Transmission Line Power Transfer Capability Improvement, Case Study

A. Abu-Siada *. Chatura Karunar**

*Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Curtin University, WA6102

Australia (Tel: 61-8-92667287; e-mail: [email protected] ).
**Western Power, WA (e-mail:
[email protected])

Abstract: This paper investigates different approaches to improve the power transfer capability (PTC) of
transmission lines. Study was performed on the Eastern Gold Fields (EGF) area of the Western Power
network in Western Australia where power transfer to this area is currently enhanced using four saturable
reactor types static var Compensators (SR SVCs) installed in this region. These SR SVCs have reached to
the end of operational life and they are scheduled for replacement by different dynamic reactive power
devices such as Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOMs) or Thyristor Controlled SVCs
(TSVCs). Another proposed option to enhance the PTC to this area is by upgrading the 220 kV
transmission line to 275 kV transmission line and / or using series capacitor compensation. This paper
introduces technical and economical study for the aforementioned options and suggests a reliable and
cost effective approach to improve the PTC to EGF area.
Keywords: Transmission Lines, Power transfer, STATCOM, SVC.

The line upgrading techniques will also improve the power

1. INTRODUCTION
transfer capability through the upgraded transmission line
Due to the significant power demand increase, the however; this is a very expensive option especially for long
transmission line operators are required to increase transmission line (Daconti(2003)). Static Synchronous
transmission line power transfer capability. In this context, Compensator (STATCOM) is one of the promising
they have various options such as building an additional technologies applied to improve power system performance.
parallel transmission line which is not a cost effective option The advantages of STATCOM include fast response time,
especially for long transmission lines, using a series-capacitor better voltage support capability and reactive power support
transmission lines which is a very cost effective option when at low voltage levels. Moreover, it does not require thyristor-
compared with the former one however, series-capacitor controlled reactors (TCR) or thyrisor-switched capacitors
transmission lines may lead to sub-synchronous resonance (TCS) and does not produce low harmonic order distortions
(SSR) problem or by using a dynamic reactive device. These (Abdou(2011), Shiddiq(2011)). STATCOM mainly consists
options are briefly elaborated below. of a pulse width modulation (PWM) voltage source converter
It is well known that series-capacitor compensation can (VSC) with a capacitor in the DC side, coupling transformer
benefit a power system in several ways such as improving and control system as shown in Fig. 1.
transient stability, increasing power transfer capability,
eliminating the need for more parallel and uneconomical
transmission lines (Abu-Siada(2010a) and Ghorbani(2011)).
However, a capacitor compensated transmission line, is not
without problems as when the degree of series capacitor
compensation is increased, resonance of the generator,
transformer, transmission line and capacitor may develop,
usually at subsynchronous frequency (Andersson(2005)). If a
resonant frequency of the transmission system is
complementary to any one of the torsional oscillating
frequencies of the turbine generator mass-spring system, they
will be mutually excited and the SSR will develop causing Fig. 1. STATCOM Configuration.
serious shaft and other damage to the turbine-generator set The interaction between the grid voltage and the voltage at
(Hold (1976)). In addition to restoring the load, On Load the STATCOM ac side provides the control of reactive power
Tap Changer (OLTC) also extends the power transfer ability flow. The control system enables adapted regulation of bus
to the load center. However the OLTC only provides a little voltage and the DC voltage levels and hence controlling the
benefit to the transient voltage recovery and synchronous reactive power flow according to the system requirements.
stability of the system (Abu-Siada(2010b), Daconti(2003)). The VSC consists of 12 pulse IGBT converter station to
minimize the harmonics generated from switching operation.
The basic principle of STATCOM operation is illustrated in values to create error signals (∆Id, ∆Iq and ∆VAC) which are
Fig. 2. If the voltage at the STATCOM terminals is higher fed to PID/PI controller to create Modulation Index (MI) and
than the grid voltage (Fig. 2 (a)), reactive power will be phase angle (Phi) required for the voltage source converter
injected from STATCOM to the grid and STATCOM will (VSC) switching operation.
behave as a capacitor. When the voltage at the STATCOM is The SVC is basically representing a shunt connected static
less than the grid voltage (Fig. 2 (b)), STATCOM will var generator/absorber whose output is adjusted to exchange
behave as an inductor and reactive power flow will be capacitive or inductive current with the power system to
reversed. Under normal operating conditions, both voltages maintain or control specific parameters of the electrical
will be equal and there will be no power exchange between power system, typically bus voltage. It is used extensively to
the STATCOM and the grid. provide fast reactive power and voltage regulation support.
The firing angle control of the thyristor enables the SVC to
have almost instantaneous speed of response
(Hosseini(2001)). There are two types of the SVC namely,
fixed Capacitor-Thyristor Controlled Reactor (FC-TCR) and
Thyristor Switched Capacitor-Thyristor Controlled Reactor
(TSC-TCR) which is more flexible than FC-TCR and it uses
smaller rating of reactors and consequently it generates fewer
(a) harmonic. Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram for a TSC-TCR
SVC that is consisting of two Thyrisors Switched Capacitors
(TSC) and one Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR).

(b)

Fig. 2. STATCOM principle of operation.

The reactive output power of the compensator is varied to

control the voltage at the point of connection to be within the
permissible voltage limits. The STATCOM can provide
reactive power modulation instantly via controlling the
inverter firing angle α and hence improving system transient Fig. 4. TSC-TCR SVC structure.
stability. The detailed control system of the STATCOM is ω ref

shown in Fig. 3 (Giroux(2001)). ∆ωgen

ωgen

Fig. 5. Proposed control system scheme.

The control scheme for TSC-TCR SVC is shown in Fig. 5.

The voltage deviation at the machine terminals
V1 and the
generator shaft speed deviation
 are used as input
signals to the proposed controller. The controller provides
three outputs; capacitor bank switching signal that determines
the number of capacitor banks needed to be on, thyristor
firing angle  that is required to control the TCR and the
TCR susceptance B(). As shown in Fig. 5, the voltage and
Fig. 3. Control system of STATCOM. speed deviations are used as input signal to the PI controller
In this system, the DC Voltage across the capacitor, the grid that is used to generate an SVC susceptance reference value
three-phase currents and three-phase voltages at a particular Bsvc which is used as an input to a non-linear susceptance
bus are sensed and converted to the d-q reference frame to characteristic for TSC and TCR along with the number of
create Id, Iq, Vd and Vq. These parameters in d-q reference TSC in use NCAPS to generate the TCR susceptance B() and
frame are then compared with the corresponding nominal
the non-linear TCR suceptance BTCR which are used to create WKT bus bars. The 3-phase short circuit fault is applied at
the on/off signal and the thyristor firing angle . the middle of the transmission line connecting Yilgarn (YLN)
The power transfer to the Eastern Gold Fields (EGF) area and WKT bus bars at t = 0.25 s and is assumed to last for 5
(Fig. 6) of the Western Power network (WP) in Western cycles.
Australia is limited due to synchronous and voltage stability
issues in this area. Power transfer to this area was improved
by installing four Saturable Reactor (SR) type Static Var
Compensators (SVC) (Western Power(2008)). Two of them
were installed at West Kalgoorlie Terminal (WKT) in the
year 1985 and the other two were installed at Meredin
Terminal (MRT) during the years 1985 and 1990.

Fig. 7. Rotor angle changes of EGF and other generators.

Fig. 7 shows that for such a fault, the two generators become
out of synchronism. For the same 3-phase short circuit fault,
the voltage profile at the WKT bus bar was observed as
shown in Fig. 8 from which one can observe that the voltage
at the WKT 220 kV bus cannot be recovered after fault
clearance.
Fig. 6. Single Line Diagram of the EGF Network.

Under contingency conditions, these SR SVCs help to

maintain the system voltage within acceptable margin and
consequently maintains the system dynamic stability. These
SR SVCs were manufactured based on an old technology and
they are considered to be obsolete nowadays. Moreover, the
production cost of these SR SVCs is very high as it
comprises heavy materials. The majority of loads in this area
include mining and other industrial loads that are working on
full capacity over the entire period of the year. With the
increase in the load growth in the region, the western power
network is not in a position to accommodate the additional
loads due to the power transfer limitation of the existing
transmission line. Meanwhile, operating regional generators Fig. 8. Voltage profile at WKT 220 kV bus bar.
are not economical as these generators are fossil fuel based
that incur a very high operational cost. To increase the Voltage stability creates a serious problem in the ability of a
transmission lines power transfer capability to this area, some transmission line to transfer maximum power, particularly
options were suggested by the transmission line operator with high VAR demand. It is essential to improve the voltage
(TLO). These options include, upgrading the transmission stability under contingency and normal operating conditions.
line and / or using capacitor series compensation, replacing Dynamic reactive devices such as STATCOM and TSVC can
the currently installed SR SVCs by either Static Synchronous improve the voltage stability of the network and enhance the
Compensators (STATCOMs) or Thyristor Controlled SVCs power transfer capability of the transmission line.
(TSVCs) (Western Power(2007)).
This paper investigates the technical and economic feasibility
of these options to help the TLO in selecting the most
suitable solution to this issue. Simulation studies were carried
out using Power System Simulation Engineering (PSS/e)
software package (Western Power(2008)).

2. PROBLEM AND PROPOSED SOLUTION

Rotor angle stability refers to the ability of synchronous Fig. 9. Proposed locations for the new reactive compensation
machines in an interconnected network to be remained in devices.
synchronism after being subjected to a disturbance. The rotor
angle transient stability criterion for WP is defined in the The above discussion shows that there is an essential need to
WP’s Technical Rules. Fig. 7 shows the rotor angle increase the power transfer capability to the EGF area
behaviour of two generators at Eastern Goldfields (IPP meanwhile, improving the dynamic performance of the
generators) and Collie Power Station (CPS) after a 3 phase overall EGF network. The considered proposed options are:
short circuit at the 220 kV line connecting Muja (MU) and
Option 1: Replacing each of the SR SVCs at MRT and WKT capability is achieved when the SR SVCs are replaced with
(as shown in Fig. 9) with a SVC connected to the tertiary STATCOMs. However the performance of TSVCs is better
winding of the existing 220/132/29.5 kV transformers at than that of the STATCOMs after 120 MW power transfer to
MRT and WKT. WKT.
Option 2: Replacing each of the SR SVCs at MRT and WKT
with a STATCOM connected to the tertiary winding of the
existing 220/132/29.5 kV transformers at MRT and WKT.
Option 3: Upgrading the 650 km, 220 kV transmission line
between MU and WKT to 275 kV line and / or using series
capacitor compensation.
3. SIMULATION RESULTS
STATCOMs and SVCs are used to improve the overall
system performance during steady state and transient
conditions. Fig. 10 shows the size of the reactive power
compensation required for different power transfer levels to
WKT and MRT. For 145 MW power transfer level, the Fig. 12. TL Power transfer capability for different options.
reactive power compensation required is 45 MVar for WKT
and 23 MVar for MRT. For low WKT import levels, both IPP can produce the
maximum export to the network. With the increase of the
transfer level to WKT, the power transfer from the IPP
generators will be reduced due to the transmission line power
transfer capability. A 3-phase short circuit fault within the
IPP network will island the IPP network, as a result of that
WP supply will be increased via the 220 kV line to cover the
load demand at ECF region. Therefore the pre-contingency
transfer via the 220 kV line should be limited to ensure that
the system is stable under contingency conditions.
A 3-phase short circuit fault at the middle of the transmission
Fig. 10. Reactive device size against power transfer level. line connecting Yilgarn (YLN) and WKT bus bars was
applied at t = 0.2 s and is assumed to be cleared after 5
To optimise the size of the reactive power compensator, the cycles. Fig. 13 shows the voltage profile at WKT generator
existing 5 MVar capacitor bank that is installed at EGF area terminal during the fault for the three different proposed
can be used for the steady state conditions while the proposed options at the same power transfer level. As shown in the Fig.
STATCOMs or SVCs can support the capacitor banks during 13, the STATCOM provides the fastest voltage recovery
transient conditions. The size of the proposed reactive power among the other options considered in this study.
device could be reduced to 40 MVar rather than 45 MVar as
shown in Fig. 11which is drawn according to the daily load
profile in the EGF area.

Fig. 13. Voltage profile at WKT 220 kV bus-bar during a 3-

phase fault.
Fig. 11. Reactive power Static and Dynamic ranges.
Nowadays, STATCOMs are available in 4 Mvar size blocks,
The TL power transfer capability was evaluated for the which makes it flexible for future expansion. Moreover, the
aforementioned options and the exported power from the dynamic over loading capability is another feature that
Independent Power Producer (IPP) to WKT was plotted as enhances the STATCOMs performance during transient
shown in Fig. 12 which shows that the highest transfer
events. Fig. 14 shows the power transfer to WKT with the considered include the use of TSVC, use of STATCOM,
connection of STATCOM only, with the connection of using series capacitor compensation and upgrading the
STATCOM and in the same time upgrading the 220 kV transmission line. Results show that both STATCOM and
transmission line connecting WKT and MU to 275 kV and TSVC can increase the transmission line power transfer
when the existing 220 kV transmission line is compensated capability. However, STATCOM has better dynamic
using a series capacitor in addition to the connection of performance and can help in recovering system voltage faster
STATCOM. It can be shown from Fig. 14 that, upgrading the than TSVC. This helps to shift the boundary points of the
line with STATCOM will extend the maximum power stability limits, as a result of that power transfer capability
transfer to WKT to 190 MW while series capacitor can be improved. Upgrading the existing line is not a cost
transmission line with STATCOM has better performance effective solution. Although the cost of TSVCs is less than
than the connection of STATCOM only after 120 MW power STATCOMs, STATCOMs option, however, remains
transfer to WKT. preferable option due to its better dynamic performance
during disturbance events.
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5. CONCLUSIONS
This paper investigates various options to increase the power
transfer to the EFG network in Western Australia. Options