to the engine, so increasing its power

POWER SYSTEM OPERATION

output. The inverse happen when load is
POWER FLOW
decreased. The lesson is clear, if speed is
Power flow studies are of great to remain constant then engine power
importance in planning and designing the output must equal the power required.
future expansion of power systems as well
For an electrical system, if the
as in determining the best operation of
power demand increased, say 20 MW, as
existing systems. The principal information
in the case of our mechanical system, the
obtained from a power flow calculation is
machines would slow down, actually, the
the magnitude and phase angle of the
frequency will begin to fall. If the power
voltage at each bus, and, the real and
system is operating at 50 Hz, the frequency
reactive power flowing in each line.
may drop to, say 49.95 Hz.
To understand the power flow
A power system is said to be in
concepts, it may be easier to consider a
steady-state when it is in equilibrium, this
mechanical system first and then relate it to
means, that all generators are in
an electrical system. Let us take as an
synchronism and with constant frequency,
example a conveyor belt, transferring coal
and that the total power output from the
from a stockpile, driven by a diesel engine.
generators equals the total power
In this mechanical system, the diesel
demanded by the load plus losses in the
engine serves a similar purpose as a
system. This equilibrium will be maintained
generator in an electrical power system.
so long as these conditions prevail.
The conveyor, carrying the coal,
The load on the system is
corresponds to the load in a power system.
constantly changing due to consumers
The shaft, connecting the engine to the
turning electrical appliances on and off.
conveyor, corresponds to the transmission
Therefore, some automatic means is
line over which the mechanical power is
necessary for controlling output of the
carried.
generators so as to maintain system
The load in our mechanical system
equilibrium. This device, which senses
will be changed by varying the amount of
changes in system frequency, is called the
coal being carried on the conveyor. If we
“governor”. There are times however, when
increase the amount of coal, the first thing
the governor control of the generator is not
that will happen is that, the conveyor will
enough to maintain the steady-state. For
slow down because we are now placing
example, if a large generator is
more load on the diesel engine. In order to
unexpectedly tripped-off and there is not
raise the speed to normal, we will need to
enough spare generation to cover the loss,
open up the throttle and supply more fuel
then the frequency will begin to drop.

1
Author: Belchior Conde
 So, it is essential that the system which is the theoretical maximum phase
operator keep spinning reserve online so angle, until the shaft eventually break, so
as to supply anticipated maximum demand separating the two components, the engine
even if a large generator is unexpectedly and the conveyor. The same is true of an
tripped-off of the system. Spinning reserve electrical system, but, in a power system
consists of spare capacity, that is, transmission lines and generators might
generators already synchronized and trip, synchronism may be lost, load might
available. If spinning reserve is not enough be shed and power blackout might occur.
then the frequency will continue to drop, in
Systems which lose synchronism
this case load must be shed until the
are said to be unstable. In a real world of
generator load balance is again reached.
course, the phase angle limit is well below
Let us return to our mechanical the 90°, since system operators need to
system and take a closer look at the have plenty of margin for emergencies. In
connection between the engine and the fact, the phase angle will rarely exceed 10°
conveyor. All of the power used by the or 15° across any given line, nor will it very
conveyor is transferred across the shaft. It often exceed 30° or 40° from one end of the
is difficult to see, or even imagining, but system to the other. When we talk about
there is in fact a twist developed in the the load angle on a generator, we are
shaft. It would be much easier to imagine looking at the position of the rotor field
this twist if we consider the shaft to be relative to the stator field. On a
made of heavy rubber. transmission line, we are talking about
angular difference between the voltage at
By increasing the load, the
one end of the line and the voltage at the
receiving-end lags behind the driving-end,
other end.
conversely, by increasing the power driving
it, then the driving-end advances in angle. PER-UNIT
There is a distinct angular displacement
For convenience, engineers very
between one end of the shaft and the other.
often work with electrical quantities such as
The greater the load transfer across the
voltage, current and impedance on a per-
shaft, the greater will be the twist or the
unit basis, instead of an actual volts, amps
angle between the two ends. The amount
or ohms. Per-unit values are obtained by
of twist, measured in degrees, is referred to
dividing the actual value by an assumed
as phase angle or load angle and it is
base value. For example, if the actual
directly proportional to the load.
impedance of a circuit element, say a
If an overload occurs, by adding transmission line, is 80 ohms and the base
more coal to the conveyor, then the load impedance is 100 ohms, then the line’s per-
angle advances, up to a maximum of 90° –

2
Author: Belchior Conde
unit impedance is simply 0.8 per-unit or 80 the assignment of input and output
%. units.

By using per-unit values in a 5. Programming – computer

consistent way we can combine systems of instructions in machine or symbolic
different voltage levels, thereby greatly form, or it can be written in a
simplifying the calculations. There may be generalized programming
several different operating voltages in any language, such as FORTRAN,
one power system, if we were to make C/C++.
calculations using the actual units, we
6. Program verification – a systematic
would have to change all of the
series of checks performed to
impedances in ohms every time we went to
ensure the correctness of the
a new voltage level. Using per-unit
above steps.
quantities eliminates this effort when we
Nowadays, there are a lot of
need to make calculations on a system.
commercial packages which simplifies the
ORIENTATION OF ENGINEERING
job of an engineer providing all the steps
PROBLEMS TO COMPUTERS
except for step 1. Therefore, the average
1. Problem definition – the problem engineer needs only to define the problem
must be defined precisely and the and objectives. And based on the desired
objectives determined. results and the data available for input
Consideration must be given to the choose a commercial package which
pertinent data available for input, would be more suitable for the calculation.
the scope of the problem and its
However, the above-average
limitation, and the desired results.
engineer should find beneficial if every
2. Mathematical formulation – the once he finds a new problem, he goes
construction of a set of equations, through all the steps above, as this would
from engineering and science laws, give him a thorough understanding of both,
that describe the behavior of the the problem and what is going on inside the
physical system. computer in the solution process, so he can
easily correct problems if they should
3. Selection of a solution technique –
appear. The author recommend the use of
a method which is practical for
Power System Simulator for engineers or
machine computation and will
PSS/E for transmission system planning.
produce the desired results.
The PSS/E user needs only a very
4. Program design – the sequence of
minimal knowledge of computer system
logical steps, the allocation of
protocol in order to make productive use of
memory, the access of data and,

3
Author: Belchior Conde
the PSS/E package. The user does not generation, network separation and
need to become proficient with a so on.
complicated computer command language
4. Correct data errors by adding,
and, is therefore, able to apply effort to the
editing or removing data.
task at hand – solving the engineering
5. Check network condition:
problem.
a) If it has weak diagonal
The casual PSS/E user will need to
dominance, then don’t use
become comfortable with the basic
Gauss-Seidel method.
capabilities of the text editor and a small
subset of system keyboard commands. b) If R/X is high, say 0.5, then
More advanced users will find it to their don’t use decoupled
advantage to familiarize themselves with Newton-Raphson method.
the various disk file and related utility 6. Check boundary condition:
programs. A fundamental understanding of
a) If network voltage profile is
the host computer’s file system
not flat, then use Gauss-
organization will also be useful.
Seidel method.
The more sophisticated user, on the
7. Select a method, solve the case,
other hand, may use the full power of the
Fortran language in the connection adjust system conditions and

subroutines, or in adding models to the resolve as necessary, until a

working data files, specially dynamic model valid base case system
library, to represent non-standard devices, operating condition is achieved.
system control logic, or other features not
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDELINES
covered by the standard model library.
IF CONVERGENCE IS NOT MET
GENERAL SEQUENCE FOR SOLVING A
1. Model not appropriate – select
POWER FLOW CASE USING PSS/E
appropriate model.
1. Establish the initial set of system
data in a power-flow raw data file. 2. Data not accurate – get actual
data or good estimates.
2. Read raw data to build the system
model in the working data files. 3. Simulation parameter not

3. Use data listing and checking adjusted well – master the

activities to examine the system solution technique.

model for correctness of such
overall characteristics as load,

4
Author: Belchior Conde
 4. Network is not solvable – check
network and boundary
conditions.

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Author: Belchior Conde