Improvement of Power System Transient Stability

Using Fault Current Limiter and Thyristor Controlled

Braking Resistor



Abstract--This paper discusses transient stability enhancement
using Fault Current Limiter (FCL) and Thyristor Controlled
Braking Resistor (TCBR). In the case of a severe fault
occurrence in a power system, FCL is used for fault current
limiting, transient stability enhancement and reduction of
torsional oscillations, and TCBR is used for fast control of
generator disturbances. The effect of these two instruments
discussed together in a single machine power system, connected
to the infinite bus with applying a three phase symmetrical fault.
The simulation results show the improvement of transient
stability of the power system by using both devices.
Keywords-Equal area criterion; fault current limiter; power
system transient stability; thyristor controlled braking resistor.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the increasing demand of electric power, power
systems should be exploited near stability margins. In these
conditions, therefore, transient stability problems become
more serious. When a power system is subjected to a large
disturbance, control actions need to be taken to limit the
extent of the disturbance. Various methods have been taken to
improve the transient stability of power systems, such as
high-speed exiting, steam turbine fast-valving and dynamic
braking. Also, the wide usage of FACTS controllers is
another method that helps to enhance power system transient
stability. Using fault current limiter (FCL) reviewed as a
necessary device for limiting fault current and improvement
of power system transient stability in the past. When a fault
occurs, the FCL generates impedance, which can limit the
fault current. In addition to generating the impedance, FCL
can increase output amounts of synchronous generator that
decreases when the fault occurs. However, as FCLs installed
in series with transmission lines that can be just operated
during the period from the fault occurrence to the fault
clearing, they cannot control the generator disturbances after
the clearing of fault.
Dynamic Braking uses the concept of applying an
artificial electrical load during a disturbance to absorb the
excess transient energy and increase the electrical outputs of
generator and therefore reduces rotor acceleration. With
improvement in power electronic technologies, conventional
circuit breaker controlled braking resistor is being replaced by
thyristor controlled braking resistor (TCBR). In the past
decade, thyristor-controlled braking resistor switching
strategies have been extensively studied by many researchers
[1]-[9], and several approaches have been developed, e.g., the
time optimal switching method [1],[2], the decoupled variable-
structure control scheme [3], the hierarchical structure
approach [4], and others. TCBR has some other application in
power system [10]:
Prevent transient instability during the first power
system swing cycle, by immediately taking away the
power that would otherwise be used in accelerating
the generator.
Enhance damping to prevent dynamic instability
involving low frequency oscillations between
interconnected ac systems.
Damp subsynchronous resonance (SSR) resulting
from series capacitor compensation.
Reduce and rapidly damp subsynchronous shaft
torques. Thereby enabling safe high-speed
reclosing of lines near a power plant. This is of
significance with or without series capacitor
compensation, although this problem is further
aggravated by series capacitor compensation of
lines leaving a power plant.
Facilitate synchronizing a turbine-generator. Out-
of-phase synchronizing of a turbine-generator can
produce shaft torques more severe than a
bolted three-phase fault at the generator.
By given appropriate control it can be reached some of
these functions concordantly. In general, a TCBR can
often be the lowest cost, and a simple, highly reliable
FACTS Controller.
In this paper, a thyristor controlled braking resistor has
been approached by using Equal Area Criterion (EAC) that
employs conventional control strategy to improve power
system transient stability. Section II reviews the concept of
EAC; Section III introduces the power system model;
Section IV provides modeling of FCL; Section V presents
modeling and describes conventional control strategy of
TCBR; Section VI discusses simulation results of single
machine test system simulated by power system toolbox of
MATLAB/simulink. Through the simulation results, the
effectiveness of the use of both devices on transient stability
enhancement is demonstrated.
Mahmoud Ebadian
University of Birjand
Birjand,Iran
Mahmood.Ebadian@birjand.ac.ir
Morteza Alizadeh
University of Birjand
Birjand,Iran
Alizadeh.morteza@gmail.com
II. EQUAL AREA CRITERION AND TRANSIENT STABILITY
Power system transient stability means, Reaching to a
normal operating point after occurrence of a disturbance.
This disturbance may happened by applying an instantaneous
large load, losing a power plant unit, disconnecting an
instantaneous large load, or occurring a large disturbance by
short circuit. Equal area criterion (EAC) as a well-known
method can be used for power system stability analysis. This
method can be used just for single machine systems connected
to infinite bus and also it can be used for two machine
systems. EAC method presents a good physical view for
dynamic behavior of synchronous machines. EAC method is
on the basis of acceleration torque of synchronous generators
that is difference from mechanical and electrical torque. This
method explains a single machine system by considering a
power-angle curve as demonstrated in Fig. 1.


Suppose that input power P
m
is constant and machine
applies power to the system with the angle o in steady state.
As the fault occurs, electrical power reduces rapidly and
moves from point a to point b. In this point mechanical power
is greater than electrical power, therefore the rotor accelerates
and causes to increase angle o. This operation of machine is
indicated by moving from point b to point c on the during fault
curve. In point c the line is isolated by circuit breakers,
therefore electrical power increases greater than mechanical
power. In this point the net power causes negative acceleration
of rotor and because of reserved kinetic energy, operating
point moves on post fault curve toward point f. In this point,
kinetic energy equals zero. As P
e
is greater than P
m
, yet, rotor
keeps on its negative acceleration and operating point goes
through the power-angle curve by the mean of point e. The
rotor angle oscillates around point e by its natural frequency
and finally the damping characteristic of the machine causes
these oscillation damped and new steady state operating point
produced at the conjunction of P
m
and post fault curve.
Additional reserved energy of the rotor at the time of
accelerating is equivalent of area A1 and missing energy of the
rotor at the time of negative acceleration is equivalent of area
A2. In point f area A1 and A2 are equal and then the machine
will be stable.
III. MODELLING AND CONTROL STRATEGY OF TCBR
A. Operating Principles
Fig. 2 illustrates the schematic diagram of a thyristor
controlled braking resistor that connected to the generator. P
m

and P
e
represent mechanical input power and electrical output
power respectively. P
t
is the power delivered to the network
and P
r
is the power absorbed by the resistor of TCBR. V
t
is the
voltage of the bus terminal and R
r
is the value of the braking
resistor.

By attention to Fig. 2 the output power P
e
is:
P
c
= P

+ P
t
(1)
And the absorbed power by TCBR is:
P

=
I
t
2
R

(2)
By switching the TCBR, the power absorbed by braking
thyristor and therefore electrical power output of the
generator will be increased. From the point of view of power-
angle characteristic, it means that the connection of the
braking resistor offsets the machine power-angle curve by the
magnitude of P
r
as shown in Fig. 3 [11].

Pm
G
Controller
Network
Vt
Pt
Pe
Pr
Rr
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of a TCBR connected to the generator
During fault
Pre fault
Post fault
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
A1
A2
o 1 max

Pe
Pm
Fig. 1. Equal area criterion for a three phase fault
P
o
Pr
Pe with Resistor on
Pe with Resistor off
Fig. 3. Power-angle characteristic of power system with TCBR
B. Conventional Control Strategy [11]
The idea of the conventional strategy is that when the
output power of the machine drops below the mechanical
input power, to reduce all the accelerating area Al, the
braking resistor should be switched on as soon as possible
and the resistor power should be controlled equal to the
accelerating power at each rotor angle. By doing so, electrical
output power is boosted to equal the value of input power at
each rotor angle so that the area Al can be eliminated. Since
the rotor deviation is a function of time, the same result can
be obtained by setting the resistor power equal to the
accelerating power at each time deviation. From the
preceding discussion, let AP
e
denotes accelerating power, the
equation is written as:
P

= P
m
- P
c
= P
c
(S)
For a practical application system, assume that fault
occurs at time t=0. To take the system delay into account, (3)
becomes:
Pr
n
= Pm
n
- Pc
n
= Pc
n
(4)
Because of the effect of resistor power, (4) should be
rewritten as:
Pr
n
= Pm
n
- ( Pc
n
- Pi
n-1
) = Pc
n
(S)
where n is the current time step. Pr
n-1
is the resistor power
determined at the previous time step. Again, because of
system delay, (1) is rewritten as:
Pc
n
= Pm
n
- Pt
n
(6)
From (5) and (6), resistor power is:
Pr
n
= Pm
n
- Pt
n
(7)
Let AP
t
denote P
m
P
t
, the resistor power can then be
expressed by:
Pr
n
= Pt
n
(8)
From (6) and (8), (4) can be rewritten as:
Pc
n
= Pm
n
- Pt
n
- Pr
n-1

Pc
n
+ Pr
n-1
= Pm
n
- Pt
n
= Pt
n
(9)
Substituting (7) into (9), one can get:
Pc
n
+ Pr
n-1
= Pc
n
+ Pm
n-1
- Pt
n-1
+ Pr
n-2

= Pc
n
+Pc
n-1
+Pr
n-2
= Pc
n
+ Pc
n-1
+ Pc
n-2
+ + Pc
0
+ Pr
-1
(1u)
where, Pr
-1
= Pm
-1
Pt
-1
. Pm
-1
and Pt
-1
are the Pm and Pt
values before the disturbance, obviously:
Pr
-1
= u (11)
From (10) and (11), (9) becomes:
Pt
n
= Pc
n
+ Pr
n-1
= Pc

n
=0
(12)
To ensure the stability of the system and avoid over
damping, a positive rotor speed deviation constraint is
important. The resistor should be switched on only if both
rotor speed deviation and the accelerating power are positive.
The control strategy is given by:
i
n
> u,
Pr
n
= Pc

n
=0

clsc,
Pr
n
= u
Since direct measurements of APe
i
are difficult, it can be
simplified by using the swing equation given by:
=
1
H
P
m
-

H
-
1
H
P
c

The swing equation can be written as:
H + = P
M
- P
c
= P
c
(1S)
From (8) and (13), (12) is expressed as:
Pr
n
= Pt
n
= Pc

n
=0
= (H i +

)
n
=0
(14)
Therefore, the control strategy can be concluded as:
i
n
> u,
Pr
n
= (H i +

)
n
=0
(1S)
clsc,
Pr
n
= u
The control strategy only requires the measurement of
machine rotor speed deviation A w, which is easy to do. For
the online implementation, (15) can be implemented using:
Pr
n
= Pr
n
`
+ Pr
n-1

where Pr
n
`
= H n +
n
and Pr
n-1
is the value of
resistor power at the pervious time step. To reduce the
integral error, when the braking resistor is off, Pr
n-1
is reset
and kept as 0.
The firing angle to switch the thyristor on is calculated
from the value of the braking resistor power. The average
power consumed by the braking resistor is given by [6]:
Pr = _
I
t
2
nR

_ (n - o +u.S sin(2o)) (16)

can be obtained online by utilizing the linear
interpolation technique introduced in [4, 6].
A dead zone is needed to keep the braking resistor from
being active during normal steady state operation where small
fluctuations in voltage occur constantly.
IV. MODELLING OF FCL
Fault current limiters (FCLs) usually consist of a detector,
a controller and a limiter resistor. The use of FCLs is being
evaluated as one necessary element to limit the fault current
and enhance the power system transient stability. However, as
FCLs installed in series with transmission lines, it can be just
operated during the period from the fault occurrence to the
fault clearing; they cannot control the generator disturbances
after the clearing of fault. Fig. 4 shows the changes over time
for the limiting resistance created in an FCL. It is assumed
that the limiting resistance value is 1.0 pu (based on generator
rating), and the fault detection time and starting time of
limiting resistance are 2 msec and 1 msec respectively [12].
Namely, FCL starts to operate at 0.502 sec, and then the
limiting resistance increases linearly from 0.0 pu to 1.0 pu
within 1 msec. Although the effect of enhancement of
transient stability is changed depend on the limiting resistance
value, 1.0 pu is the most effective value on the transient
stability enhancement which is determined based on the
results of simulation using various limiting resistance values.


V. POWER SYSTEM MODEL
Single line diagram of the single machine power system
illustrated in Fig. 5. In this model a synchronous generator
with its turbine-governor and excitation system is connected to
infinite bus by a transformer and a double line. As it is shown,
the FCL is in series with the transmission line. The TCBR also
is connected to Y-side of the transformer and is paralleled with
the line by the thyristors. The connections of TCBR are in
delta form.
In the simulation study, it is assumed that a three phase
symmetrical fault occurs at the TCBR bus at 0.5 sec. The
breakers on the faulted line open at 0.8 sec. The generator
parameters are represented in table 1.
Table 1. The generator parameters
1.59 Xq (pu) 517 Pn (MVA)
0.46 X

q (pu) 21 Vn(kVrms)
0.2 X

q (pu) 50 fn (Hz)
0.14 Xl (pu) 3000 n (rpm)
4.5 T

do (s) 0.0025 rs (pu)

0.04 T

do (s) 1.65 Xd (pu)

0.67 T

qo (s) 0.25 X

d (pu)
0.09 T

qo (s) 0.2 X

d (pu)

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section, the simulation results are demonstrated.
A. Limiting Fault Currents
Fig. 6 shows the three phase current following into Y-side
of the transformer in pu. As it is shown in Fig. 6 (a), in the
case of without FCL and TCBR, the fault currents rise up
significantly and after severe oscillations for about 4.5 sec
steady state may be appeared. In case of with TCBR there is
DC component in the fault currents and after about 2 sec the
fault currents reaches to steady state (Fig. 6 (b)). On the other
hand, in case of with FCL there is DC component in the fault
currents and after 3 sec it obtained the steady state (Fig. 6 (c)).
This is because of that FCL cannot limit the fault currents after
the fault is cleared, as explained in introduction section.
Finally, as shown in Fig. 6 (d), in case of with FCL and
TCBR there is no DC component after the fault occurs and
after about 1 sec, the fault current reaches to the steady state. It
shows that the fault currents are limited and the DC
components are decreased rapidly by the limiting resistance of
FCL.
B. Improvement Transient Stability
Fig. 7 shows the rotor speed responses of the generator. It
can be seen that in case of without TCBR and FCL rotor
speed has severe oscillations that may cause power system
instability. As it is shown, in case of with FCL and TCBR a
noticeable improvement in rotor speed stability happens. It can
be seen that the first swing of rotor speed in this case is
restrained effectively. This is because of the difference
between mechanical input power Pm and electrical output
power Pe of the generator. Also, as it is clear, the rotor speed
after second swing becomes almost constant. As FCL can be
just operated during the period from the fault occurrence to the
fault clearing, it cannot limit the rotor speed swings after the
fault cleared.
0.5 0.502 0.503
Fault Detection Time
Starting
Time
Time (s)
L
i
m
i
t
i
n
g

R
e
s
i
s
t
a
n
c
e

(
p
u
)

0
1
Fig. 4. FCL characteristic
21/400 kV
G
TCBR
3LG
Infinite
Bus
Fig. 5. Single line diagram of the power system model


(a) Without TCBR and FCL

(b) With TCBR

(c) With FCL

(d) With FCL and TCBR
Fig. 6. 3-phase fault current at Y-side of the transformer


Fig. 7. Rotor speed responses
Fig. 8 shows the mechanical input power Pm of the
generator. It can be seen that in case of without TCBR and
FCL the mechanical power gets away from its reference value
and also it shows that by use of both of the devices, TCBR and
FCL, after two swings it becomes almost constant.

Fig. 8. Mechanical power of the generator
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show active and reactive power of the
generator, respectively. As it is clear, in these Figs by using
the two devices, severe oscillations that produce in case of
without TCBR and FCL are damped properly. It is clear that
the generator has a proper operation by using TCBR and FCL
together.


Fig. 9. Active power of the generator

Fig. 10. Reactive power of the generator
VII. CONCLUSION
In order to improve power system transient stability the
use of both devices, fault current limiter and thyristor
controlled braking resistor is proposed in this paper.
Simulation results on the single machine power system clearly
indicate that by using both of devices transient stability will be
improved properly. On the other hand, the simulation results
show that by using the conventional control strategy of the
TCBR it can be reached to proper results. However, using
other control methods like fuzzy control will have better
results.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Mr T.
Vahidi and Mr M.A. Mozaffarian for their valuable comments.
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Mahmoud Ebadian received his B.Eng. in electrical
engineering from Mashhad Ferdowsi University, Mashhad,
Iran, in 1991, and his M. Sc. from Kh. N. Toosi University
of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1996, and his Ph.D from
Moscow Power Engineering Institute Moscow, Russian
Federation in 2002, 2006. His areas of interest include
voltage collapse, voltage stability and FACTS. He is an
associate professor at department of Power Engineering, University of
Birjand, southern khorasan, Iran.


Morteza Alizadeh was born in Mashhad, Iran on 1984.
He received his B.E. degree in electrical engineering from
Azad University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran, in 2006. He is
currently a student of M.Sc. at department of power
engineering, University of Birjand, Iran. His research
interests are in power system stability, reactive power
control and FACTS.