Power System Security

The power system needs to be secured, we need to protect it from the black

out or any internal or external damage.

The operation of the power system is set to be normal only when the flow of

power and the bus voltages are within the limits even though there is a

profitable change in the load or at the generation side.

From this we can say that the security of the power system is an important

aspect with respect to the continuation of its operation.

Security function are of two type as follows:

Security control: - It determines the exact and proper security constraint

scheduling which is required to obtain the maximized security level.

Security assessment: - It gives the security level of the system in the

operating state.

Power system security assessment is the assessment of the operating network

in a manner so as to identify the possible failure/s that may occur in the

system, its consequences and its

remedial actions.

The power system may be assumed as being operated under two sets of

constraints: load constraints and operating constraints. The load constraints

impose the requirement that the load demand must be met by the system. The

operating constraints impose maximum or minimum

operating limits on system variables and are associated with both steady state

and stability limitations. Mathematically, the load constraints can be expressed

in the form of the familiar

load flow equations. The operating constraints can be expressed in the form of

inequalities such as an equipment loading, bus voltage, phase angle differences,

generator real and reactive powers etc. The operating conditions of the power

network can then be categorized into three operating states (refer Fig 1):

• Normal (or Preventive) State

• Emergency State

• Restorative State

1. A system is in the normal state when the load and operating constraints are

satisfied. It is reasonable to assume that in the normal state the power

system is in a quasi-steady state condition. For any given time, the

intersection of the load constraints and the operating constraints defines

the space of all feasible normal operating states. The power system may be

operated anywhere in this space.

A normal operating point can be classified as being either secure or insecure

with reference to an arbitrary set of disturbances or next contingencies. A

normal system is said to be secure, i.e. at a secure operating point, if it can

undergo any contingency in the next-contingency set without getting in to an

emergency condition.

On the other hand, if there is at least one contingency in the next

contingency set which would bring about an emergency, the normal system

would be called insecure or in an alert state.

2. A system is in the emergency state when the operating constraints are not

completely satisfied. Two types of emergency may be noted. One is when

only steady state operating constraints are being violated, e.g. an equipment-

loading limit is exceeded or the voltage at a bus is below a given level.

The other is when a stability operating constraint is violated and as a result

of which the system cannot maintain stability. The first type of emergency

may be called “Steady State emergency” and the second type, “dynamic

emergency”.
3. A system is in the restorative state when the load constraints are not

completely satisfied. This means a condition of either a partial or a total

system shutdown. When the extreme emergency (extremis state) comes

into action there is occurrence of extreme disturbance.

In this case the power system is in up stable state and may lead to shutting

down of the major parts of the power system. Control action should be

powerful such that the shedding of the load of the unimportant load are

needs to be done. In case of a partial shutdown the reduced system may be

in an emergency state.

This is the start of a cascading situation and, if uncorrected, would lead to a

further deterioration of the system.

Contingency Analysis. Preventive Control and Emergency Control-:

For a power system to be secure, it must have continuity in supply without a loss

of load. For this security analysis is performed to develop various control

strategies to guarantee the avoidance and survival of emergency conditions and

to operate the system at lowest cost.

Whenever the pre specified operating limits of the power system gets violated

the system is said to be in emergency condition. These violations of the limits

result from contingencies occurring in the system.

A contingency is the unexpected failure of a transmission line, transformer,

or generator. Usually, contingencies result from occurrence of a fault, or short-

circuit, to one of these components.

When such a fault occurs, the protection systems sense the fault and remove

the component, and therefore also the fault, from the system.

Of course, with one less component, the overall system is weaker, and

undesirable effects may occur.

For example, some remaining circuit may overload, or some bus may experience

an undervoltage condition.

These are called static security problems. Dynamic security problems may also

occur, including uncontrollable voltage decline, generator overspeed (loss of

synchronism), or undamped oscillatory behaviour.

Contingency analysis technique is being widely used to predict the effect of

outages like failures of equipment, transmission line etc, and to take necessary

actions to keep the power system secure and reliable. The contingency analysis

is divided into three different stages

1. Contingency definition – It comprise of set of contingencies that occur in

the power system.

2. Selection – The process of identifying the contingencies that actually leads

to the violation of the operational limits is known as contingency selection. Thus,

this process removes the unimportant contingencies and hence the contingency

list is shortened.

3. Evaluation – In this process it involves the necessary security action or

control to function in order to remove the effect of contingency.

Preventive Control and Emergency Control

The first function of security analysis (SA) is to determine whether the normal

system is secure or insecure. The second function is to determine what

corrective action strategy should be taken when the system is insecure.

The first function commonly classifies under contingency definition and

selection since, by definition, the security of a system is determined with

reference to a set of next contingencies.

The second part of security analysis is “Corrective Action Strategy”. whether

the system would respond in an acceptable manner and reach an acceptable

state following any one of a pre-defined contingency set. That is, if the system

is insecure, can it be made secure? If so, how and at what cost? Conditions

improve? Suppose the system is now insecure and there is no way of making it

secure, how much load would be shed.

Preventive Control:
If a system operator infers from the operating data that a system is in an alert

state, then he takes preventive control actions to bring the system back to a

normal state.

If the state is normal, then a system operator may wish to do some minor

changes in real and reactive scheduling (from an economic perspective), if such

flexibility exists. However, if any such change cannot bring the system out of

the secure state, the system is not secure (alert), then the operator has to try

to steer it into the secure state by real or reactive power rescheduling

(Preventive Control).

However, re-scheduling is only done to improve security and may result in higher

cost if cheaper generators are asked to "back down" their generated power

while costlier ones are ramped up.

Therefore, even if preventive control is to be done, it should be done in a way

which will minimize any cost increase while simultaneously ensuring security.

Emergency Control: If a system operator infers from the operating data that a

system is in an alert state, then he takes preventive contrl actions to bring the

system back to a normal state.

However, it is possible that the system operator is unable to act in time before

a contingency actually occurs or a grid may even operate insecurely (in an alert

state) due to high cost of preventive control or due to inadequate reserve

margins.
In such situations, a system in an alert state may cascade into an emergency and

subsequently into a total blackout if no control actions

are taken. Emergency control measures can be used to retrieve such situations.

Since most equipment can withstand a short-time thermal overload, there is a

small window of time in which some manual emergency measures can be

executed.

For other emergency situations (like instability), time may be too short and

predesigned automatic emergency measures are necessary. Some emergency

control actions that can be taken are:

a) Control of generation (reducing or increasing as per requirement).

b) Tripping of generation or load shedding.

c) Control of voltage and Re-routing of power flows.

What is meant by corrective rescheduling?

It is basically defined as the measures taken to avoid the faults after it has

occurred i.e.to isolate the defective fault from the non-faulty part of the

power system and then further rectify the fault.

After the rectification of the fault in the power system it is then restored in

the power system from where it was isolated.