58

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

Three phase input voltages

NPLO Converter firing control system Ton, VALFIR P1 or P7 P6 or P12 Valve states EXTNCT

order

Feedback control system

Toff , measured Vdc , Idc , etc.

Figure 3.17

Firing control mechanism based on the phase-locked oscillator

c (1)

c (1) or c (7)

T0 TIME (rad) B2

order

order

actual

Figure 3.18

Synchronising error in ring pulse

The time between two consecutive zero crossings, of the positive to negative (or negative to positive) going waveforms of the same phase, is dened here as the halfperiod time, T /2. The measured periods are smoothed through a rst order real-pole lag function with a user-specied time constant. From these half-period times the a.c. system frequency is estimated every 60 degrees (30 degrees) for a six (12) pulse bridge. Normally the ramp for the ring of a particular valve (c(1), . . . , c(6)) starts from the zero-crossing points of the voltage waveforms across the valve. After T /6 time (T /12 for twelve pulse), the next ramp starts for the ring of the following valve in sequence. It is possible that during a fault or due to the presence of harmonics in the voltage waveform, the ring does not start from the zero-crossover point, resulting in a synchronisation error, B2, as shown in Figure 3.18. This error is used to update the phase-locked oscillator which, in turn, reduces the synchronising error, approaching

State variable analysis

59

zero at the steady state condition. The synchronisation error is recalculated every 60 deg for the six-pulse bridge. The ring angle order (order ) is converted to a level to detect the ring instant as a function of the measured a.c. frequency by T0 = order (rad.) fac (p.u.) (3.46)

As soon as the ramp c(n) reaches the set level specied by T0 , as shown in Figure 3.18, valve n is red and the ring pulse is maintained for 120 degrees. Upon having sufcient forward voltage with the ring-pulse enabled, the valve is switched on and the ring angle recorded as the time interval from the last voltage zero crossing detected for this valve. At the beginning of each time-step, the valves are checked for possible extinctions. Upon detecting a current reversal, a valve is extinguished and its extinction angle counter is reset. Subsequently, from the corresponding zero-crossing instant, its extinction angle is measured, e.g. at valve 1 zero crossing, 2 is measured, and so on. (Usually, the lowest gamma angle measured for the converter is fed back to the extinction angle controller.) If the voltage zero-crossover points do not fall on the time step boundaries, a linear interpolation is used to derive them. As illustrated in Figure 3.17, the NPLO block coordinates the valve-ring mechanism, and VALFIR receives the ring pulses from NPLO and checks the conditions for ring the valves. If the conditions are met, VALFIR switches on the next incoming valve and measures the ring angle, otherwise it calculates the earliest time for next ring to adjust the step length. Valve currents are checked for extinction in EXTNCT and interpolation of all state variables is carried out. The valves turn-on time is used to calculate the ring angle and the off time is used for the extinction angle. By way of example, Figure 3.19 shows the response to a step change of d.c. current in the test system used earlier in this section.

3.6

Example

To illustrate the use of state variable analysis the simple RLC circuit of Figure 3.20 is used (R = 20.0 , L = 6.95 mH and C = 1.0 F), where the switch is closed at 0.1 ms. Choosing x1 = vC and x2 = iL then the state variable equation is: 1 0 0 x 1 x 1 C (3.47) = + 1 ES 1 R x 2 x2 L L L The FORTRAN code for this example is given in Appendix G.1. Figure 3.21 displays the response from straight application of the state variable analysis using a 0.05 ms time step. The rst plot compares the response with the analytic answer. The resonant frequency for this circuit is 1909.1 Hz (or a period of 0.5238 ms), hence having approximately 10 points per cycle. The second plot shows that the step length remained at

60

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

d.c. current Rectified d.c. voltage (pu) Firing angle (rad) Extinction angle (rad)

0.450

0.475

0.500

0.525 0.550 Time (s)

0.575

0.600

0.625

0.650

Figure 3.19

Constant order (15 ) operation with a step change in the d.c. current
L

iL

ES R

vC

Figure 3.20

RLC test circuit

0.05 ms throughout the simulation and the third graph shows that 2024 iterations were required to reach convergence. This is the worse case as increasing the nominal step length to 0.06 or 0.075 ms reduces the error as the algorithm is forced to step-halve (see Table 3.1). Figure 3.22 shows the resultant voltages and current in the circuit. Adding a check on the state variable derivative substantially improves the agreement between the analytic and calculated responses so that there is no noticeable difference. Figure 3.23 also shows that the algorithm required the step length to be 0.025 in order to reach convergence of state variables and their derivatives. Adding step length optimisation to the basic algorithm also improves the accuracy, as shown in Figure 3.24. Before the switch is closed the algorithm converges within one iteration and hence the optimisation routine increases the step length. As a result the rst step after the switch closes requires more than 20 iterations and the optimisation routine starts reducing the step length until it reaches 0.0263 ms where it stays for the remainder of the simulation.

State variable analysis

Capacitor voltage 2 State variable analysis Analytic 1

61

0 0.06 0.04 0.02 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Step length

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Iteration count

20 10 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1 Time (ms)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 3.21

State variable analysis with 50 s step length Table 3.1

Condition

State variable analysis error

Maximum error (Volts) 0.0911 0.0229 0.0499 0.0114 0.0037 0.0229 0.0589 0.0512 0.0911 Time (ms)

Base case x check Optimised t Both Opt. t and x check t = 0.01 t = 0.025 t = 0.06 t = 0.075 t = 0 .1

0.750 0.750 0.470 0.110 0.740 0.750 0.073 0.740 0.750

Combining both derivative of state variable checking and step length optimisation gives even better accuracy. Figure 3.25 shows that initially step-halving occurs when the switching occurs and then the optimisation routine takes over until the best step length is found. A comparison of the error is displayed in Figure 3.26. Due to the uneven distribution of state variable time points, resampling was used to generate this comparison,

62

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

2 vC vL vR

Voltage

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

0.01 Current 0.005 0 0.005 0.01 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Time (ms) 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

iL iC

Figure 3.22
2

State variable analysis with 50 s step length

Capacitor voltage

State variable analysis Analytic 1

0 0.06 0.04 0.02 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Step length

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Iteration count

20 10 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1 Time (ms)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 3.23

State variable analysis with 50 s step length and x check

State variable analysis

Capacitor voltage 2 State variable analysis Analytic 1

63

0 0.06 0.04 0.02 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Step length

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Iteration count

20 10 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1 1.2 Time (ms)

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 3.24
2

State variable with 50 s step length and step length optimisation

Capacitor voltage

State variable analysis Analytic 1

0 0.06

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Step length

0.04 0.02 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Iteration count

20 10 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1 Time (ms)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 3.25

Both x check and step length optimisation

64

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

0.1 0.08 Error in capacitor voltage (volts) 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 Time (ms) 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Base case SV derivative check Optimised step length Both

Figure 3.26

Error comparison

that is, the analytic solutions at 0.01 ms intervals were calculated and the state variable analysis results were interpolated on to this time grid, and the difference taken.

3.7

Summary

In the state variable solution it is the set of rst order differential equations, rather than the system of individual elements, that is solved by numerical integration. The most popular numerical technique in current use is implicit trapezoidal integration, due to its simplicity, accuracy and stability. Solution accuracy is enhanced by the use of iterative methods to calculate the state variables. State variable is an ideal method for the solution of system components with time-varying non-linearities, and particularly for power electronic devices involving frequent switching. This has been demonstrated with reference to the static a.c.d.c. converter by an algorithm referred to as TCS (Transient Converter Simulation). Frequent switching, in the state variable approach, imposes no overhead on the solution. Moreover, the use of automatic step length adjustment permits optimising the integration step throughout the solution. The main limitation is the need to recognise dependability between system variables. This process substantially reduces the effectiveness of the state variable algorithms, and makes them unsuited to very large systems. However, in a hybrid combination with the numerical integration substitution method, the state variable model can provide very accurate and efcient solutions. This subject is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 9.

State variable analysis

65

3.8

References

1 HAY, J. L. and HINGORANI, N. G.: Dynamic simulation of multi-convertor HVdc systems by digital computer, Proceedings of 6th PICA conference, 1969, pp. 51235 2 KRON, G.: Diakoptics the piecewise solution (MacDonald, London, 1963) 3 CHUA, L. O. and LIN, P. M.: Computer aided analysis of electronic circuits: algorithms and computational techniques (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, CA, 1975) 4 ARRILLAGA, J., AL-KASHALI, H. J. and CAMPOS-BARROS, J. G.: General formulation for dynamic studies in power systems including static converters, Proceedings of IEE, 1977, 124 (11), pp. 104752 5 ROHRER, R. A.: Circuit theory, introduction to the state variable approach (McGraw-Hill, Kogakusha, Tokyo, 1970) 6 JOOSTEN, A. P. B., ARRILLAGA, J., ARNOLD, C. P. and WATSON, N. R.: Simulation of HVdc system disturbances with reference to the magnetising history of the convertor transformer, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 1990, 5 (1), pp. 3306 7 KITCHEN, R. H.: New method for digital-computer evaluation of convertor harmonics in power systems using state-variable analysis, Proceedings of IEE, Part C, 1981, 128 (4), 196207 8 RAJAGOPALAN, V.: Computer-aided analysis of power electronic system (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1987) 9 ARRILLAGA, J., ARNOLD, C. P. and HARKER, B. J.: Computer modelling of electrical power systems (John Wiley, Chicester, 1983) 10 GEAR, C. W.: Numerical initial value problems in ordinary differential equations (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1971) 11 BOWLES, J. P.: AC system and transformer representation for HV-DC transmission studies, IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, 1970, 89 (7), pp. 16039 12 IEEE Task Force of Harmonics Modeling and Simulation: Test systems for harmonic modeling and simulation, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 1999, 4 (2), pp. 57987 13 KRUGER, K. H. and LASSETER, R. H.: HVDC simulation using NETOMAC, Proceedings, IEEE Montec 86 Conference on HVDC Power Transmission, Sept/Oct 1986, pp. 4750 14 AINSWORTH, J. D.: The phase-locked oscillator a new control system for controlled static convertors, IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, 1968, 87 (3), pp. 85965 15 ARRILLAGA, J., SANKAR, S., ARNOLD, C. P. and WATSON, N. R.: Incorporation of HVdc controller dynamics in transient convertor simulation, Trans. Inst. Prof. Eng. N.Z. Electrical/Mech/Chem. Engineering Section, 1989, 16 (2), pp. 2530

Chapter 4

Numerical integrator substitution

4.1

Introduction

A continuous function can be simulated by substituting a numerical integration formula into the differential equation and rearranging the function into an appropriate form. Among the factors to be taken into account in the selection of the numerical integrator are the error due to truncated terms, its properties as a differentiator, error propagation and frequency response. Numerical integration substitution (NIS) constitutes the basis of Dommels EMTP [1][3], which, as explained in the introductory chapter, is now the most generally accepted method for the solution of electromagnetic transients. The EMTP method is an integrated approach to the problems of: forming the network differential equations collecting the equations into a coherent system to be solved numerical solution of the equations. The trapezoidal integrator (described in Appendix C) is used for the numerical integrator substitution, due to its simplicity, stability and reasonable accuracy in most circumstances. However, being based on a truncated Taylors series, the trapezoidal rule can cause numerical oscillations under certain conditions due to the neglected terms [4]. This problem will be discussed further in Chapters 5 and 9. The other basic characteristic of Dommels method is the discretisation of the system components, given a predetermined time step, which are then combined in a solution for the nodal voltages. Branch elements are represented by the relationship which they maintain between branch current and nodal voltage. This chapter describes the basic formulation and solution of the numerical integrator substitution method as implemented in the electromagnetic transient programs.

68

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

4.2 4.2.1

Discretisation of R , L, C elements Resistance

The simplest circuit element is a resistor connected between nodes k and m, as shown in Figure 4.1, and is represented by the equation: ikm (t) = 1 (vk (t) vm (t)) R (4.1)

Resistors are accurately represented in the EMTP formulation provided R is not too small. If the value of R is too small its inverse in the system matrix will be large, resulting in poor conditioning of the solution at every step. This gives inaccurate results due to the nite precision of numerical calculations. On the other hand, very large values of R do not degrade the overall solution. In EMTDC version 3 if R is below a threshold (the default threshold value is 0.0005) then R is automatically set to zero and a modied solution method used.

4.2.2

Inductance

The differential equation for the inductor shown in Figure 4.2 is: vL = vk vm = L
ikm R

dikm dt

(4.2)

vk

vm

Figure 4.1

Resistor
ikm

vk

vm

Figure 4.2

Inductor

Numerical integrator substitution Rearranging: ikm(t) = ikm(t Applying the trapezoidal rule gives: t ((vk vm )(t) + (vk vm )(t t) ) 2L t t (vk(t t) vm(t t) ) + (vk(t) vm(t) ) = ikm(t t) + 2L 2L 1 (vk (t) vm (t)) ikm (t) = IHistory (t t) + Reff ikm(t) = ikm(t
t) t)

69

t t t

(vk vm ) dt

(4.3)

(4.4) (4.5) (4.6)

This equation can be expressed in the form of a Norton equivalent (or companion circuit) as illustrated in Figure 4.3. The term relating the current contribution at the present time step to voltage at the present time step (1/Reff ) is a conductance (instantaneous term) and the contribution to current from the previous time step quantities is a current source (History term). In equation 4.6 IHistory (t t) = ikm (t t) + ( t/2L)(vk (t t) vm (t t)) and Reff = 2L/ t . The term 2L/ t is known as the instantaneous term as it relates the current to the voltage at the same time point, i.e. any change in one will instantly be reected in the other. As an effective resistance, very small values of L or rather 2L/ t , can also result in poor conditioning of the conductance matrix. Transforming equation 4.6 to the z-domain gives: Ikm (z) = z1 Ikm (z) +
k ikm(t)

t (1 + z1 )(Vk (z) Vm (z)) 2L

IHistory (t t) = ikm (t t) + (vk(t) vm(t)) Reff = 2L t

t (v (t t) vm (t t)) 2L k

Figure 4.3

Norton equivalent of the inductor

70

Power systems electromagnetic transients simulation

ikm

vk

vm

Figure 4.4

Capacitor

Rearranging gives the following transfer between current and voltage in the z-domain: t (1 + z1 ) Ikm (z) = (Vk (z) Vm (z)) 2L (1 z1 ) (4.7)

4.2.3

Capacitance
d(vk (t) vm (t)) dt

With reference to Figure 4.4 the differential equation for the capacitor is: ikm (t) = C Integrating and rearranging gives: vkm(t) = (vk(t) vm(t) ) = (vk(t and applying the trapezoidal rule: vkm (t) = (vk (t) vm (t)) = (vk (t t) vm (t t)) + Hence the current in the capacitor is given by: ikm (t) = 2C 2C (vk (t) vm (t)) ikm (t t) (vk (t t t 1 = [vk (t) vm (t)] + IHistory (t t) Reff t) vm (t t)) (4.11) t (ikm (t) + ikm (t t)) 2C (4.10)
t)

(4.8)

vm(t

t) ) +

1 C

t t t

ikm dt

(4.9)

which is again a Norton equivalent as depicted in Figure 4.5. The instantaneous term in equation 4.11 is: t (4.12) Reff = 2C Thus very large values of C , although they are unlikely to be used, can cause ill conditioning of the conductance matrix.

Numerical integrator substitution

k ikm(t)

71

Ihistory (t t) = ikm (t t) 2C (vk (t t) vm (t t)) t (vk(t) vm(t)) Reff = t 2C

Figure 4.5

Norton equivalent of the capacitor

The History term represented by a current source is: IHistory(t

t)

= ikm(t

t)

2C (vk(t t

t)

vm(t

t) )

(4.13)

Transforming to the z-domain gives: 2C 2C (Vk Vm )z1 + (Vk Vm ) t t Ikm 2C (1 z1 ) = (Vk Vm ) t (1 + z1 ) Ikm = z1 Ikm (4.14) (4.15)

It should be noted that any implicit integration formula can be substituted into a differential equation to form a difference equation (and a corresponding Norton equivalent). Table 4.1 shows the Norton components that result from using three different integration methods.

4.2.4

Components reduction

Several components can be combined into a single Norton equivalent, thus reducing the number of nodes and hence the computation at each time point. Consider rst the case of a simple RL branch. The History term for the inductor is: IHistory (t t) = i(t t) + t vl (t 2L t) (4.16)

where vl is the voltage across the inductor. This is related to the branch voltage by: vl (t t) = v(t t) i(t t)R (4.17)