Unit – V

Computer Control of Power Systems

Need for Computer control of Power Systems:

Power system is highly complicated interconnected system. The operation and

control of such complicated system cannot be done manually. It can be controlled by using
Powerful Computers.

The Computer control functions of power system are,

1. Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR):

AVR is used to regulate the generator terminal voltages. The output volatge from the
regulator is compared with the reference volatge which can be set by computers and
controls the terminal voltage of a generator

2. Automatic Load Frequency Control (ALFC):

ALFC is used to regulate the real power output and the speed of the generator by
using speed governing mechanism

Nowadadys the use of computers in all phases of power system operation:

1. Power System Planning

2. Power System Load Forecasting
3. Unit Commitment
4. Economic Dispatch
5. State Estimation
6. Power system Security Control
7. Power System Monitoring
Energy Control Centre (ECC): [ Load Dispatch Centre]

When the size of the power system increases , their operation and interaction become
more complex. So It becomes more essential to monitor the entire power system and control
the operation of it. It is called as “Energy Control Centre”

Energy Control Centre Functions:

Energy Control Centre (ECC) manages these tasks and provide optimal operation of
the Power system. A Typical control centre can perform the following functions,
1. Load Forecasting
2. System Planning
3. Unit Commitment
4. Maintenance Scheduling
5. Security Monitoring
6. State Estimation
7. Economic Dispatch
8. Load Frequency Control
 1. Load Forecasting:

• Electrical energy cannot be stored . It has to be generated whenever there is a

demand for it.
• Therefore the load on the power system should be estimated in advance
• This estimation of load in advance is referred as “ Load Forecasting”

Forecasting Lead Time Application

Very Short Term Few mins to 1/2 an hour 1. Real time control
2. Real time security Evaluation
Short Term 1/2 an hour to few hours Allocation of,
1. Spinning Reserve
2. Unit Commitment
3. Maintenance Scheduling
Medium Term Few days to few weeks Planning for,
1. Seasonal Peaak Winter
2. Summer
Long Term Few months to few years To plan the growth of Generation
capacity

2. Power System Planning:

1. The long term and short term planning are essential for:
a. Planning for Generation
b. Planning for Distribution
2. The planning must aim at, installed capacity should be more than predicted
demand
3. The overall system planning divided in to following categories
(i) Generation palnning considering alternative sources of energy
(ii) Transmission planning including planning for interconnections
(iii) Distribution planning including planning of load centres

3. Unit Commitment:
• The total load of the power system is not constant but varies throughout the day
and reaches different peak values from one day to another
• Due to the above reason it is not advisable to run all the available units all the
 time. So It is neccesary to decide in advance
(a) which units needs to turn on
(b) which units needs to be shut down
• The computational procedure for making such decisons is called “Unit
Commitment”
• The Unit commitment is used to mimize the total power system operting cost
in a optimized manner
• The Constraints of the unit commitment are,
a) Spinning Reserve
b) Minimum Up Time
c) Minimum down Time
d) Hydro Constraints
e) Fuel Constraints

4. Maintenace Scheduling:
a) It is the process of scheduling the planned maintenace outages of the power system over a
given future period in such a manner that the maintenance is performed
b) The maintenace involves regular Plant checkups and repair on generating
equipment
c) The main objectives of Maintenace scheduling are,
(i) Minimization of the total cost of the Utility
(ii) Maximization of System Reliability
5. Security Monitoring:
• It is defined as the online process using real time data for analyzing the effects of
a series of outages on the steady state perfomance of the system
• Continuos monitoring of Security and appropriate corrective actions for
improving security is called as security Monitoring

6. State Estimation:
• It is the process of estimating the state of the power system
• State estimation is done by using system monitoring data, It produces best
estimate of latest power system condition (Power System State)
 7. Economic Dispatch:
• The function of Economic dispatch is to distribute the load among the
generating units connected in a system in such a manner as to minimze the
total cost of the system
8. Load Frequency Control (LFC):
• In an Interconnected system with two or more independent generating stations,
The genarating voltage level and its frquency must be maintained constant.
• The process of controlling the generating voltage level and frequency is
commonly referred as Load frequency control.

Energy Control Center Levels:

The hirearchial structure of the control centre level is as follows,

Level System Monitoring and Control

First Level 1. Generating Stations Local Control Centre
2. Sub Stations
Second Level 1. Sub Transmission Area Load Dispatch Centre
2. Transmission Network
Third Level Transmission System State Level Load Dispatch
Centre
Fourth Level ( Top Interconnected Power Regional Control Centre
Level) Systems

A) Power System Monitoring:

• A Energy control centre needs to control the power system elements in both Normal
and Emergency conditons
• The digital computer is used to process the incoming stream of data to detect
abnormalities and then alarm the human operator via Lights and Buzzer
• Many low level or less serious cases of exceeding limits normally handled by Digital
Computer
• If any very serious abnormalities detected by the digital computer, the system could
enter Emergency state
• In such cases contingency analysis needs to be carried out and suitable action needs
 to be taken with the help of human intervention

B) Contingency Analysis:
• If any serios trouble within such a quick time period, The operator cannot take action
fast enough. This will cause cascading failures.
• To overcome such issues, The modern computers are equiped with Contingency
analysis program. They predicts the system troubles before they arise as well as they
give suitable solution after the problem occurs.

C) Data Acquisition and Control:

• Data Acquisition provides measuremnt information needed to supervise to the
operators and computer control system
• Data Acquisition and remote control is performed by computer systems called
“Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition” systems (SCADA)
• In a power system, the transient may result in the failure of components and
sometimes it is very difficult to trace the origin of disturbance
• Using Data Acquisition system, The origin can be identified easily as well as the
Transients can be reduced and Analysed
Energy Management System:
• Energy Management System is the process of Monitoring, Coordinating and
Controlling the Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electrical energy
• It is performed at centres called “System Control Centre” by a computer called
Energy Management System (EMS)
• Data Acquisition and remote control is performed by the computer system called
SCADA, which forms the front end of EMS.
• The EMS communicates with Generating, Transmission and Distribution Systems
through SCADA systems

Functions of EMS:
a) System Load Forecasting
b) Unit Commitment
c) Fuel Scheduling to Plants
d) Hydro Thermal Scheduling
e) Transmission loss minimization
f) Manintenance Scheduling
g) Security Control
h) Production cost calculation

Hierarchial levels used in EMS:

1. System Control Centre
2. Area Control Centre
3. Remote Terminal Unit (RTU)
SCADA : (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)
• Data Acquisition and Remote control of a Power System is performed by computer
systems called Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System.
• A SCADA system consists of a Master Station and Remote Terminal Unit (RTU)
• The Master station and RTUs are linked by communication channel
• Master Station Communicates information to the RTU for observing and controlling
plants.
• RTUs are installed at Generating Station (or) Transmission (or) Distribution
Substation
• RTU transmitting the status of the device and measurements to Master Station and
receive control commands from the Master Station

SCADA – Block Diagram:

 Components of SCADA:
The important components of SCADA are,

1. Sensors:
• Analog and digital sensors used
• Current Transformers and Potential transformers also used
2. Relays:
• Relays are used to sense the abnormal condition of a power system
• It sends the information to a circuit breaker (CB)
• The circuit breaker isolate the fault system from the healthy power system

3. Remote Terminal Unit: (RTU)

• RTU's are microprocessor based electronic control device which are used to
collect various measurements of the power system and other relative datas
associated with the power system needs to be monitored
• The collected data is Transmitted to the master station using proper
communication channel. Communication cables mainly using fibre optic
cables.

Power System Transducer A/D Converter

Modem

Relay D/A Converter

Communication Channel

( To and From
Master Unit )
 4. Master Unit:
• Master unit consists of Central processing unit (CPU), Display and control
units
• It is located faraway from the RTU.
• It collects information from diffrent RTUs
• It is used for continous monitoring of power system and take corrective action
whenever required

Controller
RTU

Data Logger
RTU Central Processing Unit
(CPU)

Diplay

RTU
Print

Communication Channel
(To send and receive signal in either direction)

Types of SCADA & Hierarchial level:

Type of SCADA Application

Type – I (Base Level) Plant Level control centre
Type – II Sub station level control centre
Type - III Regional control centre
Type – IV (Top Level) National control centre
Functions of SCADA:

1. Data Acquisition : It provides all type of measurements and status information of a

power system to the operator
2. Supervisory Control :
1. Circuit Breaker – Turn ON / OFF
2. Generator – Start / Stop (or) raise / lower level command
3. Infromation storage and results Display
4. Data Logging – (For the future analysis)
5. General Maintenace
6. Load matching based on economics
7. Load Shedding : It provides both Automatic and Operator initiated tripping of load in
response to system emergencies
8. Network Topology determination
9. State Estimation
10. Security analysis and control

Network Topology:
• Network Topology in a power system means, the different ways in which the active
and passive devices are connected in a power system network
• Active Device : Number of Synchronous generators in a various power plants
• Passive Device: All other controlling equipment, Transmission Lines, Circuit
Breakers and Isolators
• Based upon the closing and opening of any Isolator and circuit breaker the nerwork
topology get varies
• The control of isolator and circuit breaker is based upon SCADA and EMS functions
Security Monitoring :
• System monitoring provides the current condition of a power system to the opeartor
• The important security monitoring functions are as follows,

Function Function Performed

Data Acquisition To Process message from RTU's
To check analogue measurements against limits
To check status values against normal value
To send alarm conditions to alarm processor
Alarm Processor To send alarm messages to operator
To transmit messages according to priority
Status Processor To determine status of each substation for proper connection
Reserve Monitor To check generator MW output on all Units against Unit limits
State Estimator To Determine System State Variables
To detect the bad measured values
To identify the location of bad measurements
To intialize the suitable network model according to the present situation

Various Operating States (or) State Transition diagram showing various state
Transition and Control Strategies:

Normal State
(Secure State)

Restart Preventive Control

Alert State
Restorative State (Insecure State)
Restorative
Control

Resynchronisation Corrective
Emergency control
control
Extremis State
(Serious Emergency State) Emergency State
1. Normal State:
• In the Normal State all the system constraints (Load constraints and Operating
Constraints) are satisfied
• The Normal state is said to be secure state
• In secure state, All the Contingency state constraints found to be normal
• In this state, The frequency and Bus voltage are within the specified operating
range
• Current flows in the transmission line is also within the given ratings
• There is no load shedding anywhere in the system

2. Alert State:
• When the system security level falls below certain level the system may be in
Alert state
• In this state, Atleast anyone or more contingency constraints found to be violated
• The corrective action can be done by computer monitoring system automatically
• If any severe disturbance occur, the system will enter in to Emergency state
• To bring back the secure state, preventive control action needs to be carried out

3. Emergency State:
• In this state, one or more operating constraints are violated
• when this occurs, one or more power system components get overloaded
• The system will return to the normal state or to the alert state by means of
Corrective actions
• If no proper corrective actionn is taken in time, the system goes to Extremis state
(Serious Emergency State)

4. Extremis State:
• In this State, Load and Operating Constraints are not get satisfied
• Generating stations also beyond their capacity. So Total Shutdown may also occur
• Emergency control action needs to be taken. It will bring back the system to
Restorative state through Resynchronisation
5. Restorative State :
• From this state, The system gets restarted and back to the secure state (or)
Through Restorative control the system move to Alert State
• The second process is time consuming process but that is more accurate