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DroopControlOpenElectrical

DroopControl
FromOpenElectrical
Droopcontrolisacontrolstrategycommonlyappliedtogeneratorsforprimaryfrequencycontrol(and
occasionallyvoltaqecontrol)toallowparallelgeneratoroperation(e.g.loadsharing).

Contents
1Background
2DroopControlSetpoints
3LimitationsofDroopControl
4RelatedArticles

Background
Recallthattheactiveandreactivepowertransmittedacrossalosslesslineare:

Sincethepowerangle
and
:

istypicallysmall,wecansimplifythisfurtherbyusingtheapproximations

Fromtheabove,wecanseethatactivepowerhasalargeinfluenceonthepowerangleandreactivepowerhasa
largeinfluenceonthevoltagedifference.Restated,bycontrollingactiveandreactivepower,wecanalsocontrol
thepowerangleandvoltage.Wealsoknowfromtheswingequationthatfrequencyisrelatedtothepowerangle,
sobycontrollingactivepower,wecanthereforecontrolfrequency.
Thisformsthebasisoffrequencyandvoltagedroopcontrolwhereactiveandreactivepowerareadjusted
accordingtolinearcharacteristics,basedonthefollowingcontrolequations:

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Where

DroopControlOpenElectrical

isthesystemfrequency
isthebasefrequency
isthefrequencydroopcontrolsetting
istheactivepoweroftheunit
isthebaseactivepoweroftheunit
isthevoltageatthemeasurementlocation
isthebasevoltage
isthereactivepoweroftheunit
isthebasereactivepoweroftheunit
isthevoltagedroopcontrolsetting

Thesetwoequationsareplottedinthecharacteristicsbelow:

Frequencydroopcharacteristic

Voltagedroopcharacteristic

Thefrequencydroopcharacteristicabovecanbeinterpretedasfollows:whenfrequencyfallsfromf0tof,the
poweroutputofthegeneratingunitisallowedtoincreasefromP0toP.Afallingfrequencyindicatesanincrease
inloadingandarequirementformoreactivepower.Multipleparallelunitswiththesamedroopcharacteristiccan
respondtothefallinfrequencybyincreasingtheiractivepoweroutputssimultaneously.Theincreaseinactive
poweroutputwillcounteractthereductioninfrequencyandtheunitswillsettleatactivepoweroutputsand
frequencyatasteadystatepointonthedroopcharacteristic.Thedroopcharacteristicthereforeallowsmultiple
unitstoshareloadwithouttheunitsfightingeachothertocontroltheload(called"hunting").
Thesamelogicabovecanbeappliedtothevoltagedroopcharacteristic.

DroopControlSetpoints
Droopsettingsarenormallyquotedin%droop.Thesettingindicatesthepercentageamountthemeasuredquantity
mustchangetocausea100%changeinthecontrolledquantity.Forexample,a5%frequencydroopsettingmeans
thatfora5%changeinfrequency,theunit'spoweroutputchangesby100%.Thismeansthatifthefrequencyfalls
by1%,theunitwitha5%droopsettingwillincreaseitspoweroutputby20%.
Theshortvideobelowshowssomeexamplesoffrequency(speed)droop:
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Speed Droop & AGC demo 1

LimitationsofDroopControl
Frequencydroopcontrolisusefulforallowingmultiplegeneratingunitstoautomaticallychangetheirpower
outputsbasedondynamicallychangingloads.However,considerwhathappenswhenthereisasignificant
contingencysuchasthelossofalargegeneratingunit.Ifthesystemremainsstable,alltheotherunitswouldpick
uptheslack,butthedroopcharacteristicallowsthefrequencytosettleatasteadystatevaluebelowitsnominal
value(forexample,49.7Hzor59.7Hz).Conversely,ifalargeloadistripped,thenthefrequencywillsettleata
steadystatevalueaboveitsnominalvalue(forexample,50.5Hzor60.5Hz).
Othercontrollersarethereforenecessarytobringthefrequencybacktoitsnominalvalue(i.e.50Hzor60hz),
whicharecalledsecondaryandtertiaryfrequencycontrollers.

RelatedArticles
FrequencyControl
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