Indian Power Sector

Dr. Narasimha Pandit

BE(E&E),ME(Power System),PGDBM(Energy Management),PhD(Electrical Engineering)
Superintending Engineer, MESCOM (Retd)
Power System Operation and Control
Module -1

Introduction
Power System Operating States
• A classification of operating states was first
proposed by Fink and Carlsen in 1978
• The system is said to be normal if (i) all the loads
are met,(ii) the frequency(variation allowed +0.5 to
-0.5) and bus voltage magnitudes(variation allowed
6% to 9%) are within the prescribed limits, and (iii)
no components of power system are overloaded.
• Equality constraint :Equality between generation
and load is ‘E’.
• Inequality constraint’ I’implies that the system is
operating within the rated limits of the
component.i.e.,generator and transformer, loads
must not exceed the rated values and transmission
lines must not be loaded above their thermal or
static stability limit.
• Subscript ‘v’ refers to the constraint violation
Power System Operating States
• Alert State: When there is a sudden increase
in load or sudden loss of generation happens,
the system goes to Alert state or Insecure
Normal state.
• Both E and I are satisfied.
• With some preventive action, the system can
be brought back to Normal state.
• Emergency State:In the alert state, if some
additional disturbance occurs,e.g. tripping of
line or loss of additional generation, then the
system will go to Emergency state.
• Here, the system remains intact i.e., E is
satisfied, but I changes to Iv (some system
component overloaded)
Power System Operating States
• If emergency control ( load
shedding/generator rescheduling) fails, then a
series of cascading events take place
• The system breaks up into ‘islands’, each of
them operating independently.
• In-Extremis State: Here, both equality
(generation and load are not matching) and
inequality constraints are violated (some
system components are overloaded).
• The system may turn to total blackout also.
• A series of resynchronisation is required to
supply power to all loads.
• At this stage the system is in Restorative State.
 Objective of control
• Objectives of Power system control:

The objective of power system control is to ensure that the power system is operating in a stable, efficient, and

reliable manner. This involves regulating the flow of electricity within the system to meet the demand of

consumers while maintaining the system's stability and avoiding blackouts or other disruptions.

1) To meet continually changing load demand

2) keeping adequate “spinning” power reserve

3) with minimum cost of energy

4) and minimum environmental pollution

 Objectives of Control
• The objective of power system control is to maintain continuous electric supply of acceptable quality by taking suitable

measures against the various disturbances that occur in the system.

• These disturbances can be classified into two major heads, namely, small-scale disturbances and large scale disturbances.

1) Small Scale Disturbances: comprise slowly varying small magnitude changes occurring in the active and reactive

demands of the system.

They can be overcome by regulating controls using governors and exciter.

2) Large Scale Disturbances:

Large scale disturbances are sudden large magnitude changes in system operating conditions such as faults on transmission

network, tripping of a large generating unit or sudden connection or removal of large blocks of demand. They can only be

overcome by proper planning and adopting emergency switching control.

 Objective of control
• The “quality” of power supply
(a) constancy of frequency
(b) constancy of voltage; and
(c) level of reliability

• Frequency Regulation
System frequency, must remain within its operational range
f min < f(t) < f max
49.5 Hz < f(t) < 50.5 Hz

• Voltage Regulation
Bus voltages must remain within their operational limits
V min < V(t) < V max
0.95 pu < V(t) < 1.05 pu
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation
• The load keeps changing slowly
all the time. The officers at the
Load dispatch centre must
continuously monitor the load
1.Balance the and the generation.When the
generation and the load load is more than the
generation,the frequency
drops,and vice-versa.
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation
2.Balance the Reactive Power • In an AC system, it is important
generation and Consumption to maintain balance between the
generated and consumed
reactive power.The reactive
power balance determines the
voltage stability of transmission
line. For generation:Excitation
control. For transmission:shunt
reactors,and for
distribution,shunt capacitors are
usually used to control the
reactive power.
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation
• The loading limit for a
transmission line shall be its
thermal loading limit.The
thermal loading limit of a line is
3.Thermal limits should not be determined by design
exceeded. parameters based on ambient
temperature, maximum
permissible conductor
temperature,etc.
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation
Power system stability is the
ability of the electric power
system to regain a state of
operating equilibrium after being
subject to disturbance, so that
4. Maintain system stability practically the entire system
remains intact.
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation
If N is the number of generators
in the system,N-1 is the loss of
one generator from the system.
N-1 reliability means the system
should remain operational and
5. Meet N-1 reliability criteria. secure even after the loss of the
largest generator
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation

Both short term and long term

6.Plan,design and maintain to planning design and maintenance
operate reliably should be such that the system
must operate reliably.
 Key Concepts of Reliable Operation

Inspite of planning,design and

maintenance, emergencies can
occur because of error from
7.Prepare for emergencies operator side or weather
extremities. Operators must be
trained thoroughly to face all
kinds of emergencies.
 Preventive and Emergency Controls
• Preventive control is meant to keep the system in the normal state
or to bring it back to normal state from alert state. Preventive
control measure commonly used are as follows:
1.Generator rescheduling to match the load.
2.Keeping adequate spinning reserve
3.Switchinf off/on shunt capacitors and reactors.
4.Change of reference points of Flexible AC Transmission (FACT)
controllers, phase shifting transformers,etc.
5.Change of sub-station configuration.
 Phase Shifting Transformers and
FACTS
• A phase shifting transformer (PST) is a specialised type of transformer, typically
used to control the flow of active power on three-phase electric transmission
networks. It does so by regulating the voltage phase angle difference between two
nodes of the system. The principle relies on a phase shifted voltage source injection
into the line by a series connected transformer, which is fed by a shunt transformer.
The configuration of the shunt and series transformer unit induces the phase shift.
• The liberalisation of the electricity market and the ever-increasing penetration of
variable renewable generation have increased the need for this mature technology.
Hence, the number of PSTs in the transmission grid is expected to rise. PSTs enable
the grid operator to control unexpected loop flows, thus allowing the existing
system to be used more efficiently. PSTs are used for congestion relief.
• The PST system provides a means to control power flow between two grids. PSTs do not
increase the capacity of the lines themselves, but if some lines are overloaded while
capacity is still available on others parallel to them, optimising the power flows with
PSTs can increase the overall grid capacity.

• Provided that there is free capacity on parallel paths that can be used, these slow
devices are better suited for power flow control in the event of no continuous
congestion and low congestion volatility.

• A flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) is a system composed of

static equipment used for the alternating current (AC) transmission of electrical energy.
It is meant to enhance controllability and increase power transfer capability of the
network. It is generally a power electronics-based system.
 Emergency Controls
• Emergency control refers to control measures taken to maintain the stable
operation under the condition of large disturbance or fault. Few common
emergency control measures are:
1. If load decreases suddenly, trip the required number of generators.
2. If load increases , shed the less priority loads.
3. Controlled disconnection of interconnected system.
4. Controlled islanding to create local generation-load balance.
5. Blocking of tap changers of transformers.
6. Fast HVDC power transfer control
7. Application of braking resistors.
 Energy Management Centers
• Modern day power system is connected with wide variety of generation as well
as loads, and hence, its preventive and emergency control is extremely complex.
• Therefore, Energy Management Centres, with computer aided tools are
employed to monitor and control the power system.
• The functions of the EMC can be divided into three subsystems:
1. The dispatch subsystem: It involves unit commitment, economic
dispatch,automatic generation control, and demand forecasting.
2. Data subsystem: this is for data acquisition and processing.It contains the
SCADA units, state estimation and all the alarms and displays.
3. Security subsystem: This is for secure operation of the power system.The
functions include security monitoring, contingency analysis
 Definitions
• Unit commitment is the process of deciding when and which generating unit in each
power generating station to start up and shut down.
• Economic dispatch is the process of deciding what the individual power outputs should
be of the scheduled generating unit at each time point.
• Automatic generation control (AGC) is a system for adjusting the power output of
multiple generators at different power plants, in response to changes in the load.
• Load demand forecasting involves the accurate prediction of bothe magnitude and
geographical locations of electrical load over the different periods of the planning
horizon.
• Contingency analysis is used to study the behavior of a power system, when associated
equipment gets outage. A number of operating procedures can be analyzed in
contingency conditions, such as the loss of a generator, a transmission line, a
transformer, or a load.
 Energy Management Centers
• The hierarchical control can be classified into three levels:
1.Longer duration:Load forecasting, unit commitment and trading
2. 5-10 min duration: economic dispatch, optimal power flow
3. Automatic generation control, voltage control,state estimation.

Level 1 function require statistical data and hence probabilistic

methods are used.The results of level 1 are used in level 2 and level 3.