STABILIZATION OF GENERATOR OSCILLATIONS USING PID STATCON

DAMPING CONTROLLERS AND PID POWER SYSTEM STABILIZERS

Zon-Yan Tsai

Li Wang, Member, IEEE

Department of Electrical Engineering
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan 70101, R. 0. C.
E-Mail: liwang@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative study of two damping
controllers, i.e., the power system stabilizer (PSS) and the static

I. INTRODUCTION

condenser (STATCON) damping controller, on damping enhancement

Since the first interconnected power systems of the

Northwest and interconnected power systems of the Southwest
were initially linked together in October 1964, power system
low-frequency oscillations due to the development of interconnection of large electric power systems have been examined
for more than twenty-five years [ 13. These spontaneous system
oscillations would continue for a while and then disappear, or
continue to grow, causing system separation [l-71. With more
experience of operation accumulated from field tests of the
interconnected power system, power system engineers are now
convinced that the low-frequency oscillations are due to the lack
of mechanical-mode damping of the interconnected system, and
the desired additional damping can be contributed by
supplementary excitation control [SI. In the early published
papers, considerable efforts have been made on the application
of power system stabilizers (PSSs) to improve the damping of
mechanical mode of the affected synchronous generator by
excitation control under disturbance conditions [8-18]. The
employment of phase compensation theory to analyze the
damping effect provided by a lead-lag compensator for damping
generator oscillations was first proposed by deMello and
Concordia [9]. Nowadays the lead-lag type controller is the
most widely employed compensator to damp machine
oscillations [IO]. Various types of excitation controller such as
optimal controller [ 1I], variable-structure controller [ 121, PI
controllers [I31 and PID controllers [14,15], etc., were also
proposed recently. Since the excitation control is the low-energy
side that is being controlled, if workable, it will be a less
expensive and energy-saving damping scheme. Although the
employment of PSS can improve the damping of mechanical
mode of a synchronous generator, exciter mode with poor
damping could also cause system to have low-frequency
oscillations [16-171. Hence, the damping of both mechanical
mode and exciter mode need to be simultaneously enhanced to
suppress undesired generator oscillations.
On the other hand, flexible AC transmission systems
(FACTS) have obtained increased attention in recent years due
to the fast growth of power-electronics technologies. The fixedstructure transmission system with FACTS can effectively
modulate power flow to enhance both transmission capacity and
system stability. The static condenser (STATCON), using
voltage-source inverters (VSI) to maintain system voltage, is
one of the most important apparatus of FACTS and STATCON

of generator oscillations occumng in a power system subject to

disturbances. The developed scheme employs a proportional-integrdderivative (PID) controller for the proposed damping schemes to
simultaneously improve the damping of both mechanical mode and
exciter mode. The parameters of the proposed damping controllers are
solved by left shifting both modes to the desired locations on the
complex plane using a unified approach based on modal control theory.
Frequency-domain approach based on eigenvalue analyses under
different operating conditions and time-domain approach based on
nonlinear model simulations under a severe disturbance condition are
performed. The simulated results show that the proposed STATCON
controller renders better damping performance than the PSS under a
severe disturbance condition.
Keywords: power system stabilizer, STATCON damping controller,

modal control theory.

NOMENCLATURE
rotor speed of generator.
output of voltage regulator and exciter
real power and terminal voltage of generator
gains of PID controller
time constant of washout term
d-axis and q-axis stator quantities
field circuit quantities
damper winding quantities
exciter and STATCON quantities
reference quantities
incremental or linearized quantities

0-7803-4403-0/98/$10.000 1998 IEEE

616

RL

XL

STATCON

t -

Fig. 1 One-line diagram of the studied system with STATCON.

' I

Fig. 3 Injected currents and reference currents of STATCON.

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of the STATCON unit.

with gate turn-off (GTO) technology will replace conventional

static VAr compensator (SVC) such as thyristor switched
capacitors (TSC) and thyristor controlled reactors (TCR). A 77
kV, 20 MVA STATCON or static VAr generator (SVG) was
successfully installed and in Japan in 1980 [18]. An advanced
static VAr compensator (ASVC) was also proposed [ 191. A 300
kVAr advanced static VAr generator (ASVG) was employed to
suppress phase-voltage unbalance using modulation of voltage
and phase angle [20]. An industrial 80 MVA SVG using 48pulse multi-inverter was developed to improve system stability
[2 11. To damp low-fiequency oscillations and stabilize system
voltage, a 48-pulse, 100 MVAr STATCON was successfully
installed at Sullivan 161 kV substation [22]. This paper will
employ STATCON to effectively damp generator oscillations.

II. SYSTEM MODEL

Fig. 1 shows the one-line diagram of the studied system. A
synchronous generator is connected to an infinite bus through a
step-up transformer and a transmission line. The studied
generator is represented by a set of Park's d-q equations with the
reference fiame based on the rotor [23]. The generator is
equipped with a voltage regulator and an exciter, which is
properly selected to be the IEEE type 1 excitation system [24].
The three-phase schematic diagram of the proposed STATCON
unit, which contains a step-down transformer, a 6-pulse GTO
voltage source converter (VSC), and a capacitor C, is illustrated
in Fig. 2. To find the current of STATCON injecting into the
system, both i d and Lq are determined by their reference values,
and icq(,.+ which are solved by the following equation
~251.

Open-loop system

System with PID

PSS

Other Modes

-13.555j376.3
-9.26fj11.236
-46.33
-37.63

-4.Okj7.0#
-l.okjl.O#
-13.50kj376.3
-5.441kj10.49
-46.328, -37.948
-4.997

System with
STATCON and PID
controller

I
1

-4.Okj7.0#
-1.Okj1.O#
13.58kj375.9
-40.55kj117.3
-8.455j11.528
-73.973, -37.695
-0.798, -0.2

#denotes the exactly assigned eigenvalues.

where P is the injected active power setting to be zero and Q is

the injected reactive power setting to be equal to the reference
value Qnf. Fig. 3 shows the relationships between the injected
currents and the reference currents. The block diagram of the
automatic voltage regulator (AVR) for firing angle of GTO is
shown in Fig. 4. The open-loop system eigenvalues are listed in
the second column of Table 1. It is found that both mechanical
mode and exciter mode have the poorest damping in all system
eigenvalues. It is required to simultaneously enhance the
damping of both mechanical mode and exciter mode to suppress
generator oiscillations. Hence, both PSS and STATCON
damping controller will be respectively designed by using a
unified approach based on modal control theory in the next
section.
111. DENSIGNOF PID DAMPING CONTROLLERS

To design a PID damping controller using modal control

theory, the nonlinear system equations described in the last
section are first linearized around a nominal operating point to

617

gains KpE, KIE, and KDE.Taking the Laplace transformation of

(2) and (3) and combining with (6), the closed-loop system
characteristic equation.

which is a scalar equation since the proposed control system is a

single-input single-output (SISO) system. The parameters of the
PID PSS can then be determined by substituting two pairs of
prespecified complex-conjugated eigenvalues corresponding to
mechanical mode and exciter mode of the system into (7). The
design results are presented as follows.
Fig. 5 Block diagram of the excitation system with PID PSS.

Prespecified Eigenvalues:
-4.Okj7.0 (mechanical mode)

-1 .Okj1.O (exciter mode)

PID PSS 's Par ameters:

KpEz95.5, KI~=-199.75,K ~ ~ = - 2 . 7TWEi0.89
1,
s
Qrd. mn

,,U
*(KpQ
1 + sTwQ

+K
x + s K w )

c--AW

,,U
Fig 6 BLock diagram of STATCON control system with PID damping
controller.

obtain a set of linearized system dynamic equations of the

matrix form.
pX(t) = AX(t) + BU(t)
Y(t) = CX(t)

(2)
(3)

where X(t) is the state vector, Y(t) the output vector, U(t) the
input vector, and A, B, and C all constant matrices of
appropriate dimensions. To design a PID PSS using modal
control theory, the input and the output are frst examined. Fig.
5 shows the block diagram of the IEEE type 1 excitation system
including the proposed PID PSS. According to Fig. 5 , the output
vector is

The eigenvalues of the closed-loop system equipped with the

designed PID PSS are listed in the third column of Table 1. It is
observed that the prespecified eigenvalues have been exactly
assigned. To design a PID STATCON damping controller using
modal control theory, only minor modification of the above
design procedure is enough. Fig. 6 shows the block diagram of
STATCON control system of Qref versus a including the
proposed PID damping controller. As depicted in Fig. 6, the
output is the same as (4) but the input is changed to

and the transfer function of the PID damping controller is

STWQ

HQ(s)= ____ O ( P Q
1 + STWQ

KrQ +sKW)
S

(9)

Using the same approach developed above, the parameters of

the PID STATCON damping controller can be obtained. The
results are shown as below.
Prespecified JCEenvaluer:
-4.Okj7.0 (mechanical mode) -1.Okj1.O (exciter mode)

the input vector is

PID SUTCON Damping Controller's Parameters:

K,
and the transfer Gction of the PID PSS is

where the first term on the right-hand side of (6) is a washout

term which has time constant TWEand is used to eliminate DC
offset while the second term represents PID fimction containing

= -1 19.28,

K~Q
= 106.75, K,

= 3.24, T W Q = 0.83 s

The prespecified eigenvalues have been chosen to be the same

as those for the PID PSS design to clearly compare the relative
merits of the two control schemes. The eigenvalues of the
closed-loop system equipped with the designed PID STATCON
damping controller are listed in the fourth column of Table 1.
Again, it is observed that the prespecified eigenvalues have
been exactly assigned. Some important features for selecting the
prespecified eigenvalues are described as follows.
(a) The prespecified eigenvalues for the mechanical mode and

618

>

MECHANICAL MODE

"

'

"

'

'

"

MECHANICAL MODE

'

"

"

'

"

" "

""I

STATCON

,
1

'

'

'

8.W

'

-5.00

"

-4.00

-3.00

-2.00

a
4 00 L

-1.00

REAL PART (radlsec)

20

, , , ,EXCITER
, , ,MODE
,
, , , ,

, , , ,

24

> -s M) ~
l
'
-4c00
REAL PART (radhec)

E, ,

, ,

, ,

E:CJTER,M,O?E,

1.(I

\!,

0.8

u
d
.,

0.4
.,.a4

02

-1.00

.o

1
08

-0.w

0 8

: ,

, , ,

<

-3
l 00 L

, , ,

."-!4

04

-0.01

.1.00

REAL PART (radlsec)

-1.$O

Fig. 7 Root loci under various values of PG

4.00

0.00

0.70

-0.W

REAL PART (radlssc)

Fig. 8 Root loci under different values of V,

exciter mode are properly chosen. The major constraints are

the resulting PID controller parameters should be reasonable
For example, the washout term time constant must be
positive and the gains of the PID controller should be as
small as possible.
(b) The closed-loop system eigenvalues should be completely
located on the left half of the complex plane when the
designed controller is in service.
(c) Since the proposed PID controller is in its theoretical form
and would have a gain which increases linearly with
fi-equencyat high frequencies, an imperfect differentiator (a
washout) and higher order washout filters should be
employed to overcome this problem when practical situation
is considered.
The obtained results listed above show that the damping
for all closed-loop system eigenvalues is quite satisfactory and
the parameters of the PID controllers are also appropriate.
IV. EIGENVALUE ANALYSES

In this section, sensitivity studies of system mechanical

mode and exciter mode will be performed to clearly investigate
damping effects respectively contributed by the proposed
damping controllers under different operating conditions. Fig. 7
gives the root loci of mechanical mode and exciter mode under

different values of PG. Fig. 8 shows the root loci of both modes
under various values of Vc In these two figures, the value of PG
is varied from 0.7 pu to 1.3 pu and the value of V, is changed
from 0.9 pu to 1.1 pu. It is evident fiom both figures that the
system mechanical mode and exciter mode can guarantee stable
operation under the widely varied operating conditions. When
the system includes the proposed PID PSS, the variations of
both mechanical mode and exciter mode are much larger than
the ones of' the system equipped with the PID STATCON
damping cointroller, except mechanical mode under distinct
values of PG.The damping of mechanical mode are nearly fEed
under different values of PG when the system contains the
designed PIlD PSS. The damping of both modes is very sensitive
to drastic chunge on Vt when system includes PID PSS. Hence,
the STATCON damping controller may effectively render better
damping characteristics to the system.
V. NONLINEAR MODEL SIMULATIONS

In orcler to demonstrate and compare the effectiveness of

the proposed PID damping controllers under disturbance
conditions, computer simulated dynamic performance tests are
performed on a nonlinear system model. All system
nonlinearities such as exciter ceilings, control signal limiters, etc.
are included. The simulation results are performed on a digital
computer using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm.

6 19

GEN ROTOR ANGLE

72

66

8:
8
U

60
0.00

4.w

2 00

6.00

Time (sec)
0.004

GEN. SPEED DEVIATION

-0.004

0.00

2.w

4.00

600

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

Time (sec)

Time (sec)

Fig. 10 Dynamic responses of the system with STATCON controller and PSS.

Fig. 9 Dynamic responses of the open-loop system.

Dynamic responses of the system subject to a severe three-phase

short-circuit fault at infinite bus which starts at t = 0.5 s and lasts
for 1 cycle (60 Hz base) are plotted in Figs. 9-10. Fig. 9 gives
the response curves of the open-loop system with no PID
controllers while Fig. 10 illustrates the curves of the closed-loop
system respectively with the designed PID PSS and the PID
STATCON damping controller. A comparison of the response
curves shown in Fig. 10 indicates that system damping has been
clearly improved by the designed PSS and the STATCON
damping controller. A fUrther study on the response curves in
Fig. 10 reveals that, due to the same eigenvalues assigned for
both mechanical mode and exciter mode for the system
respectively with PSS and STATCON damping controller, the
two sets of curves seem to settle down at nearly the same rate.
However, the proposed STATCON damping controller
contributes much better damping characteristics than the one of

the proposed PSS.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, a unified approach based on modal control

theory has been presented for the design of a PID power system
stabilizer (PSS) and a PID STATCON damping controller.
Frequency-domain approach and time-domain approach have
been performed to clearly compare and demonstrate the
effectiveness and damping effects of the two proposed damping
controllers. The specific conclusions are summarized as follows.
(a) System mechanical mode and exciter mode can be exactly
assigned to the desired locations on the complex plane by
using modal control theory. The parameters of the proposed
controllers can also be simultaneously determined by
substituting prespecified eigenvalues into the closed-loop

620

system characteristic equation.

(b) According to the results of eigenvalue analysis, both
mechanical mode and exciter mode guarantee stable
operation under the widely varied operating conditions
provided that the designed PID PSS and the PID STATCON
controller are respectively included. The PID STATCON
damping controller can have smaller root-loci variations of
both mechanical mode and exciter mode than the PID PSS.
Both modes are also insensitive to the variation of terminal
voltage when the system includes the STATCON damping
control1er.
(c) The dynamic response simulations have clearly
demonstrated that the effectiveness of the proposed damping
controllers on stabilizing generator oscillations under a
severe three-phase short-circuit fault. The responses of the
system with the proposed STATCON damping controller
have rendered better damping effects than the ones of the
system with PSS.
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APPENDIX: SYSTEM PARAMETERS

(a) Synchroinous generator (pu) (rating: 160 MVA) [23]

R,=0.001096 Rfd=0.000742 &d=0.0131 Rkq=0.0540
x d = 1.70 xad= 1.55 xlfdzo.l
&d=0.055
X, = 1.64 Xa, = 1.49 X&q= 0.036 H = 2.37s
D = 0.0
(b) Transmission line and transformer (pu)
RL = 0.01
XL = 0.3
R~z0.1 X~=0.1
(c) Exciter and voltage regulator (pu) [24]
KE = -0.05
TE= 0.5s
TA = 0.06s
KA = 50.0
TF= 0.45s
KF = 0.05
SE,,,= = 0.267 &.7smax = 0.074
VpJZ- = -1.o UE- = 0.12
UE- = -0.12
V E m a x = 1 .o
(d) STATClON unit @U) (rating: 25 MVAr )
Qrem=0.15i Kv=20.0
Tv=O.OIs TR=S.OS
KAQ= 10.0 TAQ= 0.01s K p S 70.0 Ka = 2000.0
R = 0.016
L = 0.23
U%,,= 2.0 uo" = -2.0
(e) Operating condition
Vt = 11 .O pu PG = 1.O pu PF = 0.85 lagging
BIOGRAPHIES
Li Wang (S'87-M88) Dr. Wang was born in Changhua, Taiwan, on December
20, 1963. He received Ph. D. degree from Department of Electrical Engineering,

National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in June 1988. Since August 1995,
he has been a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. His interests include power systems
and electric machines as well as the field of philosophy and science of religion
such as Buddhism study and the teachings of Taoism. He is an IEEE Member.
Zong-Yan Trsi was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R. 0. C., on September 24,
1975. He graduated from National Kaohsiung Institute of Technology in 1995
and received a M. Sc. degree from National Cheng Kung University. His
interests are power system planning, design, and control.

62 1