Application of wide area frequency information from FNET to Power System Stabilizer (PSS)

In the 1950s and into the 1960s, many power generating plants were equipped with continuously acting Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVRs) for the control of generator terminal voltage. As the number of power plants with AVR grew, it became apparent that the high performance of these voltage regulators also had a destabilizing effect on the overall power system. Power oscillations of small magnitude and low frequency often persisted for long periods of time. In some cases, this presented a limitation on the amount of transmittable power within the system. Power System Stabilizers (PSSs) were developed to aid in damping of these power oscillations. The PSS is an additional control that is part of the excitation system for the generator voltage control. The PSS acts to modulate the generator field voltage to damp electrical power and/or frequency oscillations.;This thesis presented an investigation into modifying one of the inputs of the PSS; namely the frequency. Instead of using the frequency of the generator on which the PSS is installed (which is the traditional practice), the use of wide area frequency measurements is suggested. The wide area frequency measurements are available from the Frequency monitoring Network (FNET) system. The FNET system is a new concept presently being developed and installed. The FNET system consists of two major components. The first component is the Frequency Disturbance Recorders (FDRs), which perform local GPS-synchronized frequency measurements and send data to a server through the Internet, and the second component is the Information Management System (IMS), which includes data collection and storage, data communication, database operation, and web services. The Internet provides the wide-area communication network between the FDR units and IMS.;Simulations were done using PSS/E, a power system software package commonly used in the industry. The proposed method was tested and compared to the traditional method for different disturbances (or faults) using the IEEE 118-bus Test Systems. Results showed that the proposed method is more effective than the traditional method for all of the fault cases.