Power System Operation and

Control

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 Power Balancing Control
No. Control Name Time Frame Objectives
Power balancing, transient
1 Inertial Response < 5 seconds
frequency. (automatic)
Primary Control, governor 3 seconds to 10 Power balancing, transient
2
(Frequency Response) minutes frequency. (automatic)
Power balancing, steady-state
20 seconds to
3 Secondary Control (AGC) frequency. (automatic, signal-
20 minutes
based)
5 minutes to 1 Power balancing via economic
4 Tertiary Control (SCED/OPF)
hour dispatch.

• Inertia is the dominant influence on the initial rate of change of frequency

(RoCoF). If RoCoF is too low, protective relays may trip and disconnect generators
from the system.
 Grid Reliability
• Grid frequency can indicate whether significant changes in either supply or
demand occurs.

• One challenge for grid reliability is to maintain stable grid frequency

following a contingency event (i.e. a large power plant or associated
transmission line fails).

• When the grid frequency falls below a predefined level, grid operators will
disconnect some customers from the grid to boost the frequency.

• Such disconnections are known as under-frequency load shedding (UFLS).

UFLS is to balance supply and load for remaining system.

• If frequency drops too fast, RoCoF may be large, which will cause relays to trip
generators that lead to even less generation and then lower frequency.
 Inertia

Heavy truck v.s. Compact sedan: when running at the same speed,
which one is harder to stop?

• Similarly, large-scale heavy turbine-generators have huge inertia.

• The more inertia, the slower the generator will slow down.
 Inertia

Inertia in power systems refers to the energy stored in large rotating generators and some
industrial motors.
• Solar/wind provides little inertia.
• Virtual inertia.

If power mismatch event occurs, then,

frequency deviates from the nominal value.

Lower inertia, lower nadir.

nadir

In addition to nadir, we also care about the initial Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF).
Lower inertia, higher RoCoF.
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 Inertia

• When a disturbance occurs, e.g. loss of a generator, the system would be short of
generation.
• The stored energy will then be extracted from the inertia of the spinning generators
and temporarily make up for the lost generator.
• This action will slow down the generators – Frequency drops.
• This will provide time for the mechanical systems in the grid to detect the imbalance
and react.
 Inertia of a Single Machine

The inertia of a single machine is equal to the kinetic energy Ei stored in the rotating
shaft of synchronous generator, which is defined as:

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Ei = Ji ω2n
2

Ji : the moment of inertia of the shaft in kg∙𝑚2 ∙𝑠.

ω𝑛 : the nominal rotational speed.

The inertia constant Hi of a generator is defined as the ratio of kinetic energy Ei of a

rotor of a synchronous machine to the rating of a machine Si (in MVA) :

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𝐸𝑖 Ji ω2n
Hi = = 2
𝑆𝑖 𝑆𝑖
 System Inertia (Multi-machine)
The power system inertia, Esys is equivalent to the rotating kinetic energy in the system.
The system inertia determines initial RoCoF.

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Esys = ෍ Ei = ෍ Ji ω2n = ෍ Hi Si
2
Swing equation:
(sum over all generators) It describes the rotor
dynamics of a synchronous
generator 𝑖.
d𝜔𝑖 𝑃𝑖𝑀 − 𝑃𝑖𝐸
𝑅𝑜𝐶𝑜𝐹𝑖 = = ω P𝑖𝑀 : the mechanical power of generator 𝑖.
dt 2𝐻𝑖 S𝐵𝑖 𝑛 P𝑖𝐸 : the electrical output power of generator 𝑖.

The swing equation of the equivalent model can be applied to the whole system:

d𝜔 −Δ𝑃𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 It describes the dynamic behavior of the system frequency

𝑅𝑜𝐶𝑜𝐹𝑠𝑦𝑠 = = ω during a short period of time following a disturbance of
dt 2𝐻𝑖 S𝐵𝑖 𝑛 power mismatch.
Δ𝑃𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 is the change in system active power in MW.
 Challenge: Low Inertia
1. More solar/wind power in the grid -->
2. less traditional generators online -->
3. less inertia -->
4. worse performance (lower nadir & higher RoCoF) -->
5. system instability

Gird frequency response

under different penetration
levels of variable renewable
energy, after a disturbance
(IEEE 24-bus system).
 Power System Inertia
To address low inertia issue, we can include grid-forming converter based virtual
inertia resources in the system.

Allocation of resources providing virtual

inertia also matters significantly.

Frequency responses with and without virtual inertia

Dynamics and Behaviour of Power System Grid

HOW THE POWER GRID BEHAVES…!!

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 One-line Diagram

• Most power systems are balanced three phase systems.

• A balanced three phase system can be modeled as a single
(or one) line.
• One-lines show the major power system components, such
as generators, loads, transmission lines.
 Example Three Bus System

Pie charts Bus 2

-17 MW 17 MW
Bus 1
show
3 MVR -3 MVR Generator
1.00 pu

percentage 200 MW
100 MVR
1.00 pu
loading of
100 MW
lines 2 MVR
-33 MW -17 MW
150 MW AGC ON
10 MVR 5 MVR 100 MW
114 MVR AVR ON
33 MW 17 MW
-10 MVR -5 MVR
Bus 3 1.00 pu

100 MW
50 MVR Load
150 MW AGC ON
Bus 35 MVR AVR ON
Circuit Breaker
 Power Balance Constraints

• Power flow refers to how the power is moving through the

system.
• At all times the total power flowing into any bus MUST be zero!
• This is know as Kirchhoff’s law. And it can not be repealed or
modified.
• Power is lost in the transmission system.