The application of Lyapunov
methods to the computation of transientstability
regions
for mult.imachine power systems, I E E E Trans. Power A p p .
Syst., vol. PAS-89, &Iar/June 1970, pp. 795-801.
J. L. Willems, 0pt.imumLyapunov funct.ions andtransient
stabi1it.y regions for mult.imachine power systenls, Proc.
Inst. Elm. Eng., vol. 117, Mar. 1970, pp. 573-578.
W . Siddiqee, Transient stability of an ac generator by Lyapunovs direct method, I n f . J. Conlr., vol. 8, 1968, pp. 131144.
J. L. Willems, Commentson Transient. stabi1it.y of anac
generator by Lyapunovs direct method, I n f . J . Contr.,
V O ~ .10, 1969, pp. 113-116.
E. W . Kimbark, Improvement, of system stability byswitched
series capacitors, I E E E Trans. Power A p p . Sysf., vol. PAS-85,
Feb. 1966, pp. 18&188.
N. Ramarao and D. K. Reitan, Improvementof power syst,em
t.ransient. stability using optimal control: Bang-bang cont.ro1of
reactance, I E E E Trans. Power A p p . Syst., vol. PAS89,
hiay/June 1970, pp. 975-984.

1971

341

[45] W. A. Mittelstadt, Four met,hods of power system damping,

I E E E Trans. Poumr A p p . Syst., vol. PAS-87, Nay 1968, pp.
1328-1329.
[46] E. W. Kimbark, Improvement. of power system stability by
changes in t,he net.work, IEEE Trans. Power A p p . Syst.,
vol. PAS-88, May 1969, pp. 772-781.
[47] &I. H. Kent et a.Z., Dynamic modeling of loads in stability
st,udies, IEEE Trans. Power A ~ v . S y s t . , vol. PAS-88, May
. 1969, pp. 756-763.
[48] P. C. Magnusson, The transient-energy method of calculating
stability, A I E E Trans., vol. 66, 1947, pp. 747-755.
[49] D. K. McLain, Proof of Willems conject,ure concerning
stabilit.y of multimachine power systems, to be published in
Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng.
.

Jacques L. Willems was bornin

Bruges,
Belgium, on September 18, 1939. He received
adegreeinelectromechanical
engineering
from theuniversity of Ghent,,Ghent, Belgium,
engiin 1963, the M.S. degreeinelectrical
neering from M.I.T., Cambridge,in
1964,
and t.he degree of Doct,or of Applied Science
from the University of Ghent, in 1967.
Since 1964 he has been on the st.aff of the
Engineering School of t.he University of
Ghent., except for aleave of absencefrom
February to August. 1970 at Harvard Universit.y, Cambridge, Mass.
He teaches courses onsystem theory, circuit. theory,and power
systems; his main research interests are in the areas
of control theory
and power syst,em analysis.

A Nonlinear Regulator Problem for a Model

of Biological Waste Treatment
GERARD DANS, PETAR

V.

H O K O T O V I ~ ,AND DAVID GOTTLIEB

Abstract-Using
the Monod
model
of bacterial
growth
the
pollutantremoval
problem isformulated as an optimum state
regulator problem. This nonlinear problem is solved by a direct
method based on an application of Greens theorem.

engineers and t,heoristsshould realize t.ha.t the understanding

and
mat.hemat,ical
descriptions
of microbial
growth kinetics[14], [ G I are developing in adirection
that can ma,ke realist,ic applications of optimum control
theory feasible in t,he near future. Although a
generally
IXTRODUCTIOS
accept,ed dynamic model of microbial growth is not
HE continuous flow cultivation of microorganisms a,vailable yet,, most mat,hematical models currently in use
[1]-[3] hasnot
only beenusedin
bact.eriologica1 [15] originate from a model introduced by Monod[16].
I n this paper we use t,he Monodmodel to formulate and
research [4] and ferment,a.t.ionindustry [5], [6], but, has
solve
an optimum control problem for a bact.eria1growth
also becomeone
of the most promising methods for
biological treat.ment of urban wast,es [7]-[15]. Control process. The solution of our problem has two interpretat,ions. First, the feedback control obt,ained maximizes, the
amount, of bacteria produced during a tmnsient from any
Manuscript received July 3, 1970; revised February 26,1971.
Paper recommended by R. E. Larson, Vice Chairman of the IEEE admissible initialst.a,te t.o tmheopt,imumst.eadyst,at.e.
S C S Information Disseminat.ion Commit.tee.
G. DAns and P. Kokotovik are with the Coordinat,ed Science Second, the sa.me feedback cont,rol also ma.ximizes t,he
amount, of thenutrientsubstrate
removed from the
Laboratory and Department, of Electrical Engineering, University
of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.
cont,inuous
flow
during
this
transient.
Thefirst,interpretaD. Gottliebis witht,he Department of Plant Pathology, University
tion is of interest in laborat,ory experiments andindustria.1
of Illinois, Urbana., Ill.