BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

Power system stability – 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 system integrity is
preserved.

Classification of power system stability:

Rotor angle stability – the ability of interconnected synchronous machines of a power

system to remain in synchronism under normal operating conditions and after being
subjected to a disturbance.

 It depends on the ability to maintain/restore equilibrium between electromagnetic

torque and mechanical torque of each synchronous machine in the system.
 Instability that may result occurs in the form of increasing angular swings of some
generators leading to their loss of synchronism with other generators.

Consider

Single-line diagram:

Line
G M

EE 357 – A. Nerves, Electrical & Electronics Engineering Institute, Nov. 16, 2004, June 2010 1
 Idealized model:

XG XL XM

VT1 VT2
I
EG EM

Phasor diagram: EG

j I XG

VT1
j I XL
VT2

I

j I XM
EM

Power-angle curve


o
90

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 Power transferred from the generator to the motor:

EG E M
P sin 
XT
where X T  X G  X L  X M

Stability – condition of equilibrium between opposing forces

Change in electrical torque of a synchronous machine following a disturbance:

Te  Ts   TD 

synchronizing
damping
torque
torque
 Lack of sufficient synchronizing torque  instability through an aperiodic drift in
rotor angle
 Lack of sufficient damping torque  oscillatory instability

Categories of Rotor Angle Stability:

(a) small-signal (small-disturbance or steady-state) stability – ability of the power

system to maintain synchronism under small disturbances.
 The disturbances are considered to be sufficiently small that linearization of
system equations is permissible for purposes of analysis. Such disturbances
are continually encountered in normal system operation, such as small
changes in load.
 A power system is steady state stable for a particular steady-state operating
condition if, following any small disturbance, it reaches a steady-state
operating condition which is identical or close to the pre-disturbance operating
condition.
 Small signal stability depends on the initial operating state of the system.
Instability that may result can be of two forms: (i) increase in rotor angle
through a non-oscillatory or aperiodic mode due to lack of synchronizing
torque, or (ii) rotor oscillations of increasing amplitude due to lack of
sufficient damping torque.

Types of oscillations:
1) Local modes or machine-system modes – associated with the swinging of units of
a generating station with respect to the rest of the power system.
2) Inter-area modes – associated with the swinging of many machines in one part of
the system against machines in other parts of the system.

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 3) Control modes – associated with generating units and other controls.
4) Torsional modes – associated with the turbine-generator shaft system rotational
components.

(b) Transient stability – ability of the power system to maintain synchronism when
subjected to a severe transient disturbance, such as a short circuit on transmission
line.

 A power system is transiently stable for a particular steady-state operating

condition and for a particular (large) disturbance or sequence of disturbances
if, following that (or sequence of) disturbance(s) it reaches an acceptable
steady-state operating condition.
 Instability is in the form of aperiodic drift due to insufficient synchronizing
torque, and is referred to as first swing stability.; it could also be a result of
increased peak deviation caused by superposition of several modes of
oscillation causing large excursions of rotor angle beyond the first swing.

 first swing
instability

stable

Dynamic stability:

North America: small-signal stability in the presence of automatic control devices

(AVR) vs. classical steady-state stability without automatic controls.

French/German: transient stability

CIGRE, IEEE – recommend non-use of “dynamic stability”

EE 357 – A. Nerves, Electrical & Electronics Engineering Institute, Nov. 16, 2004, June 2010 4
Voltage stability – ability of a power system to maintain steady acceptable voltages at all
buses of the system after being subjected to a disturbance from a given initial operating
condition.

 Instability that may result occurs in the form of a progressive fall or rise of
voltage of some buses. The possible outcome of voltage instability is loss of load
in the area where voltages reach unacceptably low values, or a loss of integrity of
the power system.
 The main factor contributing to voltage instability is usually the voltage drop that
occurs when active and reactive power flow through inductive reactances
associated with the transmission network; this limits the capability of transmission
network for power transfer. The driving force for voltage instability are the loads;
in response to a disturbance, power consumed by the loads tends to be restored by
the action of distribution voltage regulators, tap changing transformers, and
thermostats.

Voltage collapse – the process by which the sequence of events accompanying voltage
instability leads to a blackout or abnormally low voltages in a significant part of the
power system.

Voltage Stability Subclasses

(a) Large-disturbance voltage stability – the system’s ability to maintain steady voltages
following large disturbances such as system faults, loss of generation, or circuit
contingencies.
(b) Small-disturbance voltage stability – the system’s ability to maintain steady voltages
when subjected to small perturbations such as incremental changes in system load.

Frequency stability – the ability of a power system to maintain steady frequency

following a severe system upset resulting in a significant imbalance between generation
and load.

Long-term stability analysis – focus on the slower and longer-duration phenomena that
accompany large-scale system upsets and on the resulting large, sustained mismatches
between generation and consumption of active and reactive power.

Mid-term stability studies – focus on the synchronizing power oscillations between

machines, including the effect of some of the slower phenomena, and possibly large
voltage or frequency excursions.

Typical range of time periods:

Short-term or transient: 0 to 10 seconds
Mid-term: 10 seconds to a few minutes
Long-term: a few minutes to 10’s of minutes

EE 357 – A. Nerves, Electrical & Electronics Engineering Institute, Nov. 16, 2004, June 2010 5
Classification of stability into appropriate categories is based on the following
considerations:
1) Physical nature of the resulting instability
2) Size of the disturbance being considered
3) Devices, processes, and time span that must be taken into consideration I order to
determine stability.
4) Most appropriate method of calculation and prediction of stability.

EE 357 – A. Nerves, Electrical & Electronics Engineering Institute, Nov. 16, 2004, June 2010 6
SYSTEM MODEL

Single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system

Vt

INFINITE BUS
Load center
Large H
Low Z

Equivalent circuit
X1

Xd’ Xtr

X2
Vt
E’
VB0

Reduced equivalent circuit

XT

E’ VB0

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Classical model of the generator
1) The mechanical power input remains constant during the period of the transient.
2) Damper circuits are neglected; i.e., damping or asynchronous power is negligible.
3) Flux decay in the field circuit is neglected; i.e., the synchronous machine can be
represented (electrically) by a constant voltage source behind a transient reactance.
4) Voltage regulators are not present and manual excitation is used; i.e., in steady-state
the magnitude of the voltage source is determined by the field current which is
constant.
5) The mechanical angle of the synchronous machine rotor coincides with the electrical
phase angle of the voltage behind transient reactance.
6) If a local load is fed at the terminal voltage of the machine, it can be represented by a
constant impedance- (or admittance-) to-neutral.
7) Transient stability is judged by the first swing, which is normally reached within one
or two seconds.
8) Saliency has little effect and can be neglected, particularly in transient stability
studies.

Three equations needed to describe stability:

1) Rotor speed (acceleration)  swing equation
2) Generator power
3) Generator internal voltage angle

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Swing Equation

Steam Te
Gas
PRIME GEN
Water wheel MOVER
Motor
Tm

Under steady-state operation with losses neglected,

Tm  Te (N - m)
where Tm  driving mechanical torque (N - m)
Te  electromagnetic torque (N - m)

Due to a disturbance,

T  Ta  Tm  Te (N - m)
where Ta  accelerating torque (N - m)

Neglecting frictional and damping torques, rotor motion is governed by

d 2 m
J  Ta  Tm  Te (N - m)
dt 2
where J  combined moment of inertia of the generator and turbine (kg - m 2 )
 m  mechanical angular displacement of the rotor wrt a stationary
reference axis on the stator (rad.)

Relative to a synchronously rotating reference frame moving at sm,

m

sm
m
m

smt

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  m   smt   m
where  sm  synchronous speed (mechanical rad/sec)
 m  angular displacement of rotor (mechanical rad.) from the
synchronous rotating reference frame

d m d
m    ms  m
dt dt
d 2 m d 2 m

dt 2 dt 2

Substituting,

d 2 m
J  Ta  Tm  Te
dt 2

Multiplying by m,

d 2 m
J m   mTm   mTe (W)
dt 2
d 2 m
J m  Pa  Pm  Pe (W)
dt 2

Inertia constant: M = J m

1 1
Kinetic energy of the rotating masses: Wk  J m 2  M m
2 2
2Wk
M
m

Evaluating at synchronous speed,

2Wk
M
 sm

Swing equation becomes

d 2 m
M  Pm  Pe
dt 2

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 P
Electrical power/torque angle:   m where P  number of poles
2

Also,

P
 m
2

Swing equation:

2 d 2
M  Pm  Pe
P dt 2

Dividing by the machine base power SB ,

2 2Wk d 2 Pm Pe
 
P  sm S B dt 2 S B S B

H constant or per unit inertia constant:

kinetic energy in MJ @ rated speed

H (sec)
machine rating in MVA
W
 k
SB

For example: 1 < H < 10 seconds

Substituting,

2 2H d 2
 Pm( pu)  Pe( pu )
P  sm dt 2

P
Electrical angular velocity:  s   sm
2

Thus,

2 H d 2
 Pm( pu)  Pe( pu)  2nd order differential equation (swing eqn.)
 s dt 2

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In terms of electrical frequency f0,

H d 2
 Pm  Pe (p.u.)
f 0 dt 2
where  is in electrical radians

Or,

H d 2
 Pm  Pe (p.u.)
180 f 0 dt 2
where  is in electrical degrees

Rewriting as two first-order differential equations,

2 H d
 Pm  Pe
 s dt
d
  s
dt
where  and  s are in electrical rad. (or deg.) per second
 is in electrical rad. (or deg.)

Recall that

2H d 2 Pa Pm  Pe
 
 sm dt 2 S B SB

SB
Multiplying by ,
S system

SB
H system  H
S system

For a power plant with 2 generators connected to the same bus, where the bus is
electrically remote from the network disturbances, the swing equations on the common
system base are
2 H1 d 21
 Pm1  Pe1 p.u.
 s dt 2
2 H 2 d 2 2
 Pm2  Pe2 p.u.
 s dt 2

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Adding the equations and denoting  1   2   (since the rotors swing together),

2 H d 2
 Pm  Pe p.u.
 s dt 2

where H  H1  H 2
Pm  Pm1  Pm2
Pe  Pe1  Pe2

EXAMPLE

Two 60 Hz generating units

Unit 1: 500 MVA, 0.85 pf, 20 kV, 3600 rpm, H1 = 4.8 MJ/MVA
Unit 2: 1333 MVA, 0.9 pf, 22kV, 1800 rpm, H2 = 3.27 MJ/MVA

Wk = (4.8  500) + (3.27  1333) = 6759 MJ

6759
H  67.59 MJ/MVA on a 100 - MVA base
100

Coherent machines – machines which swing together

For any pair of non-coherent machines,

2 H1 d 21
 Pm1  Pe1 p.u.
 s dt 2
2 H 2 d 2 2
 Pm2  Pe2 p.u.
 s dt 2

Dividing each term by its left-hand-side coefficient and subtracting the resulting
equations,

d 21 d 2 2  s  Pm1  Pe1 Pm2  Pe2 

  
2  H1
2 2 
dt dt H2 

H1H 2
Multiplying by and rearranging,
H1  H 2

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 2  H1H 2  d 2  1   2  Pm1H 2  Pm2 H1 Pe1 H 2  Pe2 H1
   
s H
 1  H 2 dt 2 H1  H 2 H1  H 2

Or

2 d 2 12
H12  Pm12  Pe12
s dt 2

EXAMPLE:

A system with one generator and a synchronous motor connected by a network of

pure reactances.

Pm1   Pm2  Pm
Pe1   Pe2  Pe

Changes in the generator output is absorbed by the motor.

Thus,

Pm12  Pm
Pe12  Pe

And

2 H12 d 2 12
 Pm  Pe
 s dt 2

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Power-Angle Equation

Vt V

E’ G

1 Vt 2

j Xd’ ZL

E’
ZS

Y- transformation,

1 y12 2
I1 I2

E’ y10 y20
V

ZL
y10 
jX d ' Z s  jX d ' Z L  Z L Z S

jX d '
y 20 
jX d ' Z S  jX d ' Z L  Z L Z S

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 ZS
y12 
jX d ' Z S  jX d ' Z L  Z L Z S

Nodal equations:

I1   y10  y12 E '  y12V

I 2   y12 E    y 20  y12 V

Using YBUS,

 I1  Y11 Y12   E 
 I   Y  
 2   21 Y22   V 

At any bus k,

N
Pk  jQk  Vk I k *  Vk  YknVn  *
n 1

Since k = 1 and N = 2 at bus 1,

P1  jQ1  E Y11E  *  E Y12V  *

where Pe  P1
E   E  1
V  V  2
Y11  Y11 11
Y12  Y12 12

P1  jQ1  E  1  Y11   11 E    1  Y12   12 V    2 

2
Pe  P1  E  Y11 cos11  E  V Y12 cos 1   2  12 
2
Q1   E  Y11 sin 11  E  V Y12 sin 1   2  12 
Let
G11  Y11 cos11
B11  Y11 sin 11
  1   2

  12 
2

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Thus,

2
P1  E  G11  E  V Y12 sin   
2
Q1   E  B11  E  V Y12 cos   

Or,

Pe  P1  PC  Pmax sin    

If resistances are neglected,

1
Y12  B12 
X 12
Pe  E  V B12 cos   90o   since 11  12  90 o
E V
Pe  sin   Pmax sin 
X12

Pe
PC + Pmax

PC


 

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 Pe

Pmax

Pm



o  

Pmax = steady-state stability limit

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