UNIT-V

COMPUTER CONTROL OF POWER SYSTEM

ENERGY CONTROL CENTRE:

The energy control center (ECC) has traditionally been the decision-center for the
electric transmission and generation interconnected system. The ECC provides the
functions necessary for monitoring and coordinating the minute-by-minute physical
and economic operation of the power system. In the continental U.S., there are only
three interconnected regions: Eastern, Western, and Texas, but there are many
control areas, with each control area having its own ECC.

Maintaining integrity and economy of an inter-connected power system requires

significant coordinated decision-making. So one of the primary functions of the
ECC is to monitor and regulate the physical operation of the interconnected grid.

Most areas today have a two-level hierarchy of ECCs with the Independent System
Operator (ISO) performing the high-level decision-making and the transmission
owner ECC performing the lower- level decision-making.

A high-level view of the ECC is illustrated. Where we can identify the substation,
the remote terminal unit (RTU), a communication link, and the ECC which contains
the energy management system (EMS). The EMS provides the capability of
converting the data received from the substations to the types of screens observed.

In these notes we will introduce the basic components and functionalities of the
ECC. Note that there is no chapter in your text which provides this information.

Regional load control centre:

It decides generation allocation to various generating stations within the region on

the basics of equal incremental operating cost considering line losses are equal and
Frequency control in the region.

Plant load control room:

It decides the allocation of generation of various units in the plant on the basis of:

1. Equal incremented operating cost of various units

2. Minimize the reactive power flow through line so as to minimize line loss and
maintain voltage levels and Frequency control in the plant

ECC Components:

The system control function traditionally used in electric utility operation consists of
three main integrated subsystems: the energy management system (EMS), the
supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and the communications
interconnecting the EMS and the SCADA (which is often thought of as part of the

POWER SYSTEM OPERATION AND CONTROL 1|Page

 SCADA itself). Figure 3 provides a block diagram illustration of these three
integrated subsystems. The SCADA and communications subsystems are indicated
in

the dotted ovals at the top left hand corner of the figure. The res1of the figure
indicates the EMS. We will describe each one in the following subsections.

Fig.1:Block diagram of ECC

POWER SYSTEM OPERATION AND CONTROL 2|Page

 We distinguish EMS from distribution management systems (DMS). Both utilize
their own SCADA, but for different functions. Whereas EMS/SCADA serves the
high voltage bulk transmission system from the ECC, the DMS/SCADA serves the
low voltage, distribution system from a distribution dispatch center. We are
addressing in these notes the EMS/SCADA.

Operation of control centre:

• Monitoring

• Data acquisition and Remote control level control

1. Turbine – governor to adjust generation to balance changing

load-instantaneous control.
2. AGC (called load frequency control (LFC)) maintains frequency and net power
interchange.
3. Economic Dispatch Control (EDC) distributes the load among the units such
that fuel cost is minimum.
B. Primary Voltage control
1. Excitation control
2. Transmission voltage control, SVC, Shunt capacitors, transformer taps.

1. SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION (SCADA)

There are two parts to the term SCADA Supervisory control indicates that the
operator, residing in the energy control center (ECC), has the ability to control
remote equipment. Data acquisition indicates that information is gathered
characterizing the state of the remote equipment and sent to the ECC for monitoring
purposes.
The monitoring equipment is normally located in the substations and is consolidated
in what is known as the remote terminal unit (RTU). Generally, the RTUs are
equipped with microprocessors having memory and logic capability. Older RTUs are
equipped with modems to provide the communication link back to the ECC, whereas
newer RTUs generally have intranet or internet capability.
Relays located within the RTU, on command from the ECC, open or close selected
control circuits to perform a supervisory action. Such actions may include, for
example, opening or closing of a circuit breaker or switch, modifying a transformer
tap setting, raising or lowering generator MW output or terminal voltage, switching
in or out a shunt capacitor or inductor, and the starting or stopping of a synchronous
condenser.
Information gathered by the RTU and communicated to the ECC includes both
analog information and status indicators. Analog information includes, for example,
frequency, voltages, currents, and real and reactive power flows. Status indicators
include alarm signals (over-temperature, low relay battery voltage, illegal entry) and
whether switches and circuit breakers are open or closed. Such information is
POWER SYSTEM OPERATION AND CONTROL 3|Page
 provided to the ECC through a periodic scan of all RTUs. A 2 second scan cycle is
typical.

Functions of SCADA Systems

1. Data acquisition
2. Information display.
3. Supervisory Control (CBs: ON/OFF, Generator: stop/start, RAISE/LOWER
command)
4. Information storage and result display.
5. Sequence of events acquisition.
6. Remote terminal unit processing.
7. General maintenance.
8. Runtime status verification.
9. Economic modeling.
10. Remote start/stop.
11. Load matching based on economics.
12. Load shedding.

Control Functions:
1. Control and monitoring of switching devices, tapped transformers, auxiliary devices etc..
2. Bay-and a station-wide interlocking Automatic functions such as load shedding,
power restoration, and high speed bus bar transfer, Time synchronization by radio
clock satellite signal.
Monitoring Functions:
1. Measurement and displaying of current, voltage, frequency, active and reactive
power, energy, temperature, etc..
Alarm Functions:
1. Storage and evaluation of time stamped events.

Protection functions:

1. Substation protection functions includes the monitoring of events like start and trip.
2. Protection of bus bars. Line feeders, transformers, generators.
Communication technologies:
The form of communication required for SCADA is telemetry. Telemetry is the
measurement of a quantity in such a way so as to allow interpretation of that
measurement at a distance from the primary detector. The distinctive feature of
telemetry is the nature of the translating means, which includes provision for
converting the measure into a representative quantity of another kind that can be
transmitted conveniently for measurement at a distance. The actual distance is
irrelevant.

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 Telemetry may be analog or digital. In analog telemetry, a voltage, current, or
frequency proportional to the quantity being measured is developed and transmitted
on a communication channel to the receiving location, where the received signal is
applied to a meter calibrated to indicate the quantity being measured, or it is applied
directly to a control device such as a ECC computer.

Forms of analog telemetry include variable current, pulse-amplitude, pulse- length,

and pulse- rate, with the latter two being the most common. In digital telemetry, the
quantity being measured is converted to a code in which the sequence of pulses
transmitted indicates the quantity. One of the advantages to digital telemetering is
the fact that accuracy of data is not lost in transmitting the data from one location
to another. Digital telemetry requires analog to digital (A/D) and

possible digital to analog (D/A) converters, as illustrated in the earliest form of

signal circuit used for SCADA telemetry consisted of twisted pair wires; although
simple and economic for short distances, it suffers from reliability problems due to
breakage, water ingress, and ground potential risk during faults.
Improvements over twisted pair wires came in the form of what is now the most
common, traditional type of telemetry mediums based on leased-wire, power-line
carrier, or microwave. These are voice grade forms of telemetry, meaning they
represent communication channels suitable for the transmission of speech, either
digital or analog, generally with a frequency range of about 300 to 3000 Hz.
SCADA requires communication between Master control station and Remote
control station:

Fig.2:Communication between master and remote control station

POWER SYSTEM OPERATION AND CONTROL 5|Page

 Master and Remote station:

Leased-wire means use of a standard telephone circuit; this is a convenient and

straightforward means of telemetry when it is available, although it can be
unreliable, and it requires a continual outlay of leasing expenditures. In addition, it
is not under user control and requires careful coordination between the user and the
telephone company. Power-line carrier (PLC) offers an inexpensive and typically
more reliable alternative to leased-wire. Here, the transmission circuit itself is used
to modulate a communication signal at a frequency much greater than the 60 Hz
power frequency. Most PLC occurs at frequencies in the range of 30-500 kHz. The
security of PLC is very high since the communication equipment is located inside
the substations through open disconnects, i.e., when the transmission line is outaged.
Often, this is precisely the time when the communication signal is needed most. In
addition, PLC is susceptible to line noise and requires careful signal-to-noise ratio
analysis. Most PLC is strictly analog although digital PLC has become available
from a few suppliers during the last few years.
Microwave radio refers to ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio systems operating
above 1 GHz. The earliest microwave telemetry was strictly analog, but digital
microwave communication is now quite common for EMS/SCADA applications.
This form of communication has obvious advantages over PLC and leased wire
since it requires no physical conducting medium and therefore no right-of-way.
However, line of sight clearance is required in order to ensure reliable
communication, and therefore it is not applicable in some cases.
A more recent development has concerned the use of fiber optic cable, a
technology capable of extremely fast communication speeds. Although cost was
originally prohibitive, it has now decreased to the point where it is viable. Fiber
optics may be either run inside underground power cables or they may be fastened
to overhead transmission line towers just below the lines. They may also be run
within the shield wire suspended above the transmission lines.
One easily sees that communication engineering is very important to power system
control. Students specializing in power and energy systems should strongly
consider taking communications courses to have this background. Students
specializing in communication should consider taking power systems courses as an
application area.

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 ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS):
The EMS is a software system. Most utility companies purchase their EMS from
one or more EMS vendors. These EMS vendors are companies specializing in
design, development, installation, and maintenance of EMS within ECCs. There are
a number of EMS vendors in the U.S., and they hire many power system engineers
with good software development capabilities during the time period of the 1970s
through about 2000, almost all EMS software applications.

An attractive alternative today is, however, the application service provider, where
the software resides on the vendor‟s computer and control center personnel access
it from the Internet. Benefits from this arrangement include application flexibility
and reliability in the software system and reduced installation cost.

One can observe from Figure 3 that the EMS consists of 4 major functions: network
model building (including topology processing and state estimation), security
assessment, automatic generation control, and dispatch. These functions are
described in more detail in the following subsections.

Energy management is the process of monitoring, coordinating, and controlling the

generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy. The physical plant to
be managed includes generating plants that produce energy fed

through transformers to the high-voltage transmission network (grid),

interconnecting generating plants, and load centers. Transmission lines terminate at
substations that perform switching, voltage transformation, measurement, and
control. Substations at load centers transform to sub transmission and distribution
levels. These lower-voltage circuits typically operate radially, i.e., no normally
closed paths between substations through sub transmission or distribution
circuits.(Underground cable networks in large cities are an exception.)

Since transmission systems provide negligible energy storage, supply and demand
must be balanced by either generation or load. Production is controlled by turbine
governors at generating plants, and automatic generation control is performed by
control center computers remote from generating plants. Load management,
sometimes called demand- Side management, extends remote supervision and
control to sub-transmission and distribution circuits, including control of
residential, commercial, and industrial loads.

Functionality Power EMS:

1. System Load Forecasting-Hourly energy, 1 to 7 days.

2. Unit commitment-1 to 7days.
3. Economic dispatch.
4. Hydro-thermal scheduling- up to 7 days.
5. MW interchange evaluation- with neighboring system.
6. Transmission loss minimization.
7. Security constrained dispatch.

POWER SYSTEM OPERATION AND CONTROL 7|Page

 8. Maintenance scheduling Production cost calculation.

Power System Data Acquisition and Control

A SCADA system consists of a master station that communicates with remote

terminal units (RTUs) for the purpose of allowing operators to observe and control
physical plants. Generating plants and transmission substations certainly justify
RTUs, and their installation is becoming more common in distribution substations as
costs decrease. RTUs transmit device status and measurements to, and receive
control commands and setpoint data from, the master station. Communication is
generally via dedicated circuits operating in the range of 600 to 4800 bits/s with the
RTU responding to periodic requests initiated from the master station (polling) every
2 to 10 s, depending on the criticality of the data.

The traditional functions of SCADA systems are summarized:

• Data acquisition: Provides telemetered measurements and status information to operator.

• Supervisory control: Allows operator to remotely control devices, e.g.,
open and close circuit breakers. A “select before operate” procedure is
used for greater safety.
• Tagging: Identifies a device as subject to specific operating restrictions
and prevents unauthorized operation.
• Alarms: Inform operator of unplanned events and undesirable operating conditions.
Alarms

are sorted by criticality, area of responsibility, and chronology. Acknowledgment may be

required
• Logging: Logs all operator entry, all alarms, and selected information.
• Load shed: Provides both automatic and operator-initiated tripping of load in
response to system emergencies.
• Trending: Plots measurements on selected time scales.

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 Fig.3.Layers of EMS
Layers of a modern
EMS:
Since the master station is critical to power system operations, its functions are
generally distributed among several computer systems depending on specific
design. A dual computer system configured in primary and standby modes is most
common. SCADA functions are listed below without stating which computer has
specific responsibility.
• Manage communication circuit configuration
• Downline load RTU files
• Maintain scan tables and perform polling
• Check and correct message errors
• Convert to engineering units
• Detect status and measurement changes
• Monitor abnormal and out-of-limit conditions
• Log and time-tag sequence of events

• Detect and annunciate alarms

• Respond to operator requests to:
– Display information

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 – Enter data
– Execute control action
– Acknowledge alarms Transmit control action to RTUs
• Inhibit unauthorized actions
• Maintain historical files
• Log events and prepare reports
• Perform load shedding

Automatic Generation Control:

Automatic generation control (AGC) consists of two major and several
minorfunctions that operate online in real time to adjust the generation against load
at minimum cost. The major functions are load frequency control and economic
dispatch, each of which is described below. The minor functions are reserve
monitoring, which assures enough reserve on the system; interchange scheduling,
which initiates and completes scheduled interchanges; and other similar monitoring
and recording functions.
Load Frequency Control:
Load frequency control (LFC) has to achieve three primary objectives, which are
stated below in priority order:
1. To maintain frequency at the scheduled value
2. To maintain net power interchanges with neighboring control areas at
the scheduled values
3. To maintain power allocation among units at economically desired values.

The first and second objectives are met by monitoring an error signal, called area
control error (ACE), which is a combination of net interchange error andfrequency
error and represents the power imbalance between generation and load at any
instant. This ACE must be filtered or smoothed such that excessive and random
changes in ACE are not translated into control action. Since these excessive changes
are different for different systems, the filter parameters have to be tuned specifically
for each control area.
The filtered ACE is then used to obtain the proportional plus integral control signal.
This control signal is modified by limiters, dead bands, and gain constants that are
tuned to the particular system. This control signal is then divided among the
generating units under control by using participation factors to obtain unit control
errors (UCE).
These participation factors may be proportional to the inverse of the second
derivative of the cost of unit generation so that the units would be loaded according to
their costs, thus meeting the third objective. However, cost may not be the only
consideration because the different units may have different response rates and it may
be necessary to move the faster generators more to obtain an acceptable response.
The UCEs are then sent to the various units under control and the generating units
monitored to see that the corrections take place. This control action is repeated every
2 to 6 s. In spite of the integral control, errors in frequency and net interchange do
tend to accumulate over time. These time errors and accumulated interchange errors
have to be corrected by adjusting the controller settings according to procedures
agreed upon by the whole interconnection. These
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 accumulated errors as well as ACE serve as performance measures for LFC.
The main philosophy in the design of LFC is that each system should follow its own
load very closely during normal operation, while during emergencies; each system
should contribute according to its relative size in the interconnection without regard
to the locality of the emergency. Thus, the most important factor in obtaining good
control of a system is its inherent capability of following its own load. This is
guaranteed if the system has adequate regulation margin as well as adequate response
capability. Systems that have mainly thermal generation often have difficulty in
keeping up with the load because of the slow response of the units.

SECURITY ANALYSIS & CONTROL:

Security monitoring is the on line identification of the actual operating conditions
of a power system. It requires system wide instrumentation to gather the system data
as well as a means for the on line determination of network topology involving an
open or closed position of circuit breakers. A state estimation has been developed to
get the best estimate of the status and the state estimation provides the database for
security analysis shown .
 Data acquisition:
1. To process from RTU
2. To check status values against normal value
3. To send alarm conditions to alarm processor
4. To check analog measurements against limits.
 Alarm processor:
1. To send alarm messages
2. To transmit messages according to priority
 Status processor:
1. To determine status of each substation for proper connection.
 Reserve monitor:
1. To check generator MW output on all units against unit limits
 State estimator:
1. To determine system state variables
2. To detect the presence of bad measures values.
3. To identify the location of bad measurements
4. To initialize the network model for other programs

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 Fig.4: Practical Security Monitoring System
System
Security:
1. System monitoring.
2. Contingency analysis.
3. Security constrained optimal power flow
Security Assessment:
Security assessment determines first, whether the system is currently residing in an
acceptable state and second, whether the system would respond in an acceptable
manner and reach an acceptable state following any one of a pre-defined
contingency set. 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 under voltage condition. These are called static
security problems.

Dynamic security problems may also occur, including uncontrollable voltage

decline, generator over speed (loss of synchronism), or undamped oscillatory
behavior.

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 Security Control:
Power systems are designed to survive all probable contingencies. A contingency is defined as
an event that causes one or more important components such as transmission lines, generators,
and transformers to be unexpectedly removed from service. Survival means the system stabilizes
and continues to operate at acceptable voltage and frequency levels without loss of load.
Operations must deal with a vast number of possible conditions experienced by the system, many
of which are not anticipated in planning. Instead of dealing with the impossible task of analyzing
all possible system states, security control starts with a specific state: the current state if
executing the real-time network sequence; a postulated state if executing a study sequence.
Sequence means sequential execution of programs that perform the following steps:
1. Determine the state of the system based on either current or postulated conditions.
2. Process a list of contingencies to determine the consequences of each contingency on the
system in its specified state.
3. Determine preventive or corrective action for those contingencies which represent
unacceptable risk.
Security control requires topological processing to build network models and uses large-scale AC
network analysis to determine system conditions. The required applications are grouped as a
network subsystem that typically includes the following functions:
• Topology processor: Processes real-time status measurements to determine an electrical
connectivity (bus) model of the power system network.
• State estimator: Uses real-time status and analog measurements to determine the„„best‟‟

estimate of the state of the power system. It uses a redundant set of measurements; calculates
voltages, phase angles, and power flows for all components in the system; and reports overload
conditions.
• Power flow: Determines the steady-state conditions of the power system network fora specified
generation and load pattern. Calculates voltages, phase angles, and flows across the entire
system.
• Contingency analysis: Assesses the impact of a set of contingencies on the state ofthe power
system and identifies potentially harmful contingencies that cause operating limit violations.
• Optimal power flow: Recommends controller actions to optimize a specified objective function
(such as system operating cost or losses) subject to a set of power system operating constraints.
• Security enhancement: Recommends corrective control actions to be taken to alleviate an
existing or potential overload in the system while ensuring minimal operational cost.
• Preventive action: Recommends control actions to be taken in a “preventive” mode before a
contingency occurs to preclude an overload situation if the contingency were to occur.

• Bus load forecasting: Uses real-time measurements to adaptively forecast loads for the

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 electrical connectivity (bus) model of the power system network.
• Transmission loss factors: Determines incremental loss sensitivities for generating units;
calculates the impact on losses if the output of a unit were to be increased by 1 MW.

• Short-circuit analysis: Determines fault currents for single-phase and three-phase faults for fault
locations across the entire power system network.

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 Fig.5:Real time network analysis sequence

VARIOUS OPERATING STATES:

Fig.6:Various operating states

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 Operating states are:

1. Normal state

2. Alert state

3. Emergency state

4. Extremis state

5. Restorative state

 Normal state:
A system is said to be in normal if both load and operating constraints are satisfied
.It is one in which the total demand on the system is met by satisfying all the
operating constraints.
 Alert state:

A normal state of the system said to be in alert state if one or more of the postulated contingency
states, consists of the constraint limits violated. When the system security level falls below a
certain level or the probability of disturbance increases, the system may be in alert state .All
equalities and inequalities are satisfied, but on the event of a disturbance, the system may not
have all the inequality constraints satisfied. If severe disturbance occurs, the system will push
into emergency state. To bring back the system to secure state, preventive control action is
carried out.

 Emergency state:

The system is said to be in emergency state if one or more operating constraints are violated, but
the load constraint is satisfied .In this state, the equality constraints are unchanged. The system
will return to the normal or alert state by means of corrective actions, disconnection of faulted
section or load sharing.

 Extremis state:

When the system is in emergency, if no proper corrective action is taken in time, then it goes to
either emergency state or extremis state. In this regard neither the load or nor the operating
constraint is satisfied, this result is islanding. Also the generating units are strained beyond their
capacity .So emergency control action is done to bring back the system state either to the
emergency state or normal state.

 Restorative state:

From this state, the system may be brought back either to alert state or secure state .The latter is a
slow process. Hence, in certain cases, first the system is brought back to alert state and then to
the secure state .This is done using restorative control action.

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