retically, the frequency-control stations
etnoas or oystem tontrol In a
Large Interconnection
EARLE WILD
MEMBER AIEE
Synopsis: This paper describes the prin-
ciples used in controlling the load in a large
interconnected system. Automatic fre-
quency controllers with time-error correc-
tion and tie-line controllers with frequency
bias and time-error correction have been
developed for co-ordinating the operations
of interconnected systems of any size and
geographical extent. Automatic control of
two or more stations simultaneously within
a group is described, and the relation of the
auxiliary frequency controllers to the speed
governors is also discussed.
Introduction
THE interconnection of many con-
| tiguous power systems into large co-
ordinated groups of several million kilo-
watts has made imperative the develop-
ment of control apparatus of great variety
and refinement. The intended purpose
of these interconnections required that
economies of generation be maintained
and that designated power flows be held
steady. The geographical extent and
the variety of relationships between the
many properties made it necessary to use
control equipment which would function
in widely separated locations and with a
minimum of direction. Increases in the
size and number of large variable loads
indicated the need for closer speed con-
trol. The final object of the control ap-
Paper 41-80, recommended by the ATEE committee
on power
winter
generation, and presented at the AIEE
convention, Philadelphia, Pa., January
27-31, 1941. Manuscript submitted November 28,
1940; made available for preprinting December 16,
1940.
EARLE WII,D is load dispatcner for the Common-
wealth Edison Company. Chicago, Ill.
condition should be fairly well averaged
out. The displacement can only be ex-
plained by unusual local conditions. On
the other hand, the point in the 6,500-
7,000-foot range is for the Weather Bu-
reau Station at Mount Locke, where the
period of record is only four years. Here
a year of unusual temperature conditions
might have affected the mean tempera-
trsoebut probably not sufficiently
to bring this point within the more or less
expected trend of the curve,
Examiination of figure 5 shows Kchanges
in slope at different points along the three
232 TLAiNSACTIGNS
would only be following the variations in
the load of the central group. Automatic
frequency controllers and automatic tie-
line controllers were used for this purpose.
Two objections arose to this simple
plan. WNhen two, three, or sometimes
more of the tie lines departed from
schedule in the same direction, the fre-
quency-control station was unable to re-
paratus, therefore, was to maintain the store the frequency without an excessive
most constant frequency and thus permit load change. The other objection came
i fo l v ti f
each local group to operate its individual from the continua variations infrequency
system as local requirements dictate for causing the tie-line loads to vary. It
maximum economy. was not only difficult to maintain these
tie-line loads at scheduled value, but a
ic System of Control large part of the regulation was being
Bas done in opposition to the frequency cor-
The original system of control consisted rection of the central group. Thus the
in giving one central group responsibility original simple system of control did not
for the frequency control. All other function as well as intended.
groups starting from this point were in-
terconnected through one or more tie Tie Line Biased by Frequency
lines which were held at definite scheduled
loads. These other groups thus were These difficulties led to the develop-
varying their own generation locally, to ment of the tie-line biased-by-frequency
meet their own load requirements. Theo- method of automatic control, which is
TIME ERROR
MEGAWATTS SECONDS
25 +s_-3__
20
15 - i \_
_ \0
5
\
Figure 1. Character- 5
istic curves of a tie- -_ \_.\_
line contoller
J 15
Shows tie-line lend
deatrs
depdrturesfor
from2
om
nOrmdl, corre- - __\
sponding frequency I
25 ' 5C
an
dnd
ieerrd-SECONDS
time-error de- 597 5980 59.9 60 601 C0.2 60.3
viations FREQUENCY
curves, but these do not appear in the are presented here from which a basic
same range of altitudes as was the case study may be made to determine the
with the three northern districts. As limits at which standard apparatus may
would be expected, the mean tempera- be used at higher altitudes.
tures at the lower altitudes are higher
than for similar altitudes in the northern References
districts. However, the curves for the 1. Climatological Data of the United States for
northern and southern districts approach 1938 from the United States Weather Bureau,
each other at the higher altitudes. Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C.
As seen from figure 2 the retardation ALSOFoAMERICAeN pAraRtlCULTuLRS' Part 2,
2.mae
and inversion of the temperature-lapse Wind, Joseph B. Eincer, senior meteorologist,
United States Weather Bureau, Depalrtment of
rate supports the general practice of mak- Commerce Washington, D. C.
ing no correction for ratings for altitudes 3. SI JOHN MOORE'S METEO:ROLOG)Y (book).
up to 3,i300 feet (1,000 meters). Data 4. EsLEMENTS OF HYDROLOGY (book), A. F.Meyer.
Wild-System Control ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
being used extensively in large intercon-
nections. With it, the fundamental
plan of regional control of loads is con-
tinued, but instead of holding tie-line
loads at constant value, they are per-
mitted to deviate from schedule whenever
the frequency varies and in a direction to
relieve the burden of the frequency-con-
trolling center. The amount the tie-line
load is varied, commonly known as bias,
is a function of the frequency effect on
load and the action of the speed governors
of the turbines. This relationship will be
described in a later section.
This bias principle permits tie-line loads
to be varied in a relieving direction and be
restored with a minimum change in gen-
eration in each group. It also assures
the frequency-regulating center that
several tie lines will be biased correctly
for each one causing a frequency depar-
ture from normal. Thus any number of
groups may be interconnected under this
plan without increasing the burden of the
central group.
The performance on several of these tie
lines has been checked by means of coun-
ters, which register the deviations from
normal. These show that most groups
hold to scheduled tie-line loads about 70
per cent of the time, cause frequency de-
viations about 10 per cenit of the time,
and vary in a direction to relieve the fre-
quency deviations 20 per cent of the time.
Actually, each group on bias is assisting,
in direction at least, twice as much as it is
contributing to frequency deviations.
Frequency Effect on Load
Before the correct amount of bias
could be determined for any system it was
necessary to know the effect of frequency
changes on the load. Studies were made
in the Chicago system to determine the
amount of load change for a given fre-
quency change. It was found, as a
very general rule, that one-tenth-cycle
frequency departure resulted in approxi-
mately a one per cent change in system
load. This figure is somewhat less than
has been observed on some large inter-
connections, but has been checked many
times since the staged tests were made,
whenever important intersystem tie lines
opened automatically under heavy load
and there were sudden frequency changes.
This figure takes into account the aver-
age response of a composite group of
governors on the turbines affected, as
they are found in normal service and
without unusual attention being given to
increasing their sensitivity or to block
them.
This figure also includes some effect of
MAY 1941, VOIL. 60O
voltage changes. Whenever the fre-
quency departs from normal there is a
change in voltage, due to change in the
speed of the shaft-driven exciters on the
main turbines. A test in one large load
zone, which is mostly industrial in charac-
ter, shows that whenever the voltage
drops one per cent there is a l/2 per cent
drop in customer load. However, when
the frequency drops there is not a general
drop in voltage proportional to the drop
in speed, as the automatic voltage regula-
tors provide correction for at least 50 per
cent of the load. Probably the largest
effect of minor frequency changes comes
both from a change in speed in the indus-
trial motor load and the action of the
more sensitive speed governors.
Tie-Line Bias Setting
The tie-line bias setting used is the one
which will permit the tie-line load to
change an amount equal to the group-load
change for any given frequency devia-
tion. As the frequency rises the load in-
creases, but the generation remains con-
stant except for the small decrease caused
by the speed governors. The tie line
supplies the difference and thus tends to
oppose the frequency rise. When the
frequency is restored to normal the tie-
line load is returned to schedule without
adjusting the generation. Thus when-
ever the frequency varies one-tenth cycle,
the tie-line load is changed an amount
equal to one per cent of the total gener-
ated load. This bias is extended propor-
tionally for other departures from the
normal of 60 cycles.
Time-Error Bias
There are times, however, after the
frequency has departed from normal for
a considerable period, when it is neces-
sary to arbitrarily offset the frequency in
the opposite direction in order to correct
an integrated frequency or time error.
If a great many of the tie lines in an inter-
connection are being operated on the tie-
line bias principle, it becomes very diffi-
cult for the centrally-located frequency-
control station to offset the frequency
manually. It was desirable, therefore,
to add time-eror bias to each of the fre-
quency-biased tie lines. Whenever the
time departs from normal a time-error
indicator, therefore, similarly causes a de-
parture in tie linlein such a direction as to
offset the frequency and correct the time
error.
Figure 1 is a chart of the relation of tie-
line load to frequency and electric time
error in a controller. All three of these
Wild-System Gontrol
factors must be satisfied, or the controller
will change the system load until the tie-
line load reaches a balance point. Figure
2 shows the changes in tie-line load as the
frequency and time-error deviate from
normal on a large group.
Description of Controllers
The equipment used in the control con-
sists of the following apparatus:
1. Frequency controller with an electric
time-error correction.
2. Tie-line controller.
3. Tie-line controller biased by frequency.
4. Tie-line controller biased by frequency
and with electric time-error correction.
5. Cascading settings of tie-line controllers
when used in series.
6. Devices for controlling the load on two
turbines in separate stations.
The tie-line controller biased by fre-
quency and with electric time-error cor-
rection, and the frequency controller with
electric time-error correction will be de-
scribed. Figure 3 shows a diagram of
the electrical circuit of a typical tie-line
controller, which has both frequency bias
and time-error correction. The appara-
tus, as commonly used for this purpose,
consists of a frequency bridge which is
tuned for 60 cycles. One corner of the
bridge has been opened and extended to
a slide emounted in the recording
tie-
line meter. The zero or center point of
this slide wire has a froot "setter" and is
placed at the scheduled tie-line point,
wherever that may be from hour to hour.
The movable contact of this slide wire is
operated by the tie-line recorder carriage.
Whenever the tie line is at the scheduled
point, the contact is in the center of the
slide wire and the frequency bridge re-
mains balanced. If the tie line is dis-
placed to one side or the other of the zero
point, more resistance is inserted in one
leg of the frequency bridge than the other,
calling for a change in frequency in order
to restore the balance of the galvanome-
ter circuit or the correction of the tie-
line load. Similarly, a second corner of
the frequency bridge has been opened
and extended to a slide wire in a time-
error indicator. This time-error indica-
tor consists of two electric motors, one
driven by the system frequency and the
other driven by the exact frequency of 60
cycles obtained from a crystal oscillator
time standard. The speed of these two
motors is compared through differential
gearing, and any resulting displacement
operates the pointer on the slide wire of
the time-error indicator to change ap-
propriately the balance point on the
frequency bridge.
TRANSACTIONS 233
 In order to regulate a system within Figure 3. Circuit 'SLIDE
'IN TIE WIRE
LINEI
I
plus or minus one second over widely diagram ofa tie-line RECOREPoel
scattered controllers requires that highly controller, with fre-
accurate time standards be provided. quency bias andon
Some of the larger cities have sources of t corcto
astronomical time, but these are not gen- DTIMEEICOR
erally available over a wide interconnec- EC.
tion. It has been agreed, in this inter-
connection, to use the primary frequency
standard of the crystal oscillator type as a IMPULSES IMPULSE 1- SEC.
source of true time. These have an error
of one part in two million and may be
readily compared with observatory time
as received from Arlington. Even as-
GALVANOMTE
FIELD
\>OM
suming an error in setting these oscillators
at widely scattered points, it will not be
difficult to keep the time-error indicators
within a quarter of a second of each other.
The amount of tie-line departure that
might be introduced by an error of a quar-
ter of a second in the time standard would,
l
at the most, be only one or two mega- 60
watts in any group.
The apparatus if `the frequency-con- amount the frequency has deviated from in the frequency bridge is very important.
trolling centers is.similar to the tie-line the calibration value of the frequency For example, if the tie line is off schedule
controlling apparatus described above, bridge. and the frequency has not departed from
except that there is no tie-line slide wire. normal, indicating that the load in some
The bridge is continuously tuned for 60 Rate of Load Response other group of companies is off schedule in
cycles, except when the time-error indica- the opposite direction, the controller sends
tor is displaced from its center point. The galvanometer circuit is unbalanced out very short corrective impulses and it
The galvanometer is a Leeds and any time one of the three characteristics takes considerable time for this tie-line
Northrup contact-making type, in which is varied from the normal value. If two error to be corrected. Similarly, the
there are wiping cams which make con- of the characteristics are abnormal, the other zone, whose generation is displaced
tact with the "raise" or "lower" circuits galvanometer is still further unbalanced from the correct value in the opposite
once every two seconds. The duration of unless these two are in opposition. direction, would be making a very slow
these contacts is proportional to the Comparison of these counterinfluences correction and the load of the frequency-
controlling center would not need to be
___-_ _____ _____ disturbed. If, on the other hand, were
l_ l_ __ __ -
l_l_ the tie line to be off schedule in the same
0 M.W. TIE LINE direction as the frequency, indicating that
A B c D this group of companies is producing the
50M.W. ll i i @ &it ;tW frequency departure, the controller would
send out very long impulses and cause the
generation to change very rapidly at the
SCHEDULE LINE point which was most responsible for the
L__II ooM.W _ I ] - frequency departure.
2fP.M. 3P.M. 4P.M. The unbalancing of the bridge by time
- error is a much more gradual influence
FREQuENcr
_____ _____ _ and requires, likewise, a much longer pe-
riod for the time correction.
The controllers in the large group have
60<v I 1 L J been set to give a maximum correction
to tie-line load of 20 megawatts in 30
seconds. The frequency-controller group
0__
2FM. 3fM.
I
4F.M.
_ Figure 2. A tie-line load has about one-half this rate of response,
curve showing and the smaller groups are decreased to
____ -l from schedule, effected by oemgwtaiue
ll [ TIME ERROR II frequency and time-error oemgwt iue
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ l_ _l_ l_ l_ _l iases
I
5.E
S,LW8'
1"&X8,,
L",'* I.-I"'+u*weXW|4all'
The tie-line load is (A)
high with low frequency,
_________
|
8|| l
|{4"""'tttiu#""4i'i'
l l l ~~~~~~time 'igits
(Bic
error, (C) decreasing
Several controllers may be

.series along an extended transmission

istalled in
;-- 5 SEC FAST [ - with high frequency but
ll l ll l ~~~~~~continued
l ll time error, (D) .link,
.remote shownthein frequency-control
as from most
figure 4. The onecenter
. 2PM. 3P.M f f4P.M. low wihhigh ,requency. is pvnabias s tigproportional to the

234 TRANSACTIONS Wild-Syste Control ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING


A ,_ b tings of three tie-line con-
1000
lw 50w
1e FF5MWB
MBSET
FOMt Fj- - OR't-
MW
SlFLT TIE
F T ONER
C LOAD LINE CONTROL
Q TIE LINE COWNOLLER
size of its system. The next controller
toward the frequency-controlling center
is given a setting which includes its own
proportional bias and the bias of the con-
troller in back of it. If there are con-
trollers in smaller companies which are on
flat tie-line settings or which are held
manually at a constant value, these, of
course, are not taken into account in de-
termining the bias setting. The con-
troller which is nearest to the frequency-
controlling center and having the highest
bias may actually be operating in one of
the smaller companies or one of the
smaller generating stations. If the con-
troller in the more remote company
should fail to effect its tie-line departure,
the controller more centrally located
would then be called on for a contribution
out of proportion to the size of the latter
companly. This is prevented in two ways:
(1) By a suitable load-limiting band on
the generators which restrict the depar-
ture to a proper value, and (2) by limiting
the rate of response of the smaller con-
troller so that the larger company will
have sufficient time in which to make its
correction before the smaller company
has made an extended departure from its
normal generation.
In one large interconnected system
there are now 60 companies operating in
parallel. These have generally adopted
this principle of frequency and tie-line
control. There are 17 of these controllers
operating in parallel, 2 of them regulating
the frequency only, and the other 15 on
one or another form of tie-line control.
Figure 5. Load °
cunrves of two stations
equipped for simul- E ,.°
taneous automatic TT02 rL II
Amount of loadd lil
at
ariations (X
creases sharply when
only one station is on lllllll
automatic regulation °, X
MAY 1941, VOL. 60
to-l
~ Figure 4. Cascaded set-
Ltrollers
-CENTRAL
on a transmission
UW 11
WITRAL
GROUP
FOTREQUENCY system
GROUP Bids setting of group B in-
A: cludes bias of group A, but
does not include group C,
GROUP OF
a smdll system operating on
flat tie-line control
COMPINI
The smaller companies are generally on
flat tie-line control unless they are in se-
ries with a larger group which is on bias.
One has installed time-error correction,
and several others are now providing
time-error correction equipment. With
this method of control all local problems
of generation are handled locally. Re-
sponsibility for frequency departures or
inadequate generation is indicated at its
source and corrected. The physical dis-
tance between companies or groups of
companies is not a limitation, and new
groups may be added to the interconnec-
tion and perform satisfactorily by adding
a new controller without requiring
changes in any of the existing facilities.
New interchange contracts which are
made locally between any groups of com-
panies do not call for changes in the ap-
paratus, as it is adaptable to almost any
power-flow requirements. The only pre-
caution necessary is that the frequency
bridges must be reasonably accurately
tuned for 60 cycles. Where time stand-
ards are provided this is very simply
checked, and where there are no standards,
other apparatus, such as tuning forks, can
be used, which will permit checking the
frequency bridge accurately enough for
load-control purposes.
Simultaneous Automatic
Control of Two Stations
Once a company or group of companies
have installed a controller, the problem
arises as to the method to be used in uti-
ST&TION
ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
S"O
in- -loo__ l_ l_
lov"AMv
j. 7A.Mu 4Ax
Wild-System Control
lizing the controlling impulses. The load
and the number of generating stations
have frequently grown to a point where it
is not practical to assign the regulating
responsibility to one station. This has
been overcome in the Chicag area by the
installation of one controller, which is
sending its correcting impulses to two
generating stations simultaneously. This
appears to be the best arrangement in any
company or group of companies which are
operating under a pooling arrangement,
and the control of the load on the local
transmission system is not necessary.
After the controlling impulses are di-
rected to two stations, it is desirable that
the turbine selected for the automatic
control in each station respond in similar
amounts to the identical impulses. These
turbines may be of different size and have
entirely different governor characteristics.
Two devices have been used for introduc-
ing these impulses into the governors of
the respective turbines. One of these
consists of a rheostat which operates a
torque motor attached to the pilot cylin-
der of the governor, and makes a small
and controlled load change. The two
rheostats may be easily timed to travel at
the same rate in the two stations, and by
control of the necessary torque they can
be made to make similar load changes, ex-
cept at valve-opening points. These
valve-opening points are traversed manu-
ally. This device, acting on the pilot
valve, is not only faster in response than
the synchronizing motor, but it avoids
any inertia or loose play which is present
in governor linkage. The rheostat also
acts as its own load-limiting device.
The other apparatus which has been de-
veloped consists of an instantaneous
wattmeter of the Kelvin balance or elec-
tronic type, in which the small driving
motor in the meter is used to drive the
carriage of the meter from the impulses
of the controller. The impulses are also
sent to the synchronizing motor, and if the
turbine makes a larger load change than
required for the length of impulses being
used, the wattmeter becomes unbalanced
and interrupts any subsequent impulses
T 5~~~~~~~~~~I
TAIO
ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL rATIONS
x_ 1_ 1__1_1_1
-_
l_ |___|_
5A.M. 4A.. 3AM
x 2
TRANSACTIONS 235
 manl,soevtz. lomageyswtrOIuinofhegvsmayri-
59.5CYCLES l l
1-
0 CYCLES
ib
i0.5 CYCLES l
lf M.
to the turbine. The speed of the driving
motors in the two wattmeters can simi-
larly be timed together.
Need for More
Automatic Control of Stations
In any station which has automatic
load control, the variation in its load can
be analyzed to come from two sources:
One, the variations in the load of the
system as it changes from minute to
minute, and the other the irregularities
in generation of the nonautomatic sta-
tions. These latter variations are caused
largely by the inability of these stations to
follow adequately the system-load
changes. Frequently it has been found
that some of the largest burden on the
automatically-controlled station comes
from the simultaneous delayed action on
two or three other stations within the
same group.
In the Chicago system an attempt was
made many years ago to assist all stations
in following the load trend by having a
system totalizer in every operating gal-
lery, which would indicate the total sys-
tem load at all times. Each operator
was then given a schedule which indicated
the portion of the system total load as-
signed to that station. Although this
method has proved quite workable, no
operator is able to follow manually the
trend as fast as the automatic station
does, and so after each large load change
it is found that the regulating station has
to make a counterchange of load as the
other stations follow manually.
In a system of, let us say, five stations,
one may be a base-load station, another
the automatically-controlled station, and
the other three following the trend either
maualy as obere on a totalizing
meter, or under load dispatcher's orders.
If these latter three, or at least the one or
236 TRANSACTIONS
iSO -6
INTE CONNECTiON OPEN
" ,lwithin a very narrow band. This has
| 1s_governors
l the instantaneous frequency varies but
eR2PM.
Figure 6. Frequency curve of a large system,
showing effect of interconnections on width of
frequency variations
two of them making the largest load varia-
tions, could make their change in load
before the full-load change of the auto-
matic station has been completed, the
burden on the automatic station would
be very sharply reduced.
The experience in Chicago with two
stations operating simultaneously (figure
5) indicates that the burden on either one
is less than half what it would be if only
one were on automatic control. This
indication has proved so definite that
steps are now being taken to extend the
automatic control to practically all the
major generating stations. The so-called
base-load stations during the minimum
hours become the variable-load stations
on the system, and at these hours take
over the automatic regulation.
Relation of Controllers to Governors
The function of the auxiliary speed de-
vice or frequency controller, as it is com-
monly called, does not supersede that of
the speed governor. The speed governor
must continue to maintain instantaneous
frequency, but in maintaining this fre-
quency it distributes the load in a manner
that is often not desired. The controller,
on the other hand, is relatively slow in its
action, but it does give droop correction,
which the governor cannot do, and it can
easily be made to properly allocate the
load in any proportions desired. The
importance of the governor seems to vary
inversely with the size of the electrical
system.
Figure 6 shows the frequency varia-
tion in a large system while itwas prto
..............
a much larger interconnection and also
while it was being operated isolated.
WYild-System Control
Certainly it is apparent that the smaller
systems, especially if supplying variable
loads, must have the turbines equipped
with the best governors available. In
the large interconnections, on the other
hand, there is an enormous inertia effect
available, which holds the system speed
led to the belief in some quarters that the
| [ ,- should not be too sensitive and
may even have a small dead band.
The load-control problem is generally
rather easily handled in a small isolated
system. The large interconnection-load
control is much more difficult. Although
little from minute to minute, it does drift
over the longer period of hours or more,
over a much wider band than is found in
the small systems. This is a load-control
problem, which must be handled by the
controllers or by supplementary manual
action.
The manufacturers have proposed that
governors be built with a sensitivity of
0.04 per cent and a per cent regulation up
to two per cent. These are undoubtedly
desirable on the smaller systems,; but on
the large interconnections governors with
a sensitivity of 0.08 per cent and from
four per cent to six per cent regulation
would be satisfactory. Where flat tie-
line regulation is used, the action of too
responsive governors is contrary to the
action called for by the controllers. With
the tie-line bias principle, however, more
responsive governor action could easily
be accommodated by increasing the
amount of bias setting. The problem of
modernizing enough governors in a large
interconnection, where they may run up
to 1,000 in number, so that a few will not
be carrying a large portion of the regula-
tion, is very difficult, and also the bene-
fits to be derived from such a program
are probably quite limited.
Conclusions
1. A centrally located frequency control
with automater tie-lneacontrollers maintaino
a g ractpical method ofhcolding steady the
frequency in large interconnections, regard-
less of size or numbers of interconnections.
2. The tie-line biased-by-frequency prin-
ciple relieves the regulating burden on both
the frequency control and the tie-line regula-
tion stations.
3. Several of the variable-load stations in
any group should be sharing the automatic
regulation.
4. Adequate governors are necessary, but
it appears that the sensitivity and per cent
versely wvith the size of the systems and the
nature of the load.
ELECTRICAL ENG INEERING