What is Power System Stability?:

The stability of an interconnected power system is its ability to return to normal or stable operation after having been subjected to some form of disturbance. Conversely, instability means a condition denoting loss of synchronism or falling out of step. Power System Stability considerations have been recognized as an essential part of power system planning for a long time. With interconnected systems continually growing in size and extending over vast geographical regions, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain synchronism between various parts of a power system.

The dynamics of a power system are characterized by its basic features given below:

  1. Synchronous tie exhibits the typical behavior that as power transfer is gradually increased a maximum limit is reached beyond which the system cannot stay in synchronism, i.e., it falls out of step.
  2. The system is basically a spring-inertia oscillatory system with inertia on the mechanical side and spring action provided by the synchronous tie wherein power transfer is proportional to sin δ or δ (for small δ, δ being the relative internal angle of machines).
  3. Because of power transfer being proportional to sin δ, the equation determining system dynamics is nonlinear for disturbances causing large variations in angle δ. Stability phenomenon peculiar to non-linear systems as distinguished from linear systems is therefore exhibited by power systems (stable up to a certain magnitude of disturbance and unstable for larger disturbances).

Accordingly, Power system stability problems are classified into three basic types steady state, dynamic and transient.

The study of steady state stability is basically concerned with the determination of the upper limit of machine loading before losing synchronism, provided the loading is increased gradually.

Dynamic instability is more probable than steady state instability. Small disturbances are continually occurring in a power system (variations in loadings, changes in turbine speeds, etc.) which are small enough not to cause the system to lose synchronism but do excite the system into the state of natural oscillations. The system is said to be dynamically stable if the oscillations do not acquire more than certain amplitude and die out quickly (i.e., the system is well-damped). In a dynamically unstable system, the oscillation amplitude is large and these persist for a long time (i.e., the system is underdamped). This kind of instability behavior constitutes a serious threat to system security and creates very difficult operating conditions. Dynamic stability can be significantly improved through the use of power system stabilizers. Dynamic system study has to be carried out for 5-10 s and sometimes up to 30 s. Computer simulation is the only effective means of studying dynamic stability problems. The same simulation programmes are, of course, applicable to transient stability studies.

Following a sudden disturbance on a power system rotor speeds, rotor angular differences and power transfer undergo fast changes whose magnitudes are dependent upon .the severity of disturbance. For a large disturbance, changes in angular differences may be so large as to cause the machines to fall out of step. This type of instability is known as transient instability and is a fast phenomenon usually occurring within 1 s for a generator close to the cause of disturbance. There is a large range of disturbances which may occur on a power system, but a fault on a heavily loaded line which requires opening the line to clear the fault is usually of greatest concern. The tripping of a loaded generator or the abrupt dropping of a large load may also cause instability.

The effect of short circuits (faults), the most severe type of disturbance to which a power system is subjected, must be determined in nearly all stability studies. During a fault, electrical power from nearby generators is reduced drastically, while power from remote generators is scarcely affected. In some cases, the system may he stable even with a sustained fault, whereas other systems will be stable only if the fault is cleared with sufficient rapidity. Whether the system is stable on occurrence of a fault depends not only on the system itself, but also on the type of fault, location of fault, rapidity of clearing and method of clearing, i.e., whether cleared by the sequential opening of two or more breakers or by simultaneous opening and whether or not the faulted line is re closed. The transient stability limit is almost always lower than the steady state limit; but unlike the latter, it may exhibit different values depending on the nature, location and magnitude of disturbance.

Modern power systems have many interconnected generating stations, each with several generators and many loads. The machines located at any one point in a system normally act in unison. It is, therefore, common practice in stability studies to consider all the machines at one point as one large machine. Also machines which are not separated by lines of high reactance are lumped together and considered as one equivalent machine. Thus a multimachine system can often be reduced to an equivalent few machine system. If synchronism is lost, the machines of each group stay together although they go out of step with other groups. Qualitative behavior of machines in an actual system is usually that of a two machine system. Because of its simplicity, the two machine system is extremely useful in describing the general concepts of Power System Stability and the influence of various factors on stability. It will be seen in this chapter that a two machine system can be regarded as a single machine system connected to infinite system.

Power System Stability study of a multimachine system must necessarily be carried out on a digital computer.

Scroll to Top