Power Swing Detection in the Presence

of Solar Photovoltaic Plant

Project report submitted to

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
for the award of degree
of

Master of Technology in Electrical Engineering

with specialization in
Power & Energy Systems

by

M V L Rajendra
17EE63R16
under the supervision of
Prof. Ashok Kumar Pradhan

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
APRIL 2019
© 2019, M V L Rajendra.

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 1. Introduction

Increased electricity demand ,economic constraint and environmental requirement have

forced power utilities to operate transmission lines with depleted reliability margin. As a
result, power systems are more vulnerable to disturbances today and ask for reliable and
quicker fault clearing mechanism. Even with modern protection schemes, power system is
not free from blackouts. Investigations on large scale disturbances reveal that wrong
operation of protection scheme is one of the major contributing reasons for cascading tripping
in power systems. Although complete immunity from such catastrophic failure is not easy to
achieve, new developments on transmission line protection employing numerical relays show
promising signs that cascading system outages can be minimized. Recent developments in
communication, information technology and computer network have drawn significant
attention to the utilization of phasor measurement unit (PMU) based wide-area measurement
system (WAMS) for reliable power system protection. [10]

Power systems under steady state conditions operate typically close to their system
frequency .A balance exists between load and generation during steady state condition. One
of the main reasons that lead to power system black out is power swing . Power system faults,
line switching, loss of generation and loss or application of large load result in sudden
change of electrical power flow ,where as mechanical input to the generator remains almost
constant[3] .Any kind of these large disturbances ,where there is an unbalance between
consumed active power and generated active power ,cause oscillations in machine rotor
angles and can result in severe power swings. There are different techniques available to
detect power swings and give blocking signal to relay for stable power swings and out of step
tripping for unstable stable power swings at predetermined locations ,where load and
generation balance will be there. In this project, the main objective is to distinguish between
stable and unstable power swings using small signal model of swing equation and as the
modern power systems are increasing more and more towards renewable energy , with the
inclusion of large solar photo voltaic plants at transmission level , a novel power swing
detection process is proposed which is dependant on penetration level of solar photo voltaic
plant . In this, the power system inertia plays a crucial role in the detection of power swings ,
we will see the dependence of power swing detection on power system inertia .As most of the

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renewable sources do not have rotating parts in them , eventually inertia of the system is
reduced . The effectiveness of proposed method has been validated by comprehensive set of
simulation results.[1]-[3]

Reliable electric service to customers is a major concern for a electric power industry
.Unwanted interruption in the power supply causes stalling of an industry and causes huge
economic loss .One of the major reasons for unwanted tripping of relay is power swing.
Various power swing detection schemes like rate of change of impedance method, blinder
method of detection, continuous impedance method ,rate of change of swing centre voltage
method are available .In these methods, the most popular used method for commercial
relaying is rate of change of impedance method and rate of change of swing centre voltage
has been the new popular technique ,which can used in conjunction with rate of change of
impedance method for effective power swing detection .[9]-[11]
The settings of rate of change of impedance method and rate of change of swing centre
voltage method is dependant on slip frequency of the system , whenever a disturbance occurs
. In this work, an accurate power swing detection which takes slip frequency into account in
the form of inertia constant is proposed. This method involves estimation of inertia constant
(H) of the system .The method is tested on thirty nine bus system for different types of
disturbances like line openings and single phase faults .

2. Literature Survey

With the advent of synchronized measurement technology and phasor measurement unit, the
applications of wide area measurement protection and control are increasing .One of the
major application is the estimation of power system inertia ,which is commonly defined using
inertia constant (H) of the system[10]. The inertia of a power system describes the amount of
kinetic energy stored in the rotating masses connected to the system. The initial frequency
response is determined by inertia constant of the system . This key factor is used for
estimation of inertia constant of system . Popular dynamic machine equation swing equation
is used for the estimation .[8]

During power swings due to variation of rotor angles ,the relative angle between two
generators fluctuates .If the swing is stable, the fluctuations die down . However, unstable

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swings result in progressive separation of angle between two generators , which causes large
power swings and large fluctuations of voltages and currents .This eventually leads to loss of
synchronism between such areas .[7] As the system frequency is function of rotor speed, the
frequencies of voltages and currents during power swings is not constant. The frequency of
maximum of voltage or current depends on the rate of power angle between two generators ,
which has been termed as slip frequency of the system. This slip frequency can be as low as 1
Hz-3 Hz and as high as 4 Hz- 8 Hz.[2]

A power swing blocking (PSB) function is available in modern commercial distance relays to
prevent unwanted distance relay operation during power swings .Traditional PSB and out of
step tripping functions may use dual quadrilateral or concentric circle characteristics that are
based on the measurement of the time interval it takes positive sequence impedance to cross
the two blinders. This may need an extensive number of stability studies ,taking different
operating conditions into account in order to determine the settings for the concentric circle
of dual quadrilateral PSB and OST functions . This is a costly exercise and there is no
assurance that all possible scenarios and operating conditions were considered .[11]-[15]

So, the commercial used method for power swing detection can be rate of change of
impedance method .In this method, the rate of change of positive sequence seen by the relay
is calculated and compared with settings which has been done previously. This method
involves calculation of system parameters like sending end impedance, receiving end
impedance, line impedance, the rotor angle separation between two buses and the slip
frequency. This may also need extensive study of system parameters, due to which time of
detection may be delayed.[6]

The swing center voltage (SCV) method calculates the rate of change of positive sequence
SCV and does not require any stability studies or user settings for proper blocking of relay
elements . This method is well suited for long, heavily loaded transmission lines that pose
significant problems for traditional power swing detection methods.[2]

3. Motivation and Objectives

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The penetration level of the renewable energy sources in the power transmission network is
expected to increase, by considering climate change scenarios. With integration of solar
photo voltaic plant in the power system at the transmission level, will reduce the system
inertia as the solar has no rotating parts in the system .This effects the conventional power
swing detection method settings .Basically with integration of solar pv in the system , the slip
frequency may be increased which may significantly effect the power swing detection
techniques . Following objectives are set for the work:

 To estimate the inertia constant in the conventional synchronous generator based

power system and in the presence of large solar photovoltaic plant at different
penetration levels.
 To be able to differentiate between stable and unstable power swings with the use of
small signal model of swing equation .
 To accurately detect power swings, in presence of solar photo voltaic plant by taking
estimated system inertia into account.

4. Brief Overview of Work Done

The work focuses on detecting power swings accurately in presence of solar photo voltaic
plants at transmission level. It proposes the modified small signal model of swing equation
natural frequency at which a stable swing will become unstable .Proposed method calculates
the natural frequency using small signal model of swing .It also proposes the adaptive
settings that may be used in power swing detection techniques like rate of change of positive
sequence method and rate of change of positive sequence SCV .This proposed method takes
into account of the estimated inertia constant for its adaptive setting calculation. To test the
proposed methods simulations were carried out for different systems with PSCAD/EMTDC
and MATLAB. The novelty of each technique proposed in this work is highlighted below.

4.1. Impact of System Inertia on Available Power Swing Detection

Techniques

4.1.1. Rate of Change of Positive Sequence Impedance Method

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The most commonly used method for power swing detection is rate of change of positive
sequence impedance method. The rate of change of impedance is dependant on network total
impedance , slip frequency and relative rotor angle between the two sources .Slip frequency
depends on the inertia constant while total impedance is network specific value.

The derivative of positive sequence impedance when two generators have equal rms values is

given by following equation

(4.1)

Here the total impedance seen is given by following equation

(4.2)

Where, is the sending end impedance at the bus

is the receiving end impedance and
is the line impedance between sending and receiving end buses
From the equation (4.1), the rate of change of impedance is dependant on network total
impedance , slip frequency and relative rotor angle between the two sources .Slip frequency
depends on the inertia constant while total impedance is network specific value.Depending on
the nature of disturbance , the rate of change of impedance is dependant on slip frequency ,
the slip frequency was not given as settings previously due to non availability of estimation
of slip frequency techniques for a particular disturbance . Now with the advent of PMUs the
slip frequency can be estimated using inertia constant and can be fed as one of the inputs for
detection of power swings accurately in any kind of system.[8]

Table 4.1 Settings done for rate of change of impedance method

Type setting(in ohms per milli

second)
Fault >5.05
Unstable swing 4.52 -5.05
Stable Swing <4.52

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Table 4.1 Settings done for rate of change of impedance based on equation (4.1)

Table 4.2 `Rate of change of impedance in low inertia system

Type (setting) observed
Unstable swing 4.52-5.05 6.0

From the above table, it is clear that with the inclusion of low inertia in the system, the rate of
change of impedance method maloperates and the method needs to be adaptive .

4.1.2. Rate of Change of SCV Method

Swing centre voltage (SCV) is defined as the voltage at the location of a two source
equivalent system where the voltage value is zero when the angles between the two sources
are 180 degrees apart. The figure 2.3 below illustrates the voltage phasor diagram of a general
two-source system, with the swing centre voltage shown as the phasor from origin o to the
point o′.[2]

Figure 4.1 Phasor diagram of two source equivalent system

Local estimate of SCV can be modified as following to approximate SCV
- (4.3)

The advantage of using SCV in detection is its smoothness compared to other methods,
which changes very slowly with time in a synchronised system. The rate of change of SCV
method is given by
(4.4)

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The rate of change of SCV is dependent only on slip frequency and this doesn’t need any
system stability studies. Due to this reason, the SCV method of power swing detection can be
preferred in modern relays.[6]
Table 4.3 Settings done for rate of change of SCV method
Type (in pu)
Stable Swing 3.8
Unstable swing 6.8
Fault 1.2

Table 4.3 shows the settings in SCV Method for detection of power swings with stable swing
slip frequency rate of 3.8Hz and unstable swing slip frequency set at 6.8Hz.

Table 4.4 Rate of change of SCV in low inertia system

Type (setting) (observed)

Fault <1.2 and >5.05 1.5(seen as stable swing)

Table 4.4 shows with generator 38 inertia constant replaced by 13.4 seconds ,the rate of
change of swing centre voltage method sees the fault as a stable swing and the reason for this
maloperation is low inertia in one of the generators.

From the above table, with the inclusion of low inertia in the system a high resistance line to
ground fault is seen as stable swing. Thus rate of change of swing center voltage also needs to
adaptive with the inclusion of solar in the system .

4.2. Estimation of system Inertia

The dependence of swing equation on relative angle is eliminated using following equations
which is used for estimation of inertia.

(4.5)
(4.6)

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 (4.7)
(4.8)
(4.9)

The algorithm uses four values , two for the active power and two for the rate of change of
frequency (ROCOF), these are labelled P1, P2, R1 and R2, where P denotes active power and
R denotes the ROCOF. All the four values are filtered using matlab to remove the
unnecessary signals .The method proposed is based on calculating these values before and
after the disturbance instant and averaging them over that data window cycle .[1]

(4.10)
(4.11)
(4.12)

(4.13)
Inertia constant is estimated using (4.14)

In the approach of inertia estimation ,generator inertia was estimated by taking active power
and rate of change of frequency measurements from the terminal bus of a generator.
Assuming the known time of disturbance , the values are calculated. The moving window
averaging is also done for calculating inertia at every instant but that needs lot of memory and
as it is time consuming ,the static averaging before and after the disturbance is taken into
account. [1].
4.2.1. Result for 39 bus system inertia estimation

Table 4.5 Estimated Inertia constant values of 39 Bus system

Generator number H(in sec)Estimated H (Actual)

31 30.1 30.2
32 35.2 35.8
33 28.4 28.6
34 26.4 26
35 34.4 34.8

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 36 26.4 26.4
37 24.5 24.3
38 34.7 34.5
39 51.6 50

Above table shows the inertia constant value estimated by opening 25 26 line at 15th second
and sample window has been taken 10 samples before and 10 samples after the time of
disturbance.

Table 4.6 Estimated inertia constant values of 39 Bus system with solar photo voltaic plant
installed at 38th bus (200MW )
Generator H actual H estimated
38 34.7 26.1

Table 4.6 shows the reduce in inertia constant value at the 38th generator bus when solar
photo voltaic of 200MW is installed .

Table 4.7 Estimated inertia constant values of 39 Bus system with solar photo voltaic plant
installed at 38th bus (400MW )
Generator H actual H estimated
38 34.7 20.1

Table 4.7 shows the further reduce in inertia constant value at the 38th generator bus when
solar photo voltaic of 400MW is installed .

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 4.3. Adaptive Power Swing Detection Technique in Presence of Solar
PV Plant

The work proposed includes the calculation of settings in rate of change of impedance
method by taking slip frequency into account. The information about slip frequency is
obtained using the estimation of inertia constant and change in power with respect to relative
angle between buses .The estimation of inertia constant has been also done using the
frequency data obtained before and after disturbance from phasor measurement units (PMU).
With this work proposed ,the available power swing detection techniques with inclusion of
solar photo voltaic plant has been made adaptive and reliable .The feasibility and
effectiveness of the method is tested by considering various conditions like line opening, high
resistance fault for 39-Bus system .The results are found to be satisfactory.

4.3.1 Small signal analysis of swing equation:

The swing equation that gives the information about machine dynamics at any state is given
by following equation (2.4)
(2.4)
For a small disturbance ∆δ in the system, let and are the changes in mechanical power and
electrical power with respect to δ ,then small signal model of the machine is given by the
following equation (2.5)
(2.5)

Let us assume there is no mechanical change in inputs to the machine ,then rate of change of
mechanical input with respect to angle will be zero , which can be shown as following
equation (2.6)
(2.6)

Then with the above assumption , the equation (2.5) can be rewritten as following equation
(2.7)
(2.7)

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Converting the above equation into s domain using laplace transform then the above equation
can be written as following equation (2.9).
Let moment of inertia of system (2.8)

(2.9)

his gives the machine oscillating behaviour at the small disturbance with a natural angular
frequency given by following equation (2.10)

(2.10)

4.3.2 Rate of change of positive sequence impedance method:

The above flow chart shows the proposed adaptive setting for rate of change of positive
sequence impedance method . The comparison is done between two settings which are
determined using network parameters and system inertia into account .From PMU data, the

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calculation of settings are done and nominal delta is taken as 30 degrees and minimum fault
frequency is taken as 10 Hz.

4.3.3 Rate of change of SCV method

The above flow chart shows the proposed adaptive setting of rate of change of SCV method .
The comparison is done between two settings which are determined using network
parameters and system inertia into account .From PMU data, the calculation of settings are
done and nominal delta is taken as 30 degrees and minimum fault frequency is taken as 10
Hz.

4.3.4 Results :

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4.3.4.1 Rate of Change of Positive Sequence Impedance :
Table 4.8 Rate of change of impedance method settings with 200MW solar installed

Type setting
Stable Swing <5.03
Unstable swing 5.03-6.06
Fault >6.06
Table 4.8 shows the adaptive settings calculated using the discussion in the section 4.3.2 for
rate of change of impedance method.

Table 4.9 Accurate distinguishing using adaptive setting

Type setting observed
Unstable swing 5.03-6.06 6.0

Table 4.9 shows the correctness of adaptive for the maloperation discussed in section 4.1.2

For a disturbance of opening of line 16 17 , the trajectories for the same disturbance is
observed with no solar photo voltaic plant, 200MW solar photo voltaic plant installed and
400 MW solar photo voltaic plant. The magnitude of slip frequency increase is observed in
the following section

Table 4.10 Rate of change of impedance method settings for different penetration levels

Type setting(0) setting (200) setting(400)

Stable Swing <8.7 <10.41 <11.92
Unstable swing 8.7-13.34 10.41-14.18 11.92-15.46
Fault >13.34 >14.18 >15.46

Table 4.10 gives the setting for rate of change of impedance method for different levels of
solar photovoltaic penetration levels
4.3.4.2 Rate of change of SCV method :

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Table 4.11 Rate of change swing centre voltage method settings with 200MW solar installed

Type setting
Stable Swing 1.54-4.52
Unstable swing 4.52-8.54
Fault <1.54 and >8.54

Table 4.11 gives the adaptive settings for rate of change of SCV method using the flow chart
discussed in section 4.3.3

Table 4.12 The accurate settings distinguishes fault correctly

Type setting observed

Fault <1.54 1.5

Table 4.12 shows the correctness in eliminating the maloperation discussed in section 4.1.3
for rate of change of SCV method in low inertia system.

For a disturbance of opening of line 16 17 , the trajectories for the same disturbance is
observed with no solar photo voltaic plant, 200MW solar photo voltaic plant installed and
400 MW solar photo voltaic plant. The magnitude of slip frequency increase is observed in
the following section and change in settings accordingly is observed in following section .

Table 4.13 Rate of change of SCV settings for different penetration levels

Type setting(0) setting (200) setting(400)

Stable Swing <6.522 <7.8 <8.92
Unstable swing 6.522-10 7.8-10.68 8.92-11.59
Fault >10 >10.68 >11.59
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Table 4.13 shows the settings for rate of change of SCV method for different solar photo
voltaic penetration levels.

5. Conclusion

In this work, the impact of solar photo voltaic plant installation on power system has been
investigated. System inertia constant is calculated with the help of swing equation and the
estimation is working satisfactorily. The maloperation in conventional power swing detection
techniques are shown with the help of simulation results. Performance of rate of change of
impedance method and rate of swing center voltage method is studied. It is observed that rate
of change of impedance method depends on system parameters like sending end impedance,
receiving end impedance and slip frequency of the system ,while the rate of SCV method is
dependent only on slip frequency and system voltage between the buses.

Limitation on power swing detection is identified and adaptive setting for power swing
detection is recalculated using system inertia and the equivalent inertia constant at the
observed generator buses. The distinguishing between stable and unstable swing is done
using the small signal model of swing equation. The slip frequency for fault for conventional
39 bus system is set at 10Hz. For a system, with solar photo voltaic system, the slip
frequency for fault is also made adaptive by taking inversely square root relationship with
equivalent inertia constant. The flow chart for the proposed method is also shown. The
performance for the proposed method is tested for 39 bus power system using
PSCAD/EMTDC and MATLAB under different cases like large line opening for different
penetration levels of solar photo voltaic plant . For these conditions the proposed is found to
be accurate.

6. Scope of future work

The research presented in this thesis leaves some open directions for future research which
are enlisted below.

(i) To calculate the critical clearing time of generators with installation of solar photo
voltaic plant in the conventional power system.

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(ii) This method is to be tested for practical data monitoring in power system.
(iii) In this work ,the effect of distributed generation is not considered. With the
installation of DGs , the performance is to be tested. The effect of such
arrangement on the available protection strategies needs to be evaluated.

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