Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch based on Voltage Stability Criteria in a Large Power

System with
AC/DC

and FACTs Devices

D.Thukaram, Senior Member IEEE, G.Yesuratnam, and C.Vyjayanthi

Abstract-- An algorithm for optimal allocation of reactive power in AC/DC system using FACTs devices, with an objective of improving the voltage profile and also voltage stability of the system has been presented. The technique attempts to utilize fully the reactive power sources in the system to improve the voltage stability and profile as well as meeting the reactive power requirements at the AC-DC terminals to facilitate the smooth operation of DC links. The method involves successive solution of steady-state power flows and optimization of reactive power control variables with Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) using linear programming technique. The proposed method has been tested on a real life equivalent 96-bus AC and a two terminal DC system under normal and contingency conditions. Index Terms-- AC/DC system, L-index, UPFC, Voltage stability.
I. INTRODUCTION

is becoming an acceptable alternative to AC and is providing an economic solution for bulk power transfer over long distances. Considerable work has been reported in the literature in regard to integrated AC-DC system performance evaluation procedures, notably for load flow and stability studies [1,2]. There is very limited work in the area of reactive power control in AC/DC systems [3]. Even though DC transmission lines carry no reactive power, real power flow into the converters is accompanied by some reactive power flow because of the phase control. The considerations in the operation of a DC transmission system are to satisfy the need for reactive power at the terminals, maintain good voltage profile and improve voltage stability. In a day-to-day operation it may be beyond the operator's scope to take any control decision during emergencies. However, the operator can use various control devices like on load tap changers, generator excitations, Switchable Var Compensators and also FACTs devices like Static Var Compensators, UPFCs to
D. Thukaram is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, INDIA (dtram@ee.iisc.emet.in) G. Yesuratnam is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, INDIA (ratnam@ee.iisc.emet.in) C.Vijayanthi is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, INDIA (jayanthi@ee.iisc.ernet.in)

IN big developing countries like India, HVDC transmission

restore the system to normal conditions. These control variables are optimized for the purpose of improving voltage stability of the system. In an AC/DC power system these control variables have to be optimized in a coordinated manner taking account of reactive power requirements at the DC terminals. The most comprehensive device emanated from the FACTs initiative is the UPFC. The UPFC regulates the active and reactive power control as well as adaptive to voltage magnitude control simultaneously or any combination of them. Controlling the power flows in the network, under normal and network contingencies, help to reduce flows in heavily loaded lines, reduce system power loss, improve stability and performance of the system [4]. Reference [3] has given a method for co-ordinated optimum allocation of reactive power in AC/DC power system with an objective of enhancement of steady state voltage stability based on the L-index [5]. In this an algorithm is proposed for optimization of reactive power control variables using linear programming technique. The objective selected for reactive power optimization is to minimize the sum of the squares of the L indices of all the load buses of the system. The amount of complexity and computational effort involved is very much high with this objective. Hence to overcome this another objective of minimization of the sum squared voltage deviations of the load buses has been given in the reference [6]. The algorithm given in reference [3] did not consider any FACTs devices. This algorithm gives satisfactory results under peak load conditions, but under contingencies like line outages it may not give satisfactory results. In this connection the proposed algorithm is very much reliable. This paper is mainly concerned with development of a method for co-ordinated optimum allocation of reactive power in AC/DC power systems using FACTs device UPFC, with an objective of minimization of the sum of the squares of the voltage deviations of all the load buses [6]. An algorithm is proposed for optimization of reactive power control variables

using linear programming.

II. VOLTAGE STABILITY ANALYSIS USING L-INDEX AND

MINIMUM SINGULAR VALUE

0-7803-9772-X/06/$20.00 )2006 IEEE

A. L-Index
Consider a system where, n=total number of busses, with 1,

2... g generator busses (g), g+1, g+2... g+s SVC busses (s), g+s+ 1... n the remaining busses (r=n-g-s) and t =number of OLTC transformers. A load flow result is obtained for a given system operating condition, which is otherwise available from the output of an on-line state estimator. Using the load flow results, the Lindex [5] is computed as
g

=1

-s-

Vj

Where j=g+ 1... n and all the terms within the sigma on the RHS of (1) are complex quantities. The values Fji are obtained from the Y bus matrix as follows

stability has to be further improved, reactive power optimization for the AC system is carried out in block 5 with suitable terminal conditions. At this stage, a check for the AC/DC system satisfactory condition is performed in block 6. If the solution is still not satisfactory, modifications in the initial conditions of the DC system are made with suitable changes in the firing angles as shown in block 7 and the process in blocks 2-7 is repeated. Finally, the nearest practical possible tap settings are selected for the transformers at the AC/DC terminal and the final AC/DC power-flow solution is obtained in block 8.
1 |

LI G

IL YLG

FYGG

YGL 1LVG1

JLLVLJ(2

(2)

System data
2

DC system solution
3

Where I G IL and VG, VL represent currents and voltages at the generator nodes and load nodes. Rearranging (2) we get

AC system solution with UPFC

4 _
Check for AC/DC system satisfactory solution No Reactive Power Optimization

, es

FIG j

KGL YGG HVG

(3)

] are the required values. The LWhere FLG = -[YLL] indices for a given load condition are computed for all load busses. For stability, the bound on the index Lj must not be violated (maximum limit=l) for any of the nodes j. For a given network, as the load/generation increases, the voltage magnitude and angles change, and for near maximum power transfer condition, the voltage stability index Li values for load buses tend to close to 1, indicating that the system is close to voltage collapse. The stability margin is obtained as the distance of L from a unit value i.e. (1-L).
B. Minimum Singular Value Some researchers have proposed Minimum Singular Value (MSV) of the load flow jacobian [7] as a measure of voltage stability. At the point of voltage collapse, no physically meaningful load flow solution is possible as the load flow jacobian becomes singular. At this point, the minimum singular value becomes zero. Hence the distance of the minimum singular value from zero at an operating point is a measure of proximity to voltage collapse.
III. APPROACH

1YLG

Check for AC/DC system satisfactory solution

No H

Yes
1-7 7

Modify DC system initial settings

AC/DC System Power flow solution

---i

Fig. 1. Major computational blocks of the proposed approach.

IV. DESCRIPTION OF MODEL

A. Converter representation A general AC/DC terminal and its equivalent circuit is shown in Fig.2.The basic equations describing the converter with its firing angle, tap controls and the DC network are summarized based on the per-unit system selected as follows:

At the beginning of the reactive power optimization in AC/DC power systems, a satisfactory initial operating condition for the DC system is selected based on the control strategies, viz., constant power control, constant current control, and constant voltage control applicable at the DC terminals. As shown in Fig. 1, a solution for DC system is first obtained in block 2 and then the voltage, active and reactive power requirements at the DC terminals are computed. Defining these requirements at the AC side of the converter/inverter transformers an AC power flow solution Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of DC terminal. with UPFC is obtained in block 3. Now the terminal AC system base quantities transformer taps are computed and their range is checked for a = 3-phase power the satisfactory solution of the AC/DC system in block 4. If a the transformers tap change is not satisfactory or the voltage Vbacse =Line-to-line RMS value

I base

ac

aclI Pa I \/r3 base bae

pac
a

VCRmax) and angle (O<.vR< 22t) respectively [8].

DC system base quantities dc ac base basbase vdc ae baseac b as b) base Where Kb= (37I2/h) nb nb is the number of series - connected bridges in a terminal. The direct voltage and power at the converter are given by
V
=

aV" cos(a)- RIdc

(4)

C. Load model A composite load model, a combination of the ZIP model and exponential model, is considered. Active and reactive power loads are modeled as a function of voltage at the bus. The functions considered are Pactual PLominal (AO + A1V + A2V2+ A3VeP ) (9)
(10) QLi actual QLoi no lin al (Ro + RIV + R2 V 2+ R3 Veq ) Where A0,R0,A1,R1,A2,R2,A3,R3 denote the portion of total load proportional to constant power, constant impedance, constant current and exponential of voltages with ep ,eq given values.

(5) Where RC is commutation resistance, a is the transformer tap setting and ox the firing angle. Neglecting the losses in the converter and its transformer and equating the expression for powers on the AC and DC sides, the equation for power factor angle (1 -4) is given by
and for the reactive power flowing from the AC bus into the converter terminal is Qdc = pac tan(y - ) (7) Where v is the alternating voltage angle and 4 is the alternating current angle A practical operating scheme for a DC system using local terminal controls is to have the DC- system voltage determined at one terminal and the other terminals are provided with scheduled power or current settings. To keep the reactive power consumption of the converter and the losses low the firing angles should be small. But to maintain phase control and reliable commutation, a minimum control angle should be maintained.
V

Pdc = V Idc

aV"

cos(w-;)

(6)

D. AC/DC power-flow solution method Considering a DC system Where m represents the total number of DC terminals p represents the number of terminals with constant power control c represents the number of terminals with constant current control and m = (p+c+1) the terminal with voltage control. It is assumed that 1, 2,..., p are the constant power control terminals, p+l,p+2,...., p+c are the constant current control terminals, and m the voltage controlled terminal. The algebraic sum of the direct currents flowing into the DC network must be zero and therefore

EIdc
k=l

(1 1)

B. UPFC equivalent circuit

ZCR
Im

The direct voltages at terminals other than the voltage controlled terminal are given by,

IVR VVR

PCR+PVR=O

[Vbus = [Rbus [Ibus + [Vm] where[Vbuj Lvid,V2, VIp+c] dc .dc] Jt_ I1 jd.c dc [,bus]I [< ,2 ,.,Ip , P+1 ,..IP+C]
v
t

(12)

[Vtm = Lml [Vdc

m2

..V

vP

..Im+lvv

dc pc

Fig. 3. UPFC Equivalent circuit.

The UPFC equivalent circuit for a steady-state model as shown in Fig.3, has been used in the evaluation of system performance. The equivalent circuit consists of two ideal voltage sources, VCR = VCR (cos 09CR + j sin 9CR)
VVR = VVR (cos 09VR
+

j sin 9VR)

(8)

Where VVR and OvR are the controllable magnitude (VVR min < VVR < VVR max) and angle (O<.vR< 22t) of the parallel voltage source. The magnitude of VCR and angle OCR of the series voltage source are controlled between limits (VCR min < VCR <

[Rb11S] is the bus resistance matrix of the DC network with voltage controlled terminal as reference dc is the scheduled voltage at the voltage controlled terminal dc dc are the scheduled currents at the controlled P'' P+C terminals Idc ..... I dc are computed currents at the power controlled terminals (Jdc=pdc/Ndc) Using an iterative technique the solution of these equations (12) is obtained for the values of direct currents, voltages and powers at all the DC terminals. For the terminals with power control and current control it is common practice to coordinate the tap control with phase control so that the terminal will operate at some direct voltage below its own minimum firing (ignition or extinction) angle characteristic to avoid frequent mode shifts from occurring with normal alternative voltage fluctuations. Thus the direct voltage equation for the

terminals with power control and current control is modified as

V
dc

Minimize ve = Cx

(15)

=M[aVaccosa-RcIdc]

(13)

where M is a coefficient typical of 0.97 for 3% voltage margin. Substituting the values of cc, R0, Vdc, Idc and M, the values of aVac for all the terminals are obtained from (4) and (12). Substituting the values of aVac into (6) the power factor angles (v-4) at all the terminals are obtained. The active and reactive powers flowing from the AC bus to the converter terminals are computed from (5) and (7), respectively. Now the AC power-flow solution is obtained with the defined values of P, Q at the AC/DC terminals. This solution provides the voltage conditions at all the AC buses. Knowing the values of aVac, i.e. the product of converter station transformer tap and AC-bus voltage from the DC-system solution and values of Vac from the AC system solution, the tap settings of the converter transformers are determined. If the tap settings violate the limits, modifications such as a change in scheduled voltage Vdc at the voltage-controlled DC terminal, a change in control angle oc and optimisation of the reactive power schedule in the AC system to obtain improved values of Vac at the AC/DC terminals are effected and the procedure to obtain AC/DC system solution repeated.
V. DESCRIPTION OF THE REACTIVE POWER OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM Minimisation of voltage deviations of all the load buses in a system forms the basis for the reactive power optimisation problem. The model uses linearised sensitivity relationships to define the problem. The constraints are: the linearised network performance equations relating to control and dependent variables and the limits on the control variables. Then the model selected for the reactive power optimisation uses linearised sensitivity relationships to define the optimisation problem. The objective is to minimize the sum of the squares of the voltage deviations of all the load buses for the system is given by

bnun < b = Sx < bmax Subject to and xmin < x < Xmax Where C is the row matrix of the linearized objective function sensitivity coefficients, S the linearized sensitivity matrix relating the dependent and control variables, b the colunm matrix of linearized dependent variables, x the column matrix of the linearized control variables, bmax and bmln are the colunm matrices of the linearized upper and lower limits on the dependent variables and Xmax and Xmin are the column matrices of linearized upper and lower limits on the control variables. The linear programming technique is now applied to the above problems to determine the optimal settings of the control variables. A. Computation of Sensitivity Matrix (S) The sensitivity matrix S relating the dependent and control variable is evaluated [6] in the following manner. Considering the fact that the reactive power injections at a bus does not change for a small change in the phase angle of the bus voltage, the relation between the net reactive power change at any node due to change in the transformer tap settings and the voltage magnitudes can be written as FAT
IAQS

FAQ] FA A2 A A4 i
IA

LAQ] LA9

A6 A7 A Ao A, A2

Vg

(16)

Then, transferring all the control variables to the right hand side and the dependent variables to the left hand side and rearranging: LAQg1 (17)
AT

AVs= [s] AVg

AV,

AQ,

B. Computation of Objective Function Vdesired (Ve = (Vdesired -Vactual)2) Sensitivities (C) with respect to
j=g+l

V (Vjdesired Vjactual )
j=g+l

(14)

Where Vjdesired is the desired value of the voltage magnitude at the jth load bus. Vjdesired iS usually set to be 1.0 pu. The control variables are: * The transformer tap settings (AT) * The generator excitation settings (A/V) * The Switchable VAR Compensator (SVC) settings (AQ) These variables have their upper and lower limits. Changes in these variables affect the distribution of the reactive power and therefore change the reactive power at generators, the voltage profile and thus the voltage stability of the system. The dependent variables are: * The reactive power outputs of the generators (AQ) * The voltage magnitude of the buses other than the generator buses (A/V) These variables also have their upper and lower limits. In mathematical form, the problem is expressed as:

Control Variables Consider a system where, k = total number of control variables with 1, 2.. .t number of OLTC transformers, t+1, t+2... t+g generator excitations and t+g+ 1.. .k SVCs, (k=t+g+s) Ve 2(V desired jm vjactual )(-s aTm j=g+l Where m=1,2...t for calculating the objective function sensitivities with respect to transformer taps, and Sjm is corresponding elements in equation (17) E ae 2(Vjdesired vjactual )(-Sjm) (19)

mv

j=g+l

Where m= t+l,t+2.. .t+g for calculating the objective function sensitivities with respect to generator excitations I 2(Vjdesired Vjactual )( S ) (20) aQm j=gl +
e
=

Where m= t+g+ .k for calculating the objective function sensitivities with respect to SVCs.
1..

VI. SYSTEM STUDIES An AC/DC system of two-terminal DC and 96 AC buses, typical of Indian grid equivalent system [3] including the voltage levels of 220 and 400 kV as shown in Fig. 4, has been considered for studies. There are 20 generators in the system connected at buses 1-13, 15-19, 95 and 96. The AC/DC converter stations are connected at buses 29 and 32. The DC system data is given in Table I. There are 20 generators, 18 tap regulating transformers and 95 transmission lines in the system. About 30 buses are considered as switchable VAr compensator buses. The system has about 12345.8 MW, 6410.0 MVAr peak load. For most of the contingencies it has been observed that the placement of UPFC on the line connected between the buses 39 and 86 gives better results as compared to other lines. Hence this line is selected for UPFC placement.

minimum voltage is 0.732 pu at bus number 55. The sum of squares of voltage stability L-indices L2 is 7.2002.The sum squared voltage deviations of all the load buses is 0.64807. Initially the proposed algorithm for reactive power optimization has been applied to improve the situation without using any UPFC. Then the results are obtained by placing the UPFC on the line connected between the buses 39 and 86. The step-size taken for both the regulating transformers and generators excitations is 0.0125 p.u. The VAr compensation at the selected places is initially assumed to be zero. After four iterations of the VAr optimization the voltages at all the buses have been brought within the satisfactory operable limits (0.95-1.05 p.u.). As indicated in Table II, after the optimization the minimum voltage has been improved to 0.978 with UPFC and to 0.959 without UPFC and the sum of square of voltage stability L-indices ZL2 is reduced to 4.4566 without UPFC where as this value is only 2.5376 with UPFC. The minimum singular value after optimization is 0.26788 and the sum squared voltage deviations of all the load buses is improved to 0.03488.The corresponding values are 0.28193 and 0.03408 with UPFC. All these results indicate that there is an improvement in voltage stability margin with the given optimization algorithm. The improvement is much better with the presence of UPFC. The transmission loss of the system also reduced from 491.96 MW (initial value) to 382.44 MW without UPFC and to 363.53 MW with UPFC as indicated in Table II. After optimization all the generators reactive power outputs Q are not brought within the limits, still some of the generators Q were exceeding maximum limits (generator 6, 12 and 17 as highlighted in Table III), if there is no FACTs device. Where as with the presence of UPFC the reactive power outputs of all the generators have been brought within their limits during optimization as indicated in Table III.
TABLE II SUMMARY OF RESULTS WITH THE OPTIMAL CONTROLLER SETTINGS

Fig. 4. AC/DC System of two-terminal DC and 96 AC buses.

A. Case 1: line outage between buses 27 and 28 With this contingency, for a peak load condition, the power flow results for this case show a low voltage profile in the system with the voltages of about 48 buses not being within acceptable limits (0.95-1.05 p.u.). There are 13 generators exceeding the maximum Q limits and no generator Q is exceeding the minimum limit. As indicated in Table II, the minimum singular value before optimization is 0.20491. The
DC SYSTEM DATA

Ploss inMW MSV

Y-L2
Vmm

Initial values 491.96 0.20491 7.2002 0.732 (at bus 55) 0.64807

Without UPFC 382.44 0.26788 4.4566

0.959 0.03488

With UPFC 363.56 0.28193 2.5376

0.978 0.03408

REACTIVE POWER OUTPUT OF SOME CRITICAL GENERATORS

TABLE III

Gen bus no.

TABLE I

6 9 10
Receiving end 216.0 460.0
0.1900 1.10. 0.90 0.0125 1500.0 0.00541

Tap min (pu) Tap step (pu) P specified in MW Commutating resistance (pu) Rdc line pu

Transformer secondary (kV) MVA rating XC in pu Tap max (pu)

Sending end
219.0 465.0 0.1900 1.10 0.90 0.0125 1540.0 0.00535 0.00137

16 17 18 19 95 96

11 12 13 15

Reactive power output QG max limit in mvar Initial values Without UPFC With UPFC 450.92 177.5 206.0 219.6 491.54 311.0 223.4 330.0 317.72 149.0 132.0 248.0

64.72 239.04 179.90 133.68 247.58 187.11 739.88 410.74 186.92 533.89

27.4 145.5 80.4 72.3 102.3 89.7 361.4 282.8 119.6 395.6

19.0 82.5 16.8 29.3 96.0 45.5 435.2 204.2 56.9 388.6

30.0 135.0 96.0 99.0 160.0 80.0 586.0 297.0 120.0 469.0

I.U;J

VIII. REFERENCES
[1]

0
2

:SAl
0.6F
Initial -|- without UPFC -O- with UPFC

[2] [3]

sU 85

[4]

0. 7
U.

30

40

50

70 G0 Bus number

80

90

[5] [6]

Fig. 5. Bus voltage profile before and after optimization with and without FACTs devices
0.a

0a7
0.6

andwithout UPFs
with

Initial

UFtc

[7]

[8]

Fudeh, H., and Ong, C.M., "A simple and efficient AC-DC load-flow method for multiterminal DC systems", IEEE Trans. Power Appar. Syst., 1982, 101, pp. 4381-4396 Arrillaga, J., and Smith, B. "AC-DC power system analysis" (IEEE, London, 1998) Thukaram D., Jenkins L. and Visakha K., "Optimum allocation of reactive power for voltage stability improvement in AC-DC power systems", IEE proceedings on Gener. Transm. Distrib. vol.153, no.2, March 2006, pp. 237-246. Thukaram D., Jenkins L. and Visakha K., "Improvement of system security with Unified Power Flow Controller at suitable locations under network contingencies of interconnected systems", IEE proceedings on Gener. Transm.Distrib., vo. 152, no.5, September 2005, pp. 682-690. Kessel, P., and Glavitsch, H., "Estimating the voltage stability and loadability of power systems", IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 1986, 1, (3), pp. 586-1599 Thukaram Dhadbanjan and G.Yesuratnam (2006) "Comparison of Optimum Reactive Power Schedule with Different Objectives Using LP Technique," International Joumrnal of Emerging Electric Power Systems: Vol.7:No.3, Article 2. P.A.Lof. G.Anderson. D.J. Hill., "Voltage stability indices for stressed power systems," IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 8 (1) (February 1993). Fuerte-Eaquivel, C.R.,and Acha. E, "Unified Power Flow Controller: a critical comparison of Newton-Raphson UPFC algorithms in power flow studies", IEE Proc.Gen. Trans.Distrib., 1997, 144, (5), pp.437-444.

IX. BIOGRAPHIES
014

L before Fi.6voltage stability indiexs rfl and after optimization withan adwithoutUFACTs devie shoni i.5 n i.6epciey

D Thukaram (SM, 90) received the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad in 1974, M.Tech degree in Integrated Power Systems from Nagpur University in 1976 and Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1986. Since 1976 he has been with Indian Institute of Science as a research fellow and faculty in various positions and currently he is Professor. His research interests include computer aided power system Analysis, reactive power optimization, voltage stability, distribution automation and Al applications in power systems.

In this case the DC terminal at bus 32 is considered as receiving end power control.
VII. CONCLUSIONS

An algorithm for optimum allocation of reactive power in AC/DC system using FACTs devices, with an objective of improving the voltage profile and also voltage stability of the system has been presented. The developed algorithm has been tested on typical sample systems and on a practical real-life equivalent system of a 96-bus AC and a two-terminal DC system with UPFC. The proposed algorithm is giving encouraging results for improving the operational conditions of the system under normal and network contingencies.

G. Yesuratnam received the B.Tech degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India in 1995. He received M.Tech degree in 1998 form National Institute of Technology, Warangal in the field of Power Systems. Currently he is working towards his Ph.D in V the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research interests include computer aided power system analysis, reactive power optimization, voltage stability and Al applications in power systems. C Vyjayanthi received the B.Tech degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India in 2001. She received M.E degree in 2005 form Anna University, Chennai in the field of Power Systems. Currently she is working towards her PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her research interests include computer aided power system analysis, deregulation, reactive power optimization, voltage stability.