Marathwada Mitramandal’s

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Karvenagar, Pune

Department of Electrical Engineering

Session Learning Material – Session No. I

Course: Power System Operation and Control

Topic: Introduction to stability, Dynamics of Synchronous machine

Learning Outcomes of the session:

• To Differentiate between types of stability
• Model the synchronous machine for its dynamics

Introduction to stability
Power system stability is the ability of an electric power system, for a given initial
operating condition to regain a state of operating equilibrium after being subjected to a
physical disturbance, with most system variable bounded so that practically the entire
system remains intact.
It is defined as the property of a power system that enables it to remain in a state of
operating equilibrium under normal operating conditions and to regain an acceptable
state of equilibrium after being subjected to a disturbance.
Power system stability involves the study of the dynamics of the power system under
disturbances. Power system stability implies that its ability to return to normal or stable
operation after having been subjected to some form of disturbances. From the classical
point of view power system instability can be seen as loss of synchronism i.e., some
synchronous machines going out of step when the system is subjected to a particular
disturbance.
This is defined as a power system stability. That means, even if it is subjected to some
disturbances, then naturally, but it will remain, it will come back to it is original
equilibrium point or may be in the vicinity of the equilibrium point. Then system should
be your what you call power system will be remains stable.
So, that is that property of a power system that enables it to remain in a state of operating
equilibrium under normal operating conditions and to regain an acceptable state of
equilibrium after being subjected to a disturbance; that means, acceptable equilibrium
acceptable state of equilibrium means that it will be very close to its previous
equilibrium point right, and it will remain stable. So, that is what to you call we define as
power system stability.
So, now question is that next is power system instability. So, instability in a power system
may be manifested in many ways it depending on the system configuration and operating
mode. So, basically in power system you will find a power generating plant, basically they
are synchronous machine or synchronous generator.
So, in power system your, since power system rely on synchronous machines for
generation of electrical power; that is synchronous generator, a necessary condition for
satisfactory system operation is that all synchronous machines remain in synchronism.
So, they should not be fall out of step. So, all will be remained in synchronism. This aspect
of stability is influenced by the dynamics of generator rotor angles and power angle
relationship.

So, instability may also be encountered without loss of synchronism. If it is what you call
if machine synchronous machine is fall out of step, then your what you call there will be
loss of your synchronism, loss of your stability. So, because all the machines they
swing in a new direction; that means, they are what you call that is your they are in
coherent group; that means, they are increase or decrease of the speed same.
But if one of the machine fall out of step; It will loss synchronism that instability may
happen.
For example, a system consisting of synchronous generator feeding an induction motor
load through a transmission line becomes unstable, because of the collapse of the load
voltage. So, that is previously saw that loss of your what you call that your synchronism.
The second thing is that is system consist of suppose synchronous generator feeding an
induction motor load through a transmission line become your unstable, because of the
collapse of the load voltage. So, this is also another kind of unstable system can occur. So,
maintenance of synchronism is not an issue in this instant. If you want to maintain the
power system stable that all the machine should stay uniform, they should be in
synchronism, So, instead the concern is the stability and control of voltage, right. This is
another example of instability.
The disturbances mentioned in the definition could be faults, load changes, generator
outages, line outages, voltage collapse or some combination of these. Power system
stability can be broadly classified into rotor angle, voltage and frequency stability. Each of
these three stabilities can be further classified into large disturbance or small
disturbance, short term or long term.
The classification is depicted in Fig. 1.1
 Power System
Stability

Rotor Angle Frequency

Voltage Stability
Stability Stability

Small- Large - Small-

Transient
Disturbance Short Term Long Term Disturbance Disturbance
Stability
Angle Stability Voltage Stability Voltage Stability

Short Term Short Term Short Term Long Term Short Term Long Term

Fig 1.1 Classification of power system stability

Rotor angle stability

“It is the ability of the system to remain in synchronism when subjected to a disturbance”.
The rotor angle of a generator depends on the balance between the electromagnetic
torque due to the generator electrical power output and mechanical torque due to the
input mechanical power through a prime mover. Remaining in synchronism means that
all the generators electromagnetic torque is exactly equal to the mechanical torque in the
opposite direction. If in a generator the balance between electromagnetic and mechanical
torque is disturbed, due to disturbances in the system, then this will lead to oscillations
in the rotor angle. Rotor angle stability is further classified into small disturbance angle
stability and large disturbance angle stability.

Small-disturbance or small-signal angle stability

“It is the ability of the system to remain in synchronism when subjected to small
disturbances”. If a disturbance is small enough so that the nonlinear power system can be
approximated by a linear system, then the study of rotor angle stability of that system is
called as small-disturbance angle stability analysis. Small disturbances can be small load
changes like switching on or off small loads, line tripping, small generators tripping etc.
Due to small disturbances, there can be two types of instability: non-oscillatory instability
and oscillatory instability. In non-oscillatory instability the rotor angle of a generator
keeps on increasing due to a small disturbance and in case of oscillatory instability the
rotor angle oscillates with increasing magnitude.

Large-disturbance or transient angle stability

“It is the ability of the system to remain in synchronism when subjected to large
disturbances”. Large disturbances can be faults, switching on or off large loads, large
generators tripping etc. When a power system is subjected to large disturbance, it will
lead to large excursions of generator rotor angles. Since there are large rotor angle
changes the power system cannot be approximated by a linear representation like in the
case of small-disturbance stability. The time domain of interest in case of large-
disturbance as well as small-disturbance angle stability is anywhere between 0.1- 10 s.
Due to this reason small and large-disturbance angle stability are short term
phenomenon. It must be noted here that though in some literature “dynamic stability” is
used in place of transient stability, according to IEEE task force committee report, only
transient stability has to be used.

Voltage stability
“It is the ability of the system to maintain steady state voltages at all the system buses
when subjected to a disturbance. If the disturbance is large then it is called as large-
disturbance voltage stability and if the disturbance is small, it is called as small-
disturbance voltage stability”. Unlike angle stability, voltage stability can also be a long-
term phenomenon. In case voltage fluctuations occur due to fast acting devices like
induction motors, power electronic drive, HVDC etc then the time frame for
understanding the stability is in the range of 10-20 s and so it can be treated as short term
phenomenon. On the other hand, if voltage variations are due to slow change in load, over
loading of lines, generators hitting reactive power limits, tap changing transformers etc
then time frame for voltage stability can stretch from 1 minute to several minutes. The
main difference between voltage stability and angle stability is that voltage stability
depends on the balance of reactive power demand and generation in the system where as
the angle stability mainly depends on the balance between real power generation and
demand

Frequency stability
“It refers to the ability of a power system to maintain steady frequency following a severe
disturbance between generation and load”. It depends on the ability to restore
equilibrium between system generation and load, with minimum loss of load. Frequency
instability may lead to sustained frequency swings leading to tripping of generating units
or loads. During frequency excursions, the characteristic times of the processes and
devices that are activated will range from fraction of seconds like under frequency control
to several minutes, corresponding to the response of devices such as prime mover and
hence frequency stability may be a short-term phenomenon or a long-term phenomenon.
Though, stability is classified into rotor angle, voltage, and frequency stability they need
not be independent isolated events. A voltage collapse at a bus can lead to large
excursions in rotor angle and frequency. Similarly, large frequency deviations can lead to
large changes in voltage magnitude. Each component of the power system i.e. prime
mover, generator rotor, generator stator, transformers, transmission lines, load,
controlling devices and protection systems should be mathematically represented to
assess the rotor angle, voltage and frequency stability through appropriate analysis tools.
In fact entire power system can be represented by a set of Differential Algebraic Equations
(DAE) through which system stability can be analysed.

Ms. Pritam Deshmukh

Course Coordinator