Nile Valley University

Faculty of Engineering & Technology

Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Power
System
Stability
Academic level fifth

Osman Abdeen Osman

Othmanabdeen_nvu@hotmail.com

Power System Stability

1. INTRODUCTION :Power system security in general may be defined as the
system robustness to operate in an equilibrium state under normal
and perturbed conditions. Power system security covers a wide
range of aspects, usually subdivided into static and dynamic
phenomena. Power system stability currently refers to the
dynamic part of security.
Power system stability may be defined broadly as that
property of a power system that enables it to remain in a stable
equilibrium state under normal operating conditions and to regain
an acceptable equilibrium state after being subjected to a
disturbance.
Power system stability is a multifaceted problem depending
upon a variety of factors, such as: the time span that must be taken
into consideration in order to assess stability/instability; the size of
the disturbance considered; the physical nature of the resulting
instability. Hence, although a rigorous classification among distinct
types of stabilities is difficult, a practical classification often
accepted relies on the above factors. Thus, with reference to the
time span of the phenomena, one distinguishes short term from
long term stability. With reference to the size of the disturbance
considered, one distinguishes small disturbance from large
disturbance stability: the former may be handled via linearization of
the dynamic equations of motion, while the latter requires nonlinear
approaches. Further, both the small disturbance and large
disturbance stability phenomena may be subdivided into voltage
and angle ones. Figure 1 illustrates this classification. One can see
that the angle large disturbance stability is the so called transient
stability; this is one of the two aspects making up what is called
dynamic security; the other aspect is large disturbance voltage
stability.
Therefore has to resort to numerical integration methods,
referred to as time domain (TD) methods. Historically, TD

methods started being used before the advent of numerical

computers: calculations of very simplified (and hence of reduced
dimensionality) versions of the system dynamic equations were
carried out manually to compute the machines swing curves, i.e.
the machines rotor angle evolution with time . Another way of
tackling transient stability is a graphical method, popularized in the
thirties, and called equal area criterion (EAC). This method deals
with a one machine system connected to an infinite bus and
studies its stability by using the concept of energy, which removes
the necessity of plotting swing curves. EAC has been and still is
considered to be an extraordinarily powerful tool for assessing
stability margins and limits, for evaluating the influence of various
system parameters, and more generally for providing insight into
the very physical transient stability phenomena .Today, the
tremendous progress in computer technology together with the
availability of bulky data bases for transient stability purposes yield
impressive achievements in this field.

Figure 1.1 Types of power system stability phenomena.

1.1 Power system transients :Power system transients are power-quality disturbances that
can be harmful to electronic equipment.

THE TERM transient originates from electric circuit theory

where it denotes the voltage and current component that occurs
during the transition from one (typically sinusoidal) steady-state to
another steady-state. Electric circuits are described by means of
differential equations, whose solutions are the sum of a
homogenous solution and a particular solution. The particular
solution corresponds with the steady-state; the homogeneous
solution corresponds with the transient.
In electric circuit theory a transient is always associated with a
change in steady state due to a switching action.
In power systems the term transient is used in a slightly
different way: it denotes those phenomena in voltage and current
with a short duration. There is no clear limit, but phenomena with
aduration of less than one cycle (of the power-system frequency, 50
or 60 Hz) are generally referred to as transients.
The interest in power system transients has traditionally been
related to the correct operation of circuit breakers and to over
voltages due to switching of high-voltage lines. But more recently
transients are viewed as a potential power-quality Problem.
This places new requirements on characterization and analysis
of transient waveforms. Relations have to be established between
waveform characteristics and equipment performance; methods
have to be developed to extract information on the cause of
transient waveforms; and methods are needed to quantify site and
system performance.
CATEGORIZATION OF POWER SYSTEM TRANSIENTS
A. Impulsive Transients
An impulsive transient is a sudden change in the steady state
condition of voltage, current or both, that is unidirectional in polarity
(primarily either positive or negative). Impulsive transients are
normally characterized by their rise and decay times. They are
damped quickly by the resistive circuit elements and do not
propagate far from their source. The most common cause of
impulsive transients is lightning. When a lightning stroke hits a
transmission line (direct stroke) an impulsive overvoltage is
induced. Lightning over voltages can also be induced by nearby
strokes to the ground or between clouds. These over voltages are of
lower magnitude than those produced by direct strokes. Fig1. 2

shows an impulsive transient measured in a 132 kV network.

Fig 1.2 Voltage waveform of an impulsive transient (measurement in a 132-kV

network).

B. Oscillatory Transients
A typical example of an oscillatory transient is caused by the
energizing of a capacitor bank. The oscillation frequency is mainly
determined by the capacitance of the capacitor bank and the shortcircuit inductance of the circuit feeding the capacitor bank.

.
Fig.1. 3 Distribution system for the simulation of voltage amplification due to
capacitor energizing.

C. Multiple Transients With a Single Cause

Due to one single switching action. However in many cases the
transient waveform is due to more than one switching action
leading to overlapping transients.
Other examples of multiple transients with a single cause are
current chopping and restrike. Current chopping occurs when
the current during opening of a circuit breaker becomes zero before
the natural zero crossing, resulting in high over voltages. Restrike
may occur when a capacitor is de-energized by a slowly moving
switch. An example of multiple restrikes is shown in Fig. 1.4 As
shown in the figure multiple restrikes can lead to an escalating
voltage over the capacitor leading to an internal flashover and
serious damage to the equipment.

Fig 1.4 Voltage waveform for multiple restrikes during capacitor de-energizing.
From top to bottom:
(a) line side; (b) capacitor side.

TABLE I.1 CATEGORIZATION OF TRANSIENTS BASED ON WAVEFORM

SHAPES AND THEIR UNDERLYING CAUSES (OR EVENTS)

1.2 Electromagnetic and Electromechanical transients :Electromagnetic transients

Electromagnetic transient phenomena are usually triggered by
changes in the network configuration, which may be caused by the
closing or opening action of circuit breakers or power electronic
equipment, or by equipment failure or faults, such as a lightning
stroke on a transmission line.
The study of electromagnetic transient phenomena includes
switching surges, transient recovery voltage, and etc...

Electromagnetic transients programs (EMTP) are common digital

computer tools for the analysis of this class of transients.
Electromechanical transients
Electric drive systems consist of an electric motor, a transfer
mechanism, an electrical energy converter and a control system.
The control system consists of a microcontroller with data
connection interfaces, data channels (data network), sensors and
actuators (motors).
To couple electrical motor with mechanical load, the
mechanical drives are used.
The basic types of mechanical drives are:
a) Geared transmission, which provides specific fixed type ratios.
b) Belt drives, providing flexibility in the positioning of the motor.
c) Chain drives, providing infinitely variable speeds.
d) Traction drives, which provides adjustable speed with relatively
high speed.
Thus, electromechanical system consists of two parts:
electrical and mechanical. Converter of electric energy and control
system compose an electrical part, moving masses form a
mechanical part (see Fig1.5).
Electromechanical transients are slower transients that are
caused by a mismatch between power production and consumption,
and therefore involve the oscillation of machine rotors because of
an unbalance between turbine and generator torques.

Figure 1.5 Structure of electromechanical system

Table 1.2. Various dynamic phenomena

1.3 Transient Analysis

The objective of transient analysis is to describe the behavior
of a voltage or a current during the transition between two distinct
steady-state conditions.
To solve a transient analysis ANSYS ( ANSYS is one of the leading

commercial finite element programs in the world and can be applied to a large
number of applications in engineering. Finite element solutions are available for
several engineering disciplines like statics, dynamics, heat flow, fluid flow,
electromagnetic and also coupled field problems ) provides different

solution options which will be discussed according to their

importance and computational efficiency in more or less detail:
Full Method
Reduced Method
Modal Superposition Method
The Full Method does not reduce the dimension of the
considered problem since original matrices are used to compute the
solution. As a consequence it is simple to use, all kinds of
nonlinearities may be specified, automatic time stepping is
available, all kinds of loads may be specified, masses are not
assumed to be concentrated at the nodes and finally all results are
computed in a single calculation. The main disadvantage of the Full
Method is the fact that the required solution time will increase with
the size of the considered model.
The Reduced Method originates from earlier years. Because
of the reduced system matrices which are used to solve the
transient problem, this method has an advantage when compared
with the Full Method with respect to the required solution time.
However, the user has to specify master degrees of freedom which
represent the dynamic behavior as good as possible. The only
nonlinearity which can be specified is node-to-node contact via a

gap condition. However, automatic time stepping is not possible.

Consequently, this method is not very popular any more since all its
disadvantages do not really compensate the advantage of lower
costs in solution time.
The Modal Superposition Method usually reduces the
dimension of the original problem as well since the transient
analysis is finally performed in the modal subspace which has the
dimension of the number of mode shapes used for the
superposition. The main advantage is again the reduction of
solution time. It turns out that this method is actually the most
efficient one compared with the other two.
The accuracy just depends on the number of mode shapes used for
the modal superposition. Even if a few modes shapes are taken the
requested solution time might still be less when compared with the
Full and the Reduced Method. Contact can be applied using the gap
condition we mentioned in the discussion of the Reduced Method.
The time step has to be chosen as constant which means that
automatic time stepping is not available for this method. It should
also be noted that a modal analysis has to be performed before the
transient problem can be solved with the modal superposition
technique. Hence, the solution process consists basically of two
analyses, the modal analysis and the transient analysis in the modal
subspace. Since for most problems in structural dynamics the
natural frequencies of a structure are of interest this is not really a
disadvantage. Summing up, using the modal superposition
technique for a transient analysis reduces not only solution time,
but the user also obtains information about the natural frequencies
and the undamped mode shapes, respectively.
Comparing the above solution options the Modal Superposition
Method is the most powerful method considering the required
solution time. However, it cannot handle nonlinearities. The Full
Method requires more time to finish the analysis but can handle
nonlinearities.
1.4 TRANSIENT RECOVERY VOLTAGE (TRV)
The recovery voltage is the voltage which appears across the
terminals of a pole of a circuit breaker.
The difference in the power system response voltage from the
source side to the load side of the circuit breaker is the TRV. The
breaking operation is successful if the circuit breaker is able to
withstand the TRV and the power frequency recovery voltage.
The nature of the TRV is dependent on the circuit being
interrupted, wither primarily resistive, capacitive or inductive, (or
some combination). Additionally, distributed and lumped circuit

elements will produce different TRV wave shapes Figure1.6 show

Current, TRV and Recovery Voltage.

Figure 1.6 Current, TRV and Recovery Voltage

When interrupting a fault at the circuit breaker terminal in an

inductive circuit, the supply voltage at current zero is maximum.
The circuit breaker interrupts at current zero, at a time when the
power input is minimum, and the voltage on the supply side
terminal reaches the supply voltage in a transient process called the
transient recovery voltage. This is illustrated in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7 Current and TRV waveforms during interruption of inductive current

The TRV frequency is

L = short-circuit inductance, C = supply capacitance.

When a pure resistive circuit is interrupted, the supply voltage

is zero at the time of interruption; therefore the recovery voltage
has no transient component (see Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8 Current and TRV waveforms during interruption of resistive current

1.5 Faults power systems

In an electric power system, a fault is any abnormal electric
current. For example, a short circuit is a fault in which current
bypasses the normal load. An open-circuit fault occurs if a circuit is
interrupted by some failure. In three-phase systems, a fault may
involve one or more phases and ground, or may occur only between
phases. In a "ground fault" or "earth fault", charge flows into the
earth.
The fault analysis of a power system is required in order to
provide information for the selection of switchgear, setting of relays
and stability of system operation.
A power system is not static but changes during operation
(switching on or off of generators and transmission lines) and during
planning (addition of generators and transmission lines).
Design of systems to detect and interrupt power system faults
is the main objective of power system protection.
Transient fault
A transient fault is a fault that is no longer present if power is
disconnected for a short time and then restored; or an insulation
fault which only temporarily affects a device's dielectric properties
which are restored after a short time. Many faults in overhead
power lines are transient in nature. When a fault occurs, equipment
used for power system protection operate to isolate the area of the
fault. A transient fault will then clear and the power-line can be
returned to service. Typical examples of transient faults include:

 momentary tree contact

bird or other animal contact
lightning strike
conductor clashing
Persistent fault
A persistent fault does not disappear when power is
disconnected. Faults in underground power cables are most often
persistent due to mechanical damage to the cable, but are
sometimes transient in nature due to lightning
Asymmetric fault
A symmetric or balanced fault affects each of the three phases
equally. In transmission line faults, approximately 5% are symmetric

Asymmetric fault
An asymmetric or unbalanced fault does not affect each of the
three phases equally. Common types of asymmetric faults, and their
causes:
Line to- line - a short circuit between lines, caused by
ionization of air, or when lines come into physical contact, for
example due to a broken insulator.
Line -to- ground - a short circuit between one line and ground,
very often caused by physical contact, for example due to
lightning or other storm damage

double line -to- ground - two lines come into contact with the
ground (and each other), also commonly due to storm damage .

Bolted fault

One extreme is where the fault has zero impedance, giving the
maximum prospective short-circuit current. Notionally, all the
conductors are considered connected to ground as if by a metallic
conductor; this is called a "bolted fault". It would be unusual in a
well-designed power system to have a metallic short circuit to
ground but such faults can occur by mischance. In one type of
transmission line protection, a "bolted fault" is intentionally
introduced to speed up operation of protective devices.
Realistic faults
Realistically, the resistance in a fault can be from close to zero
to fairly high. A large amount of power may be consumed in the
fault, compared with the zero-impedance case where the power is
zero. so a simple resistance is not a good model. All possible cases
need to be considered for a good analysis.
Arcing fault
Where the system voltage is high enough, an electric arc may
form between power system conductors and ground. Such an arc
can have a relatively high impedance (compared to the normal
operating levels of the system) and can be difficult to detect by
simple overcurrent protection. For example, an arc of several
hundred amperes on a circuit normally carrying a thousand
amperes may not trip overcurrent circuit breakers but can do
enormous damage to bus bars or cables before it becomes a
complete short circuit. Utility, industrial, and commercial power
systems have additional protection devices to detect relatively
small but undesired currents escaping to ground. In residential
wiring, electrical regulations may now require Arc-fault circuit
interrupters on building wiring circuits, to detect small arcs before
they cause damage or a fire.

2. Symmetrical faults:
A three phase symmetrical fault is caused by application of

three equal fault impedances Zf to the three phases, as shown in

Fig 2.1 . If Zf = 0 the fault is called a solid or a bolted fault. These

faults can be of two types:
(a) Line to line to line to ground fault (LLLG fault)

(b) Line to line to line fault (LLL fault).

Figure 2.1: Symmetrical Fault

Assumption:
1. All generators emfs are equal in magnitude and phase angle,
and are the same as the system voltage.
2. All load impedance and load current are neglected, since load
current are far less than short circuit current.
3. The fault current are limited only by the system impedances
(the impedances of the generators , transformers and lines )
since resistances only about 10% of reactances they are
usually neglected (except in low voltage system 415 v) .

2.2 Definition of Symmetrical Components

Assume that a set of three-phase voltages designated Va, Vb,
and Vc is given. In accordance with Fortescue, these phase voltages
are resolved into the following three sets of sequence components:
1. Zero-sequence components

Consisting of three phasors with equal magnitudes and with

zero phase displacement as shown in Figure 2.2 (a).
2. Positive-sequence components
Consisting of three phasors with equal magnitudes,

+
120

phase displacement and positive sequence as in Figure 2.2 (b).

3. Negative-sequence components
Consisting of three phasors with equal magnitudes,

+
120

phase displacement and negative sequence as in Figure 2.2(c).

In this text we will work only with the zero-, positive-, and
negative sequence components of phase a, which are Va0, Va1, and
Va2, respectively. For simplicity, we drop the subscript a and denote
these sequence components as V0, V1, and V2. They are defined by
the following transformation:

(2.1)

FIGURE 2.2 Resolving phase voltages into three sets of sequence

components

Where
(2.2)
Writing (2.1) as three separate equations:

TABLE 2.1 Common identities involving a :

Equation (2.1) can be rewritten more compactly using matrix

notation. We define the following vectors Vp and Vs, and matrix A:

Vp is the column vector of phase voltages, Vs is the column vector

of sequence voltages, and A is a 3 _ 3 transformation matrix. Using
these definitions (2.1) becomes :

The inverse of the A matrix is

Then

(2.3)
Writing (2.3) as three separate equations

The symmetrical component transformation can also be applied to

currents, as follows:
where Ip is a vector of phase currents and Is is a vector of sequence
currents

The phase currents are

Also
The sequence currents are

In a three-phase Y-connected system, the neutral current In is the

sum of the line currents:

Then
The neutral current equals three times the zero-sequence
current. In a balanced Y connected system, line currents have no
zero-sequence component, since the neutral current is zero. Also in
any three-phase system with no neutral path such as a Delta
connected system or a three-wire Y connected system with an
ungrounded neutral line currents have no zero-sequence
component.
EXAMPLE
Calculate the sequence components of the following balanced
line-to-neutral voltages with abc sequence:

SOLUTION

This example illustrates the fact that balanced three-phase systems

with abc sequence (or positive sequence) have no zero-sequence or
negative sequence components.
EXAMPLE
A Y-connected load has balanced currents with acb sequence
given by

Calculate the sequence currents.

SOLUTION

This example illustrates the fact that balanced three-phase systems

with acb sequence (or negative sequence) have no zero-sequence
or positive-sequence components.
EXAMPLE
A three-phase line feeding a balanced-Y load has one of its phases
(phase b) open. The load neutral is grounded, and the unbalanced
line currents are

Calculate the sequence currents and the neutral current.

SOLUTION