EE 334: Power Systems

Stability During Faults

Anupama Kowli

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Outline of Todays Lecture

Swing equation and electrical loading on generator

Generator behavior during faults

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Swing Equation

2H d2
Recall that Pm Pe
s dt2

Thus, rotor accelerates or decelerates depending on the mechanical

input as well as the electrical output

The mechanical input is a function of the fuel being burned or

water being churned to move the turbines

What does the electrical output depend on?

In steady state, it is dependent on the network flows and overall
loading on the system
During transient disturbances, it depends on the power transfer from
generator to grid

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Generator Modeling During Transients
Consider a synchronous generator connected to the grid via a short
transmission line as shown

The line is modeled by its impedance, grid is modeled as an infinite

bus and the generator is modeled by its equivalent circuit

Infinite bus: it is a bus whose voltage does not depend on the

generator output; typically we take the infinite bus voltage
magnitude to be some fixed value V and its phase angle to be zero

Generator: It is modeled as a voltage source behind its transient

reactance; clearly the voltage magnitude is dictated by the field
excitation and angle is the phase difference with respect to infinite
bus voltage (6 E=)
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Electric Load During Transients
The equivalent circuit of the generator during transients is

Analogous to the power transfer equations for transmission lines,

the power transfer from the generator to the grid is expressed as
EV
Pe sin
Xd1` X`

When the generator is in synchronism with the grid

The generators electrical speed/frequency is the same as any other
machine in the grid
The rotor neither accelerates or decelerates, thus Pm Pe
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Power Angle Curve
The power transfer from the generator to the grid is a function of
the phase angle and is thus denoted by Pe pq

The power angle curve below plot Pe vs ; for a given Pm , it is

clear that two phase angles satisfy Pe pq Pm
The point 0 on the LHS is the stable operating point small
perturbations do not cause loss of synchronism
The point max on the RHS is the unstable small perturbations
lead to loss of synchronism

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Electric Load in Faulted System
Suppose a three-phase fault occurs at point P which is very close
to the generator bus

During the fault, the voltage at the generator bus drops very close
to zero and the electrical power output from the generator is zero

If the fault occurs at t 0, Pe 0 and Pm 1.0 p.u., thus the

rotor receives a constant acceleration and the electrical angle
increases
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Fault Clearing Time

Suppose the fault is cleared after tc seconds, causing the rotor

angle to advance to a value c ; then the electrical loading on the
generator would jump to value Pe pc q Pm , which would cause
the machine the machine acceleration to change

The resulting dynamics of rotor angle can be stable or unstable

depending on fault clearing time tc

If tc critical fault clearing time tcr , the rotor angle dynamics

oscillate but settle down to an equilibrium as shown in the top
figure

If tc tcr , rotor angle exponentially increases as shown in bottom

figure, leading to instability

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Rotor Angle Dynamics

rotor angle oscillations when fault is cleared before tcr

rotor angle exponential increase when fault is cleared after tcr

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References

Power System Analysis by J. J. Grainger and W. D. Stevenson

Power System Analysis and Design by J. Duncan Glover, M. S.

Sarma and Thomas J. Overbye

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