Publications

105 Results
Skip to search filters

Input Signal for Synthetic Inertia: Estimated ROCOF Versus Remote Machine Acceleration

2022 IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference, ISGT 2022

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Wold, Josh; Balliet, W.H.

This paper studies the differences in a synthetic inertia controller of using two different feedback measurements: (i) an estimate of the rate of change of frequency from local voltage measurements, and (ii) a remote machine acceleration from a generator nearby to the actuator. The device that provides the synthetic inertia action is a converter interfaced generator (CIG). The paper carries out analysis in the frequency domain, using Bode plots, to show that synthetic inertia control using frequency estimates is more prone to instabilities than for the case where a machine speed is used. The paper then proposes a controller (or a filter) to mitigate these effects. In addition, the paper shows the effects that a delay of the machine speed signal of the nearby generator has on the synthetic inertia control of the system and how a controller is also needed in this case. Finally, the paper shows the difference in performance of a synthetic inertia controller when using these different measurement signals with simulations in time domain a electromagnetic transient program platform.

More Details

Control of High Voltage DC Links between Interconnections for Small Signal Stability

2020 52nd North American Power Symposium, NAPS 2020

Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.

More Details

Modeling inverters with grid support functions for power system dynamics studies

2021 IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference, ISGT 2021

Guruwacharya, Nischal; Bhujel, Niranjan; Hansen, Timothy M.; Suryanarayanan, Siddharth; Tonkoski, Reinaldo; Tamrakar, Ujjwol; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe

A significant amount of converter-based generation, such as wind and photovoltaic, is being integrated into thebulk electric power grid to fulfill the future electric demand. Such converter-based distributed energy resources (DERs) will be providing multiple grid support functions (GSFs) to supportvoltage and frequency control of the power system. In thispaper, we present the development of a MA /Simulink-based simulation model to study power system dynamics whenDERs are equipped with GSFs. The simulation model of aninverter with GSFs is validated through comparisons against thecharacteristic curves for each function of the IEEE 1547-2018standard. The normalized root-mean-square-error (NRMSE) wascalculated to be less than 2%. The developed model is then used ina sample power systems dynamics study under various operatingconditions. Results show the exnected resnonse of inverfers withGSFs, properly supporting the grid voltage and frequency andmaintaining the value within an acceptable range.

More Details

A Dynamic Mode Decomposition Scheme to Analyze Power Quality Events

IEEE Access

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Reno, Matthew J.; Hernandez Alvidrez, Javier H.

This paper presents a new method for detecting power quality disturbances, such as faults. The method is based on the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD)-a data-driven method to estimate linear dynamics whose eigenvalues and eigenvectors approximate those of the Koopman operator. The proposed method uses the real part of the main eigenvalue estimated by the DMD as the key indicator that a power quality event has occurred. The paper shows how the proposed method can be used to detect events using current and voltage signals to distinguish different faults. Because the proposed method is window-based, the effect that the window size has on the performance of the approach is analyzed. In addition, a study on the effect that noise has on the proposed approach is presented.

More Details

A Survey of Traveling Wave Protection Schemes in Electric Power Systems

IEEE Access

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Bidram, Ali; Reno, Matthew J.; Hernandez Alvidrez, Javier H.; Barba, Pedro; Reimer, Benjamin; Montoya, Rudy; Carr, Christopher C.; Lavrova, Olga A.

As a result of the increase in penetration of inverter-based generation such as wind and solar, the dynamics of the grid are being modified. These modifications may threaten the stability of the power system since the dynamics of these devices are completely different from those of rotating generators. Protection schemes need to evolve with the changes in the grid to successfully deliver their objectives of maintaining safe and reliable grid operations. This paper explores the theory of traveling waves and how they can be used to enable fast protection mechanisms. It surveys a list of signal processing methods to extract information on power system signals following a disturbance. The paper also presents a literature review of traveling wave-based protection methods at the transmission and distribution levels of the grid and for AC and DC configurations. The paper then discusses simulations tools to help design and implement protection schemes. A discussion of the anticipated evolution of protection mechanisms with the challenges facing the grid is also presented.

More Details

Configurable Microgrid Modelling with Multiple Distributed Energy Resources for Dynamic System Analysis

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Darbali-Zamora, Rachid; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Naughton, Brian T.

As renewable energy sources are becoming more dominant in electric grids, particularly in micro grids, new approaches for designing, operating, and controlling these systems are required. The integration of renewable energy devices such as photovoltaics and wind turbines require system design considerations to mitigate potential power quality issues caused by highly variable generation. Power system simulations play an important role in understanding stability and performance of electrical power systems. This paper discusses the modeling of the Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) micro grid integrated with the Sandia National Laboratories Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) test site, providing a dynamic simulation model for power flow and transient stability analysis. A description of the system as well as the dynamic models is presented.

More Details

Model Reduction of Wind Turbine Generator Models for Control Performance Evaluation

Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Transmission and Distribution Conference

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Lackner, Christoph; Chow, Joe H.

Power system operations are fundamentally changed by the growing installation of wind generation systems. The undispatchable nature of wind turbine generators (WTGs) causes the operating conditions of power systems to be more volatile. At the same time, the converter-based interface of WTGs are capable, and are increasingly expected to, provide voltage and frequency regulation capabilities. Monitoring of power systems becomes critical under these anticipated conditions and high resolution data, such as synchrophasors, are crucial for this task. This paper presents an approximate low-order model of WTGs that can be readily estimated from available synchrophasor measurements. The identification of the parameters of the model can be used to approximate the control performance of WTGs and their contributions to frequency and voltage regulation.

More Details

Opportunities and Trends for Energy Storage plus Solar in CAISO: 2014-2018

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Byrne, Raymond H.; Nguyen, Tu A.; Headley, Alexander H.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Trevizan, Rodrigo D.

More Details

Models and analysis of fuel switching generation impacts on power system resilience

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Knueven, Ben; Staid, Andrea S.; Watson, Jean-Paul W.

This paper presents model formulations for generators that have the ability to use multiple fuels and to switch between them if necessary. These models are used to generate different scenarios of fuel switching penetration from a test power system. With these scenarios, for a severe disruption in the fuel supply to multiple generators, the paper analyzes the effect that fuel switching has on the resilience of the power system. Load not served is used as the proxy metric to evaluate power system resilience. The paper shows that the presence of generators with fuel switching capabilities considerably reduces the amount and duration of the load shed by the system facing the fuel disruption.

More Details

A real power injection control strategy for improving transient stability

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Ojetola, Samuel; Wold, Josh; Trudnowski, Daniel; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Elliott, Ryan T.

Transient stability is highly correlated to the inertia connected to the synchronous grid. Most of the modern control schemes for maintaining transient stability involve generator tripping schemes. However, these type of schemes may become difficult to implement because of the inertia reduction associated with the increase in inverter-based and distributed generation. This paper presents the effect of using machine acceleration feedback in a real-power injection control scheme to improve transient stability without generator tripping. This scheme is based on the equal area criterion and tested on a one machine infinite bus and a two machine system. Its applicability in a multimachine power system is demonstrated on a reduced-order western North American power system. Simulation results indicate that the proposed control strategy provides a simple and effective method for improving transient stability.

More Details

Inertia estimation in power systems using energy storage and system identification techniques

2020 International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation and Motion, SPEEDAM 2020

Tamrakar, Ujjwol; Guruwacharya, Nischal; Bhujel, Niranjan; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Hansen, Timothy M.; Tonkoski, Reinaldo

Fast-frequency control strategies have been proposed in the literature to maintain inertial response of electric generation and help with the frequency regulation of the system. However, it is challenging to deploy such strategies when the inertia constant of the system is unknown and time-varying. In this paper, we present a data-driven system identification approach for an energy storage system (ESS) operator to identify the inertial response of the system (and consequently the inertia constant). The method is first tested and validated with a simulated genset model using small changes in the system load as the excitation signal and measuring the corresponding change in frequency. The validated method is then used to experimentally identify the inertia constant of a genset. The inertia constant of the simulated genset model was estimated with an error of less than 5% which provides a reasonable estimate for the ESS operator to properly tune the parameters of a fast-frequency controller.

More Details

Forced oscillations in the western interconnection with the pacific dc intertie wide area damping controller

2020 IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference, ISGT 2020

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Pierre, Brian J.; Schoenwald, David A.; Elliott, Ryan T.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Neely, Jason C.; Trudnowski, Daniel J.

Forced oscillations in power systems are of particular interest when they interact and reinforce inter-area oscillations. This paper determines how a previously proposed inter-area damping controller mitigates forced oscillations. The damping controller modulates active power on the Pacific DC Intertie (PDCI) based on phasor measurement units (PMU) frequency measurements. The primary goal of the controller is to improve the small signal stability of the north south B mode in the North American Western Interconnection (WI). The paper presents small signal stability analysis in a reduced order system, time-domain simulations of a detailed representation of the WI and actual system test results to demonstrate that the PDCI damping controller provides effective damping to forced oscillations in the frequency range below 1 Hz.

More Details

Voltage control performance evaluation using synchrophasor data

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Lackner, Christoph; Chow, Joe H.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Darvishi, Atena

With increasing availability of synchrophasor technology, enabled by phasor measurement units (PMUs), applications based on this technology are being implemented as a practical approach for power systems monitoring and control. While synchrophasor data provides significant advantages over SCADA data it has limitations, especially in the area of model validation and estimation. With the increasing complexity of the power system, the need for equipment monitoring and performance evaluation becomes more relevant, traditionally model validation and estimation process can be used to look at control equipment performance. However, due to the challenges associated with these processes there are limitations on the performance evaluation. This work introduces am improved signal-processing based algorithm to monitor control system performance during disturbance events in the power system and during ambient conditions, or normal power system operation, additionally the algorithm is demonstrated on data obtained from the interconnection point of a STATCOM device and a synchronous generator during ambient and disturbance operation.

More Details

A Method for Correcting Frequency and RoCoF Estimates of Power System Signals with Phase Steps

51st North American Power Symposium, NAPS 2019

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Wold, Josh; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Budai, Jamie

This paper analyzes how two Kalman Filter (KF) based frequency estimation algorithms react to phase steps. It is demonstrated that phase steps are interpreted as sharp changes in frequency. The paper studies whether the location of the phase step, within the sinusoidal waveform, has any effect on the frequency estimate. Because phase steps are not the product of a permanent change in the underlying frequency, the paper proposes an algorithm to correct frequency estimates deemed erroneous. The algorithm makes use of the residual of the KF to determine when an estimate is incorrect and to trigger a corrective action in which the frequency estimate is replaced by an average of the previous values that were considered accurate. Using synthesized and simulated data with distortions the paper shows the effectiveness of the correction algorithm in fixing frequency estimates.

More Details

Design of the Pacific DC Intertie Wide Area Damping Controller

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.; Elliott, Ryan T.; Trudnowski, Daniel J.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Neely, Jason C.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a proof-of-concept Pacific dc Intertie (PDCI) wide area damping controller and includes system test results on the North American Western Interconnection (WI). To damp inter-area oscillations, the controller modulates the power transfer of the PDCI, a ±500 kV dc transmission line in the WI. The control system utilizes real-time phasor measurement unit (PMU) feedback to construct a commanded power signal which is added to the scheduled power flow for the PDCI. After years of design, simulations, and development, this controller has been implemented in hardware and successfully tested in both open and closed-loop operation. The most important design specifications were safe, reliable performance, no degradation of any system modes in any circumstances, and improve damping to the controllable modes in the WI. The main finding is that the controller adds significant damping to the modes of the WI and does not adversely affect the system response in any of the test cases. The primary contribution of this paper, to the state of the art research, is the design methods and test results of the first North American real-time control system that uses wide area PMU feedback.

More Details

Revenue Opportunities for Electric Storage Resources in the Southwest Power Pool Integrated Marketplace

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Concepcion, Ricky J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Byrne, Raymond H.

This paper explores the revenue potential for electric storage resources (ESRs), also referred to as electrical energy storage, in the Southwest Power Pool Integrated Marketplace. In particular, opportunities in the day-ahead market with the energy and frequency regulation products are considered. The revenue maximization problem is formulated as a linear program model, where an ESR seeks to maximize its revenue through the available revenue streams. The ESR has perfect foresight of historical prices and determines the optimal policy accordingly. A case study using FY2018 data shows that frequency regulation services are the most lucrative for revenue potential. This paper also explores different methods of using area control error data to infer the regulation control signal and the consequent effect on the optimization. Finally, the paper conducts a sensitivity analysis of ESR payback period to energy capacity and power rating.

More Details

Performance evaluation of STATCOM equipment using ambient and disturbance data

2019 IEEE Milan PowerTech, PowerTech 2019

Lackner, Christoph; Chow, Joe H.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe

With increasing availability of synchrophasor technology, enabled by phasor measurement units (PMUs), applications based on this technology are being implemented as a practical approach for power systems monitoring and control. While synchrophasor data provides significant advantages over SCADA data it has limitations especially in the area of model validation and estimation. With the increasing complexity of the power system, the need for equipment monitoring and performance evaluation becomes more relevant. Traditionally model validation and estimation process can be used to look at control equipment performance. However, due to the challenges associated with these processes there are limitations on the performance evaluation. This work expands a previously introduced algorithm to monitor control system performance to allow the algorithm to work under power system ambient and disturbance conditions. Additionally the algorithm is demonstrated on data obtained from the interconnection point of a STATCOM device during ambient and disturbance operation.

More Details

Stability Criteria for Power Systems with Damping Control and Asymmetric Feedback Delays

2018 North American Power Symposium, NAPS 2018

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Copp, David C.; Gravagne, Ian; Schoenwald, David A.

Power system inter-area oscillations can be damped using distributed control of multiple power injections within the interconnection. This type of control traditionally requires system-wide measurements which are transmitted from dispersed, sometimes remote, locations and are subject to delays. This paper evaluates the effect that delayed feedback signals have on the stability of a two-area power system and presents delay-dependent criteria for stability using two different implementations of a damping controller. The controllers are based on a uniform proportional control action and use two feedback signals one from each area of the two-area power system. Each of these signals is subject to an independent delay. Using a Lyapunov-based approach, sufficient conditions for stability that depend on each time delay are found for a range of proportional control gains. Numerical results show that the regions of time delays for which the system is stable are reduced as the proportional gain increases. Time domain simulations validate these stability regions and show the varying responses for the two control implementations and different values of the proportional gain.

More Details

Effects of wind turbine generators on inter-area oscillations and damping control design

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Lackner, Christoph; Chow, Joe H.; Sanchez-Gasca, Juan J.

This paper analyzes the effect of wind turbine integration (WT) on the inter-area oscillation mode of a test two-area power system. The paper uses a root-locus based design method to propose a pair of controllers to provide damping to the inter-area mode of the system. The controllers are selected from the best combination of feedback signal and WT control action. One of the controllers uses the active power control part of the WT while the other uses the reactive power part. The paper analyzes the impact that increases on the transmission line connecting the WT to the system have on the controllers' performance. Time domain simulations are provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the controllers under different conditions.

More Details

Potential Impacts of Misconfiguration of Inverter-Based Frequency Control

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Johnson, Jay; Byrne, Raymond H.

This paper focuses on a transmission system with a high penetration of converter-interfaced generators participating in its primary frequency regulation. In particular, the effects on system stability of widespread misconfiguration of frequency regulation schemes are considered. Failures in three separate primary frequency control schemes are analyzed by means of time domain simulations where control action was inverted by, for example, negating controller gain. The results indicate that in all cases the frequency response of the system is greatly deteriorated and, in multiple scenarios, the system loses synchronism. It is also shown that including limits to the control action can mitigate the deleterious effects of inverted control configurations.

More Details

Effects of Wind Generation Integration on Power System Transient Stability

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Lackner, Christoph; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Chow, Joe H.

This paper analyzes the effects on transient stability of integrating a wind power plant (WPP) on a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) test system. Wind penetration in the system was increased and the impact of this integration on the critical clearing time (CCLT) of the system is studied. This study is performed separately for different WPP reactive power control schemes. Additionally, the paper determines the reduction in power output of the conventional generator necessary to keep a constant CCLT in the face of increases in wind penetration. The results show that this reduction is smaller than the wind power integrated, which is reflected in an increase in the total power transfered across the transmission line. Hence, the total power of the transfer path can be increased without transient stability concerns.

More Details

A Tool to Characterize Delays and Packet Losses in Power Systems With Synchrophasor Data

IEEE Power and Energy Technology Systems Journal

Lackner, Christoph L.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Pierre, Brian J.; Schoenwald, David A.

This study describes the implementation of a tool to estimate latencies and data dropouts in communication networks transferring synchrophasor data defined by the C37.118 standard. The tool assigns a time tag to synchrophasor packets at the time it receives them according to a global positioning system clock and with this information is able to determine the time those packets took to reach the tool. The tool is able to connect simultaneously to multiple phasor measurement units (PMUs) sending packets at different reporting rates with different transport protocols such as user datagram protocol or transmission control protocol. The tool is capable of redistributing every packet it receives to a different device while recording the exact time this information is re-sent into the network. The results of measuring delays from a PMU using this tool are presented and compared with those of a conventional network analyzer. The results show that the tool presented in this paper measures delays more accurately and precisely than the conventional network analyzer.

More Details

Integrated Cyber/Physical Grid Resiliency Modeling

Dawson, Lon A.; Verzi, Stephen J.; Levin, Drew L.; Melander, Darryl J.; Sorensen, Asael H.; Cauthen, Katherine R.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Berg, Timothy M.; Lavrova, Olga A.; Guttromson, Ross G.

This project explored coupling modeling and analysis methods from multiple domains to address complex hybrid (cyber and physical) attacks on mission critical infrastructure. Robust methods to integrate these complex systems are necessary to enable large trade-space exploration including dynamic and evolving cyber threats and mitigations. Reinforcement learning employing deep neural networks, as in the AlphaGo Zero solution, was used to identify "best" (or approximately optimal) resilience strategies for operation of a cyber/physical grid model. A prototype platform was developed and the machine learning (ML) algorithm was made to play itself in a game of 'Hurt the Grid'. This proof of concept shows that machine learning optimization can help us understand and control complex, multi-dimensional grid space. A simple, yet high-fidelity model proves that the data have spatial correlation which is necessary for any optimization or control. Our prototype analysis showed that the reinforcement learning successfully improved adversary and defender knowledge to manipulate the grid. When expanded to more representative models, this exact type of machine learning will inform grid operations and defense - supporting mitigation development to defend the grid from complex cyber attacks! This same research can be expanded to similar complex domains.

More Details

Power System Damping Control via Power Injections from Distributed Energy Storage

SPEEDAM 2018 - Proceedings: International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation and Motion

Copp, David C.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.; Gyuk, Imre

Inter-area oscillations are present in all power systems dispersed over large areas and can have detrimental effects limiting transmission capacity or even causing blackouts. The availability of wide-area measurements in power systems has enabled damping of inter-area oscillations using distributed control methods and system components, such as energy storage devices. We investigate the performance of damping control enabled by energy storage devices distributed throughout an example two-area power system assuming the availability of wide-area measurements of generator machine speeds. The energy storage devices are capable of injecting active power into the system in order to damp inter-area oscillations that occur after a fault in the system. An analysis of the linearized system and several simulations of the nonlinear system with multiple combinations of controlled power injections from energy storage devices are performed. From the results, we quantify and discuss how damping performance depends on the sizes and locations of injections.

More Details

Analysis of the Effect of Communication Latencies on HVDC-Based Damping Control

Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Transmission and Distribution Conference

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.; Fan, Rui; Elizondo, Marcelo; Kirkham, Harold

A wide-area controller to damp inter-area oscillations in the North American Western Interconnection (WI) by modulating power transfers in a HVDC link is used in this paper to investigate the effects that latencies in its feedback signals have on its performance. This controller uses two feedback measurements to perform its control action. The analysis show that the stabilizing effect of the controller in transient stability and small signal stability is compromised as the feedback measurements experience higher delays. The results show that one of the feedback signals can tolerate more delay than the other. The analysis was performed with Bode plots and time domain simulations on a reduced order model of the WI from which a linear version was obtained.

More Details

Oscillation Damping Control Using Multiple High Voltage DC Transmission Lines: Controllability Exploration

Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Transmission and Distribution Conference

Fan, Ruin; Elizondo, Marcelo A.; Kirkham, Harold; Lian, Jianming; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.

This paper explores the controllability of power system oscillation modes by multiple high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission lines. The controllability exploration is performed in a reduced model of the Western Electricity Coordination Council (WECC) system, with added HVDC lines according to previously proposed lines. The exploration shows that various oscillation modes, across several system areas, can be simultaneously controlled by coordinating three or more HVDC lines. The degree of damping in each oscillation mode can be selected by designing a multi-input multi-output control system on the HVDC lines.

More Details

Use and Testing of a Wind Turbine for the Supply of Balancing Reserves and Wide-Area Grid Stability

Guttromson, Ross G.; Gravagne, Ian G.; Berg, Jonathan C.; White, Jonathan; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Summers, Adam; Schoenwald, David A.

This report documents the use of wind turbine inertial energy for the supply of two specific electric power grid services; system balancing and real power modulation to improve grid stability. Each service is developed to require zero net energy consumption. Grid stability was accomplished by modulating the real power output of the wind turbine at a frequency and phase associated with wide-area modes. System balancing was conducted using a grid frequency signal that was high-pass filtered to ensure zero net energy. Both services used Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) as their primary source of system data in a feedforward control (for system balancing) and feedback control (for system stability).

More Details

Simulation results for the pacific DC intertie wide area damping controller

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Elliott, Ryan T.; Schoenwald, David A.; Neely, Jason C.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Trudnowski, Daniel J.

This paper presents simulation results of a control scheme for damping inter-area oscillations using high-voltage DC (HVDC) power modulation. The control system utilizes realtime synchrophasor feedback to construct a supplemental commanded power signal for the Pacific DC Intertie (PDCI) in the North American Western Interconnection (WI). A prototype of this controller has been implemented in hardware and, after multiple years of development, successfully tested in both open and closed-loop operation. This paper presents simulation results of the WI during multiple severe contingencies with the damping controller in both open and closed-loop. The primary results are that the controller adds significant damping to the controllable modes of the WI and that it does not adversely affect the system response in any of the simulated cases. Furthermore, the simulations show that a feedback signal composed of the frequency difference between points of measurement near the Washington-Oregon border and the California-Oregon border can be employed with similar results to a feedback signal constructed from measurements taken near the Washington-Oregon border and southern California. This is an important consideration because it allowed the control system to be designed without relying upon cross-system measurements, which would have introduced significant additional delay.

More Details

Effect of time delay asymmetries in power system damping control

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Neely, Jason C.; Schoenwald, David A.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Pierre, Brian J.; Elliott, Ryan T.

Distributed control compensation based on local and remote sensor feedback can improve small-signal stability in large distributed systems, such as electric power systems. Long distance remote measurements, however, are potentially subject to relatively long and uncertain network latencies. In this work, the issue of asymmetrical network latencies is considered for an active damping application in a two-area electric power system. The combined effects of latency and gain are evaluated in time domain simulation and in analysis using root-locus and the maximum singular value of the input sensitivity function. The results aid in quantifying the effects of network latencies and gain on system stability and disturbance rejection.

More Details

Initial closed-loop testing results for the pacific DC intertie wide area damping controller

IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting

Trudnowski, Daniel; Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.; Elliott, Ryan T.; Neely, Jason; Byrne, Raymond H.; Kosterev, Dmitry

Lightly damped electromechanical oscillations are a source of concern in the western interconnect. Recent development of a reliable real-time wide-area measurement system (WaMS) has enabled the potential for large-scale damping control approaches for stabilizing critical oscillation modes. a recent research project has focused on the development of a prototype feedback modulation controller for the Pacific DC Intertie (PDCI) aimed at stabilizing such modes. The damping controller utilizes real-time WaMS signals to form a modulation command for the DC power on the PDCI. This paper summarizes results from the first actual-system closed-loop tests. Results demonstrate desirable performance and improved modal damping consistent with previous model studies.

More Details

Communication enabled—fast acting imbalance reserve (CE-FAIR)

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Neely, Jason C.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Ellis, Abraham E.

This letter presents a new frequency control strategy that takes advantage of communications and fast responding resources such as photovoltaic generation, energy storage, wind generation, and demand response, termed collectively as converter interfaced generators (CIGs). The proposed approach uses an active monitoring of power imbalances to rapidly redispatch CIGs. This approach differs from previously proposed frequency control schemes in that it employs feed-forward control based on a measured power imbalance rather than relying on a frequency measurement. Time-domain simulations of the full Western Electricity Coordinating Council system are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, showing improved performance.

More Details

Impact of communication latencies and availability on droop-implemented primary frequency regulation

2017 North American Power Symposium, NAPS 2017

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Byrne, Raymond H.

This paper proposes a method to modulate the power output of converter interfaced generators (CIGs) according to frequency variations. With the proposed approach, CIGs can successfully engage in the primary frequency regulation of a power system. The approach is a variation on the traditional droop-like proportional controller where the feedback signal is a global frequency measurement instead of a local one. Obtaining the global measurement requires transferring data using communications. This paper analyzes the performance of the proposed approach with respect to communications issues such as latencies and data dropouts. The approach implemented and tested in a simulation environment is compared against a method entirely based on local information. The results show that using global information in droop control provides benefits to the system as it improves its frequency regulation. The results also indicate that the proposed approach is robust to latencies and communication failures.

More Details

Time-domain analysis of power system stability with damping control and asymmetric feedback delays

2017 North American Power Symposium, NAPS 2017

Copp, David C.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Gravagne, Ian; Schoenwald, David A.

Power systems can be stabilized using distributed control methods with wide-area measurements for feedback. However, wide-area measurements are subject to time delays in communication, which can have undesirable effects on system performance. We present time-domain analysis results regarding the small-signal stability of a two-area power system with damping control subjected to asymmetric time delays in the feedback measurements. We consider two wide-area damping control implementations. The first is implemented with a High Voltage DC transmission line, and the second uses distributed Energy Storage devices. Numerical results show regions of stability for the closed-loop systems that depend on the time delays and the choice of the control gain. These results show that increasing the control gains cause the systems to be less robust to time delays, and, under certain conditions, increasing the time delays can have a stabilizing effect. Furthermore, we provide analysis of time simulations and eigenvalue plots that verify these stability regions and show how stability is affected as time delays increase.

More Details

Effects of communication latency and availability on synthetic inertia

2017 IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference, ISGT 2017

Concepcion, Ricky J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Byrne, Raymond H.

This paper proposes a method of enabling photovoltaic (PV) power plants to participate in primary frequency response by providing synthetic inertia (SI). This variation, referred to as communication enabled synthetic inertia (CE-SI), utilizes communication capabilities to provide global system frequency information to PV plants to emulate the inertial response of synchronous generators. The performance of CE-SI is analyzed with respect to the challenges associated with communication, such as latency and availability. Results indicate improvements in frequency response over SI using local frequency measurements when communication latency is sufficiently small.

More Details

Open-loop testing results for the pacific DC intertie wide area damping controller

2017 IEEE Manchester PowerTech, Powertech 2017

Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Schoenwald, David A.; Elliott, Ryan T.; Neely, Jason C.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Trudnowski, Daniel J.

This paper describes the initial open-loop operation of a prototype control system aimed at mitigating inter-area oscillations through active DC power modulation. The control system uses real-time synchrophasor feedback to construct a commanded power signal added to the scheduled power on the Pacific DC Intertie (PDCI) within the western North American power system (wNAPS). The control strategy is based upon nearly a decade of simulation, linear analysis, and actual system tests. The control system must add damping to all modes which are controllable and 'do no harm' to the AC grid. Tests were conducted in which the damping controller injected live probing signals into the PDCI controls to change the power flow on the PDCI by up to ±125 MW. While the probing tests are taking place, the damping controller recorded what it would have done if it were providing active damping. The tests demonstrate that the dynamic response of the DC system is highly desirable with a response time of 11 ms which is well within the desired range. The tests also verify that the overall transfer functions are consistent with past studies and tests. Finally, the tests show that the prototype controller behaves as expected and will improve damping in closed-loop operation.

More Details

Design and Implementation of a Wide-Area Damping Controller Using High Voltage DC Modulation and Synchrophasor Feedback

IFAC-PapersOnLine

Schoenwald, David A.; Pierre, Brian J.; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Trudnowski, Daniel J.

This paper describes the design strategy and testing results of a control system to improve damping of inter-area oscillations in the western North American Power System (wNAPS) in order to maintain dynamic stability of the grid. Extensive simulation studies and actual test results on the wNAPS demonstrate significant improvements in damping of inter-area oscillations of most concern without reducing damping of peripheral oscillations. The design strategy of the control system features three novel attributes: (1) The feedback law for the control system is constructed using real-time measurements acquired from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) located throughout the power grid. (2) Control actuation is delivered by the modulation of real power flow through a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission line. (3) A supervisory system, integrated into the control system is in charge of determining damping effectiveness, maintaining failsafe operation, and ensuring that no harm is done to the grid.

More Details

PDCI Wide-Area Damping Control: PSLF Simulations of the 2016 Open and Closed Loop Test Plan

Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Pierre, Brian J.; Elliott, Ryan T.; Schoenwald, David A.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Neely, Jason C.; Trudnowski, Daniel J.; Donnelly, Matthew K.

To demonstrate and validate the performance of the wide-are a damping control system, the project plans to conduct closed-loop tests on the PDCI in summer/fall 2016. A test plan details the open and closed loop tests to be conducted on the P DCI using the wide-area damping control system. To ensure the appropriate level of preparedness, simulations were performed in order to predict and evaluate any possible unsafe operations before hardware experiments are attempted. This report contains the result s from these simulations using the power system dynamics software PSLF (Power System Load Flow, trademark of GE). The simulations use the WECC (Western Electricity Coordinating Council) 2016 light summer and heavy summer base cases.

More Details

Small signal stability of the western North American power grid with high penetrations of renewable generation

Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference

Byrne, Raymond H.; Concepcion, Ricky J.; Neely, Jason; Wilches-Bernal, Felipe; Elliott, Ryan T.; Lavrova, Olga A.; Quiroz, Jimmy E.

The goal of this effort was to assess the effect of high penetration solar deployment on the small signal stability of the western North American power system (wNAPS). Small signal stability is concerned with the system response to small disturbances, where the system is operating in a linear region. The study area consisted of the region governed by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). General Electric's Positive Sequence Load Flow software (PSLF®) was employed to simulate the power system. A resistive brake insertion was employed to stimulate the system. The data was then analyzed in MATLAB® using subspace methods (Eigensystem Realization Algorithm). Two different WECC base cases were analyzed: 2022 light spring and 2016 heavy summer. Each base case was also modified to increase the percentage of wind and solar. In order to keep power flows the same, the modified cases replaced conventional generation with renewable generation. The replacements were performed on a regional basis so that solar and wind were placed in suitable locations. The main finding was that increased renewable penetration increases the frequency of inter-area modes, with minimal impact on damping. The slight increase in mode frequency was consistent with the loss of inertia as conventional generation is replaced with wind and solar. Then, distributed control of renewable generation was assessed as a potential mitigation, along with an analysis of the impact of communications latency on the distributed control algorithms.

More Details
105 Results
105 Results