1

Won Kun Yu, Heung Jae Lee, Chan Ho Lim, Eun Jae Lee, Kyeong Seob Lee
A Study on The Expert Voltage
Tae Kyun Kim, Jeong Hoon Shin, Su Chul Nam

Control in Korean Power System


Abstract--Recent massive power outages in Europe and North
America were caused by unbalances in reactive power, resulting
in voltage collapse. In order to solve these problems
voltage/reactive power control system have developed in many
advanced countries for their own domestic power system. In
terms of voltage stability, as the KEPCO recognized the necessity
of voltage/reactive power control system, we developed a hybrid
intelligent voltage/reactive power control system together with
numerical algorithm based on the sensitivity matrix. In this
paper, it is introduced that voltage control rules of expert system
base on empirical knowledge of power system operator to
managing the bus voltage efficiently. And the search method of
expert system has applied least-cost search for state-space that is
applied to quantization process. As a result, the hybrid intelligent
voltage/reactive power control system showed a good
performance.
Index Terms—hybrid intelligent voltage/reactive power
control system, Least-cost search, quantization
I. INTRODUCE
stability voltage and developed hybrid intelligent
voltage/reactive power control system for the domestic system
using numerical algorithm based on the sensitivity matrix and
intelligent technology[7]. Currently, the developed intelligent
controller will validate the performance in the RTDS(Real
Time Digital Simulator) to apply domestic power system. The
hybrid intelligent system is affected by the performance of
expert system in main control system. Typically, the expert
system consists of a knowledge-base and inference engine.
Knowledge-base stored data to solve problems and voltage
control rule, the inference engine is used to resolve a given
problem by connecting the rule and the fact. In particular, the
inference of an expert system is result of searching in the
state-space, so we need an effective search method to solve a
given problem. So, this paper developed new voltage control
rules and applied least-cost search for state-space that is
applied to quantization process. As a result it was performance
that the hybrid intelligent voltage/reactive power control
system improved.

R ecent massive power outages in Europe and North

America were caused by unbalances in reactive power,
resulting in voltage collapse. In order to solve these problem
II. STRUCTURE OF HYBRID INTELLIGENT VOLTAGE/REACTIVE
POWER CONTROL SYSTEM
voltage/reactive power control system developed in many The following Fig. 1 is a structure of developed intelligent
advanced countries for their own domestic power system [1]- voltage/reactive power control system. The intelligent power
[6]. system controller stored various data in dynamic database
Recently, Korea power system has been operated more from power system, inference engine performed voltage
closely to stability limits in state heavy-load because of rapid control problem process by using voltage control rules of
growth in load-demand. In addition, reactive power demand is knowledge-base and numerical algorithm based on the
increased due to long-distance transmission lines and increase sensitivity matrix. Finally, the control signal was sent to power
of reactive power losses. system.
Unfortunately, the power system voltage is maintained only
A. Knowledge-base
by individual substations since it is not actually easy to secure
the site for voltage compensation equipment and the regional The knowledge in a specific problem domain is classified
systematic voltage control framework is not really prepared. by truth and rule and then stored in the database and rule base.
Accordingly, Korea recognized the necessity of Then again, Database is divided by static database and
voltage/reactive power control system in terms of voltage dynamic database, and stored as immutable truth in a specific
domain or hypothetic truth derived from the inference process.

This work was supported in part by the the Power IT Research Grant of the
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.
H. J. Lee is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kwangwoon
University, Seoul Korea (e-mail: hjlee@kw.ac.kr).
C. H. Lim is with School of Compute Multimedia Engineering, Gyeongju
University, Gyeongju Korea (e-mail: chlim@gju.ac.kr).
W. K. Yu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kwangwoon
University, Seoul Korea (e-mail: ywk@kw.ac.kr).
E. J. Lee is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kwangwoon
University, Seoul Korea (e-mail: dmswo82@kw.ac.kr).
K. S. Lee is with the Juam Electric & Communication Co. Ltd, Seoul
Korea (e-mail: kyeong@kw.ac.kr).
T. K. Kim is with Power System Lab at Korea Electric Power Research
Institute (KEPRI)/KEPCO, Daejon, Korea (e-mail:tkkim@kepri.re.kr).
J. H. Sin is with Power System Lab at Korea Electric Power Research
Institute (KEPRI)/KEPCO, Daejon, Korea (e-mail: jhshin@kepri.re.kr).
S. C. Nam is with Power System Lab at Korea Electric Power Research
Institute (KEPRI)/KEPCO, Daejon, Korea (e-mail: scnam@kepri.re.kr).
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V vio is newly occurred abnormal bus voltage in normal

bus
Basically, the transformer Tab and the switched shunt used
discrete quantity. But, compensation device such as generator
terminal voltage used continuous quantity. Therefore,
continuous quantity such as generator terminal voltage must
be converted to a discrete quantity through the quantization
process. The following Fig. 2 is in partly expanded state-space
model of discrete effect quantity in power system composed of
each 2 devices (generator, transformer, switched shunt).

Fig. 1. Structure of Hybrid Intelligent Voltage/Reactive Power Control

System

This paper developed a database of the following in order to

resolve the problem efficiently.
1) Database
① Upper and lower limit of each bus voltage
② Upper and lower limit of the voltage regulation
③ Upper and lower limit quantity of compensation devices
 Generator 0.95 ~ 1.05 [p.u]
④ Priority of compensation devices
⑤ Quantization level of generator terminal voltage
2) Rule base
① If the bus voltage exceed upper and lower limit of each bus
voltage the system operate the controller
② If abnormal voltage occurred, firstly controller constitute
sensitivity tree.
③ Controller select the compensation device of largest
sensitivity
④ If selected reactive power compensation device's capacity is
Fig. 2. Expanded state-space model
lack, controller select the second highest compensation device
⑤ Controller operate the specified priority of compensation A. Least-cost search
devices After a given problem define the representation model, to
⑥ If abnormal voltage occurred in several bus, controller solve the problem we need a several strategy and one of the
operated based on the greatest abnormal bus voltage. key strategies is search. The searches will be defined by the
⑦ If a bus voltage don’t adjust within voltage regulation by trial process to assess possible solution paths and reach from
using compensation device of first ranking, compensation initial state to final state. It may be divided into two
device of next ranking is committed. categories: blind searches and heuristic searches. The blind
⑧ Reactive power compensation amount determined Linear searches divided to breadth-first search and depth-first search.
Prediction method. But, this method is not good in case that state-space is large
⑨  The controller solved power flow to identify control effect due to it do not contain intelligent decision. The heuristic
searches is a method to continuously search a solution after
III. STATE-SPACE MODEL OF THE PROPOSED VOLTAGE getting rid of the solution path that seems inappropriate by
CONTROL PROBLEMS judgment such as heuristic knowledge or cost function. This
This paper applied the weighted evaluation function such as method could reduce state-space but might be occurred that do
expression (1) to improve the performance of developed the not solve.
hybrid intelligent voltage/reactive power control system. It is This paper used least-cost search to minimize weighted
possible to minimize the weighted evaluation function such as evaluation function such as expression (1). The search process
expression (1) when all compensation devices use discrete following:
control quantity. 1) Step 1:
About the bus where the abnormal bus voltage, a v1 node
min( λV vio +∑ α|ΔV gi|+∑ β|ΔT K|+ ∑ γ|ΔQi|) that the largest effect quantity (sensitivity value  control
[ λ¿ γ ¿¿ β ¿¿α ]¿ ¿¿ quantity) was selected by the system. And the system expands
¿ (1) v1 node as three quantized effect quantity. Using three
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quantized effect quantity, the system calculated liner 20173 South Jeju TP#3 + 0.05
Generator terminal voltge
prediction and weighted evaluation function about all the bus South Jeju TP#4
20174 + 0.05
voltage. Evaluation function quantities of expanded node are Generator terminal voltge
11,9,10 as seen Fig. 2. The system selected v1_2 node that the
smallest of evaluation function value and progress a selection TABLE Ⅲ. CONTROL ACTION - APPLIED QUANTIZATION
of compensation device of step 2. BUS COMPENSATION CONTROL QUANTITY[p.u.]
2) Step 2: NUMBER DEVICES
The system performs liner prediction by using effect 20122 North Jeju TP + 0.05
quantity of v2. As a result, the system selected transformer tap Generator terminal voltge
20123 North Jeju CS + 0.0333
t1 because abnormal bus voltage occurred in normal bus. And Generator terminal voltge
through the same process of v1 node, the system selected t1_3 180 Shunt capacitor 5[MVAR] - 1 bank
node that the smallest of evaluation function quantity. Finally,
if abnormal bus voltage is dissolved, the system selected The following Fig. 4 shows voltage profile of control action
compensation device of step 3. Conversely, if abnormal bus before and after.
voltage is solved, the system finished the search process. Looking at Fig. 4, the system adjusted abnormal bus voltage
within voltage regulation and does not occurred another
IV. CASE STUDY abnormal bus voltage. In other words, it could be identified
In the case study, we found the abnormal bus voltage in that intelligent voltage control action in satisfying the
case of a bus fault using PSS/E in Jeju Island. In order to proposed weighted evaluation function
verify intelligent system's operating characteristic, upper and
lower limits of abnormal bus voltage are specified as 0.977
[p.u] ~ 1.023 [p.u] and upper and lower limits of voltage
regulation are specified as 0.977 [p.u] ~ 1.023 [p.u]. Also,
priority of compensation device selected firstly the generator
terminal voltage because of voltage control.
For the transmission line outage joining Seongsan(200) bus
and Jochen(350) bus amongst all (n-1) transmission line
outages, the voltage violations happened at Seongsan (200)
bus as seen in Table Ⅰ
The system recognizes that abnormal bus voltage occurred,
and output a control action signal as the following Table Ⅲ in
order to adjust Seongsan(200) bus voltage within voltage
regulation.
Fig. 4. Voltage Profile
TABLE I. VOLTAGE PROFILE OF BUS IN CASE OF A TRANSMISSION LINE
OUTAGE JOINING SEONGSAN (200) BUS AND JOCHEN(350) BUS
V. CONCLUSION
BUS BUS VOLTAGE[p.u.] The proposed system developed voltage control rules of
NUMBER NAME knowledge-base base on empirical knowledge of power
120 North Jeju TP 1.0045 system operator and applied the least-cost search satisfying the
121 North Jeju CS 1.0045
proposed weighted evaluation function using the continuous
122 North Jeju TS 1.0045
control quantity that applied the quantization process.
130 East Jeju 1.0035
As a result, this paper improved the hybrid intelligent
140 New Jeju 0.9989
voltage/reactive power control system through the inference
150 Hanrim CC 1.0083
160 Andeok
engine and the knowledge-base improvement.
0.9997
170 South Jeju TP 1.0004
180 New Seogwi 0.9837 VI. REFERENCES
190 Hanra 0.9832 Periodicals:
200 Seongsan 0.9655 [1] S. J. Cheng et al., “An Expert System for Voltage and
210 Pyoseon 0.9864 Reactive Power Control of a Power System”, IEEE Trans.
220 Sanji 1.0032 on PWRS, Vol. 3. No. 4, Nov. 1988, pp. 1449-1455.
330 Hanrim 1.0065 [2] J. L. Sancha et al., “Spanish Practices in Reactive Power
350 Jochen 0.9948 Management and Voltage Control”, IEEE Colloquium on
International Practices in Reactive Power Control, April
TABLE II. CONTROL ACTION - DO NOT APPLIED QUANTIZATION
1993, pp. 3/1-3/4
BUS COMPENSATION [3] A. Gomez Exposito et al., “Sensitivity-Based Reactive
CONTROL QUANTITY[p.u.]
NUMBER DEVICES Power Control for Voltage Profile Improvement”, IEEE
20122 North Jeju TP + 0.05 Trans. on PWRS, Vol. 8, No. 3, Aug. 1993, pp. 937-945
Generator terminal voltge
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[4] J. L. Martinez Ramos et al., “A Hybrid Tool to Assist the

Operator in Reactive Power/Voltage Control and
Optimization”, IEEE Trans. on PWRS, Vol. 10, No. 2,
May 1995, pp. 760-768
[5] T. L. Le et al., “Network Equivalents and Expert System
Application for Voltage and VAR Control in Large-Scale
Power Systems”, IEEE Trans. on PWRS, Vol. 12. No. 4,
Nov. 1997, pp. 1440-1445
Papers from Conference Proceedings (Published):
[6] C. Belhadj et al., “An Integrated Power System Global
Controller Using Expert System”, Canadian Conference
on Electrical and Computer Engineering 1996. Vol. 1,
May 1996, pp. 446-449.
[7] H. J. Lee et al., “Hybrid Intelligent Voltage and Reactive
Power Control System For Jeju Power System in Korea”
8th WSEAS Int. Conf. on POWER 　 SYSTEM.  pp
118~123
Tea-Kyun Kim received the BS, MS and Ph. D.
degrees from Hanyang University, in 1986, 1989
and 1993 respectively, all in electrical engineering.
Currently, he is the Research manager of Power
System Lab at Korea Electric Power Research
Institute (KEPRI)/KEPCO, Daejon, Korea
Jeong-Hoon Shin received the BS, MS and Ph. D. degrees
from Kyungpook University, in 1993, 1995 and 2006
respectively, all in electrical engineering. Currently, he
is the Senior Research Engineer of Power System Lab at
Korea Electric Power Research Institute
(KEPRI)/KEPCO, Daejon, Korea

VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Heung-Jae Lee received the BS, MS and Ph. D.
degrees from Seoul National University, in 1983,
1986 and 1990 respectively, all in electrical
engineering. He was a visiting professor in the Su-Shul Nam received his BS and MS degrees in
University of Washington from 1995 to 1996. His electrical engineering from Korea University, in
major research interests are the expert systems, the 2001 and 2006 respectively. Currently, he is the
neural networks and the fuzzy systems application Research Engineer of Power System Lab at Korea
to power systems including the computer Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI)/KEPCO,
application. He is a full professor in the Daejon, Korea
Kwangwoon University.

Won-Kun Yu received his BS and MS degrees in

electrical engineering from Kwangwoon University,
in 2003 and 2005 respectively. Currently, he is
pursuing Ph. D course at Kwangwoon University.
His research interests include state estimation and
voltage control using expert system.

Chan-Ho Lim received the BS, MS and PH. D.

degrees from Kwangwoon University, in 1991,
1993, and 1998 respectively, all in electrical
engineering. His major research interests are
expert system, neural networks and fuzzy system
application to power systems including computer
application. He is an associate professor in
Gyenongju University.

Kyeong-Seob Lee received his BS, MS and Ph. D.

degrees in electrical engineering from Kwangwoon
University, in 1998, 2000 and 2006 respectively.
Currently, he is manager of R&D and Production
Business at Juam Electric & Communication Co.
Ltd.

Eun-Jae Lee received his B.S degrees from

Kwangwoon University in Seoul Korea. He has
been a Unified Master's and Doctor's Course student
since 2008. His research interests include state
estimation, topology identification, and substation
automation