UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

Institute of Technology
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Computer Aided Power System Analysis(CAPA)
Chapter 4 Power System Stability(Transient Stability)

By Dawit Adane
Introduction
• Power system stability refers to that property of the power system which enables the system
to maintain an equilibrium operating point under normal conditions and to attain a state of
equilibrium after being subjected to a disturbance. It is generally implied by the ability of
the synchronous generators to remain in ’synchronism’ or ’in step’. On the other hand, if the
synchronous generators loose synchronism after a disturbance, then the system is called
unstable.
In normal equilibrium condition,
 All the synchronous generators run at a constant speed ratio.
 The rotor angles difference between any two generators is constant.
• Under any disturbance, the speed of the machines will deviate from the steady state values
due to mismatch between mechanical and electrical powers (torque) and therefore, the
difference of the rotor angles would also change. If these rotor angle differences (between
any pair of generators) attain steady state values (not necessarily the same as in the pre-
disturbance condition) after some finite time, then the synchronous generators are said to be
in ‘synchronism’. On the other hand, if the rotor angle differences keep on increasing
indefinitely, then the machines are considered to have lost ‘synchronism’ and then the output
power, voltage etc. of the generator continuously drift away from the corresponding pre-
disturbance values.
• The phenomenon of instability related with the instability of the rotor angles is termed
as ‘Rotor Angle Instability’. Depending on the severity of the disturbance, the rotor
angle instability can be classified into two categories:
A. Small Signal Instability:
• Small disturbances always take place in the system, due to random variations of the
loads and the generation, resulting the change in the electrical torque of a synchronous
generator which can be resolved into two components, namely: a) Synchronizing
Torque (Ts) - which is proportional to the change in the rotor angle and b) Damping
Torque (Td), which is proportional to the change in the speed of the machine.
 When there is insufficient amount of synchronizing torque, the rotor angle increases
steadily. On the other hand, for inadequate amount of damping torque, the rotor angle
undergoes oscillations with increasing amplitude as shown in figure below.
 Manifestation of the small signal instability:
 Local mode
 Inter-area mode
 Control mode
 Torsional mode
Figure: Influence of synchronous and damping torque
B. Transient Instability:
 The disturbance on the system is quite severe and sudden
 The machine is unable to maintain synchronism
 There is a large excursion of the rotor angle (even if the generator is transiently stable).
Case 1: under the influence of the fault, the generator rotor angle increases to a maximum,
subsequently decreases and settles to a steady state value following oscillations with
decreasing magnitude.
Case 2: the rotor angle decreases after attaining a maximum value. However,
subsequently, it undergoes oscillations with increasing amplitude due to lack of sufficient
damping torque in the post fault system condition.
Case 3: the rotor angle monotonically keeps on increasing due to insufficient
synchronizing torque till the protective relay trips it. → ‘first swing instability’.
• Instability can also occur even when the synchronous generators are maintaining
synchronism. For example, when a synchronous generator is supplying power to an
induction motor load over a transmission line, the voltage at the load terminal can
progressively reduce under some conditions of real and reactive power drawn by the
load. In this case, the challenge is to maintain a stable voltage. This type of instability
is termed as voltage instability or voltage collapse.
Figure: Illustration of various stability phenomenon
 Equation of Motion (Dynamics) of a Synchronous Machine
• When there is an unbalance between the torques acting on the rotor, the net torque
causing acceleration (or deceleration) is

Where,
Ta = The net accelerating torque in N.m
Tm = The mechanical or shaft torque supplied by the prime mover less retarding
torque due to rotational losses, in N.m
Te = The net electromagnetic torque, in N.m
Tm and Te are positive for a generator and negative for a motor.
• The combined inertia of the generator and prime mover is accelerated by accelerating
torque. Therefore, the accelerating torque is the product of inertia and its angular
acceleration. Hence, the equation of motion is
Where,
J = The total moment of inertia of the rotor masses in Kg.m2.
ωm = The angular velocity of the rotor, in mech. rad/s
θm = The angular displacement of the rotor with respect to a stationary axis, in
mechanical radians
t = Time in seconds
• Under steady state operation of the generator, Tm and Te are equal and therefore, Ta is
zero. Therefore, there is no acceleration or deceleration of the rotor masses and the
generator runs at constant synchronous speed.
• θm is continuously increases with time even with constant synchronous speed since it is
an absolute measure of the rotor angle. To measure the rotor angular position with
respect to a synchronously rotating reference axis, let us define it as:

• Where, ωsm is the synchronous speed of the machine in mechanical radian/sec. and δ m
(in mechanical radian) is the angular displacement of the rotor from the synchronously
rotating reference axis. Then,
 represents the deviation of the actual rotor speed from the synchronous speed in
mechanical radian per second.
By substituting the above equation, one gets;

By multiplying ωm to both sides of the above equation, we get;

Or,

Where, Pa, Pe and Pm denote the accelerating power, electrical output power and the input
mechanical power (less than the rotational power loss) respectively.
The quantity Jωm is the angular momentum of the rotor and at synchronous speed, ω sm, it is
known as the inertia constant and is denoted by M. Strictly, the quantity Jω m is not
constant at all operating conditions since ωm keeps on varying. However, when the
machine is stable, ωm does not differ significantly from ωsm and hence, Jωm can be taken
approximately equal to M. Hence,

Now, in machine data, another constant related to inertia, namely H-constant is often
encountered. This is defined as;

Or,

The quantity Smc is the three phase MVA rating of the synchronous machine. Hence,

Note: M varies widely with the size and type of the machine, whereas H assumes a much narrower range of values.
By substituting for M, we get;

Both δm and ωsm are in mechanical units. the corresponding quantities in electrical units are
given as,

P is the number of pole in the generator, ωs is the synchronous speed of the machine in
electrical radian/sec. and δ (in electrical radian) is the angular displacement of the rotor
from the synchronously rotating reference axis.
By substituting for the above relations, we obtain;

If damping is considered (which opposes the motion of the machine), a term proportional
to the deviation of the speed (from the synchronous speed) is introduced in the above
equation as follow:
The above equation is known as the swing equation of the synchronous machine where
Kd is the damping factor or coefficient. As this is a second order differential equation, it
can be written as a set of two first order differential equations as below.
 Transient Stability Analysis
To facilitate computation, the following fundamental assumptions are made in all stability studies:

8. Only synchronous frequency currents and voltages are considered in the stator windings and the power
system. Consequently, dc offset currents and harmonic components are neglected.
9. Symmetrical components are used in the representation of unbalanced faults.
10. Generated voltage is considered unaffected by machine speed variations.
 The Power-Angle Equation
• Since Pm is constant, the electrical power output Pe will determine whether the rotor
accelerates, decelerates, or remains at synchronous speed. When P e equals Pm, the
machine operates at steady state synchronous speed; when P e changes from this value,
the rotor deviates from synchronous speed. Changes in P e are determined by conditions
on the transmission and distribution networks and the loads on the system to which the
generator supplies power. Electrical network disturbances resulting from severe load
changes, network faults, or circuit-breaker operations may cause the generator output
Pe to change rapidly, in which case electromechanical transients exist.
• Consider the system shown in Figure below, consisting of a generator delivering power
to a large system represented by an infinite bus through two transmission circuit. An
infinite bus represents a voltage Source of constant voltage magnitude and constant
frequency.
• Each synchronous machine is represented for transient stability studies by its transient
internal voltage E in series with the transient reactance X ’d, in which Vt is the terminal
voltage.
Single-machine infinite bus system

Schematic diagram for stability studies.

Transient reactance’s associated with E1 and
E2 are included in the transmission network

The bus admittance matrix for the two bus system is:

Complex power injected by bus i in n-bus system is given by;

At bus 1,

If we define
and
and
Therefore,

If we let

and define a new angle γ such that

we obtain,
Then, the first of the above equations can be written as:

Where,
Pe = P1 = the electric power output of the generator (armature loss neglected)
Pc =
Pmax = = the maximum power transfer b/n bus 1 and 2
X12 = the transfer reactance between node 1 and 2
The above equation is called the power-angle equation; its graph as a function of δ is
called the power-angle curve.
For purely reactive network (lossless network), all the elements of Y BUS are susceptances,
and then Gii and γ are both zero, the resulting simplified power-angle curve is:
The graphical plot of the power angle equation is shown in figure below.
 Node Elimination Technique
In stability studies, the buses to be considered are those which are excited by the internal
machine voltages (transient emf’s) and not the load buses which are excited by the
terminal voltages of the generators. Therefore, in YBUS formation for the stability study, the
load buses must be eliminated. Three methods are available for bus elimination.
Let us see a simple system whose reactance diagram is shown in figure below.

Figure: A simple power system with its reactance diagram

Consider now a 3-phase fault occurs at the midpoint of one of the lines in which case the
reactance diagram becomes that of the figure below.

Star-Delta Conversion
Converting the star at bus 3 to delta, the network transforms to that of the figure below,
wherein
Thevenin’s Equivalent
The Thevenin’s equivalent for the network portion to the left of terminals a b as depicted
in figure below wherein bus 1 has been modified to 1’.

Now,

Node Reduction Method

Figure of the simple power system is redrawn in figure below so as to formulate the bus
admittance matrix for the 3-bus system.
The node equation for a 3-bus system to eliminate bus 3

Since no source connected at the bus 3, I3 = 0,

Or,

Substituting this value of V3 in the remaining two equations of the above node equation,
thereby eliminating V3,

In compact form
Where,

In general, in eliminating node n

Applying the above equation in this case results;

It then follows that

Example: The generator of the above figure is delivering 1.0 pu power to the infinite bus
(|V| = 1.0 pu), with the generator terminal voltage of |V t| = 1.0 pu. Calculate the generator
emf behind transient reactance. Find the maximum power that can be transferred under the
following conditions:
A. System healthy
B. 3-phase short circuit fault in the middle of one line
C. If a line is open due to circuit breaker operation
Plot all the three power angle curves.
Solution
Figure: Power angle curves for all conditions
 Equal Area Criteria
The dynamics of a single synchronous machine connected to infinite bus bars is governed
by the nonlinear differential equation known as swing equation.

Where, and
Or,

No closed form solution exists for swing equation. The practical approach to the transient
stability problem is therefore to list all important severe disturbances along with their
possible locations to which the system is likely to be subjected according to the experience
and judgement of the power system analysis. Numerical solution of the swing equation (or
equations for a multi-machine case) is then obtained in the presence of such disturbances
giving a plot of δ vs. t called the swing curve.
• If δ starts to decrease after reaching a maximum value, it is normally assumed that the
system is stable and the oscillation of δ around the equilibrium point will decay and
finally die out due to system damping terms (not included in the swing equation). If
the system is unstable, δ continues to increase indefinitely with time and the machine
loses synchronism.
• In a system where one machine is swinging with respect to an infinite bus, it is
possible to study transient stability by means of a simple criterion, without resorting to
the numerical solution of a swing equation.
• For a stable system, indication of stability will be given by observation of the first
swing where δ will go to a maximum and will start to reduce. This fact can be stated as
a stability criterion, that the system is stable if at some time

And is unstable, if

for a sufficiently long time (more than 1 sec. will generally do).
Writing the swing equation in the following form as:

Multiplying both sides of the above swing equation by (), we get

Integrating with respect to time results;

Or

Where δ0 is the initial rotor angle before it begins to swing due to disturbance.
Then, the condition for stability can be written as:

Or,

“The system is stable if the area under Pa (accelerating power) – δ curve reduces to zero at
some value of δ. In other words, the positive (accelerating) area under Pa – δ curve must
equal the negative (decelerating) area and hence the name ‘equal area’ criterion of
stability”.
A. Sudden Change in Mechanical Input:
Figure below shows the transient model of a single machine tied to infinite bus bar.

The electrical power transmitted is given by

Under steady state operating condition

This is indicated by the point a in the Pe – δ diagram of figure below.

As Pm ↑ = (Pm1) Pa = Pm1 – Pe > 0 causes ω ↑ = (ω > ωs) and δ ↑.
At angle δ = δ1(state point at b), Pa = Pm1 – Pe () = 0 but δ continues to ↑ as ω > ωs.
For δ > δ1, Pe > Pm1 (Pa = Pm1 – Pe = – ve or decelerating), ω starts ↓ but δ continues to ↑ till
an angle δ2.
At δ = δ2(state point at c), ω = ωs, the decelerating area A2 equals the accelerating area A1,
i.e., . Since Pe > Pm1 (Pa = Pm1 – Pe = – ve or decelerating) ω continues to ↓( ω < ω s), and δ
starts ↓; the operating point retraces the P e – δ curve from c to b and then to a. The system
oscillates about the new steady state (equilibrium) point b (δ = δ1) with angle excursion up
to δ0 and δ2 on the two sides.

Figure: Pe – δ curve for sudden increase in mechanical input to generator

The new steady state point b is attained as the oscillations decay out because of inherent
system damping, resulting

A limiting highest increase in mechanical input (Pm1) for the system to be stable leads δ2 to
acquire maximum value such that

Any further ↑ in Pm1 means that the area available for

A2 < A1, so that the excess KE causes δ ↑ beyond
point c and the decelerating power changes over to
accelerating power, with the system consequently
becoming unstable.
Figure: Limiting case of transient stability with mechanical input suddenly increased
B. Effect of Clearing Time on Stability
The system of figure below be operating with mechanical input P m at a steady state angle
of δ0 (Pm = Pe) as shown by the point a on the Pe – δ curve of figure below. If a 3 – phase
fault occurs at the point P of the outgoing radial line, the state point drops to b as Pe = 0.
The A1 begins ↑ and so does δ while the state point moves along bc. At time tc (clearing
time) corresponding to angle δc (clearing angle), the faulted line is cleared by the opening
of the line CB, the state point shifts to d as the system again becomes healthy and
transmits .

For δ > δc, ω starts ↓ and A2 begins ↑ while the state point moves along de.
For δ = δ1, ω = ωs and A1 = A2, the system is stable and settles down to the steady
operating point a in an oscillatory manner b/c of inherent damping.
The maximum allowable value of the clearing time and angle known respectively as
critical clearing time (tcr) and angle (δcr) for the system to remain stable so as A2 =A1 leads
to δ1 = δmax.

Figure: Critical clearing angle

F
For this simple case,

Now,

For the system to be stable, A2 = A1, yields

By substitution, we get
During the fault period, the swing equation is

Integrating twice

Or,

Then

For tc (or δc) > tcr (or δcr), the system would be unstable as A2 < A1.
• The concept of critical clearing time is essential to the design of proper relaying
schemes for fault clearing.
C. Sudden Short Circuit on One of Parallel Lines
Case 1: Short Circuit at One End of Line
Consider now a single machine tied to infinite bus through two parallel lines as shown in
figure below.

Figure: Single machine tied to infinite bus through two parallel lines
Assume a 3 – phase short circuit occurs at the generator end of line 2 of a double circuit
line as shown in figure below.
Figure: Short circuit at one end of the line

Before the occurrence of a fault, the power angle equation is given by

Upon occurrence of a 3 – phase fault at the generator end of line 2, the generator gets
isolated from the power system (or the infinite bus system). Thus, during the period the
fault persists, the power angle equation is given by

The rotor therefore accelerates and angles δ increases. Synchronism will be lost unless the
fault is cleared in time.
The CBs at the two ends of the faulted line open at time t c (corresponding to angle δc),
clearing time, disconnected the faulted line. The power flow is now restored via the
healthy line (through higher line reactance X1 in place of X1‖X2), with power angle
equation
Where, Pmax2 < Pmax1.
The rotor now starts to decelerate as shown in figure below.

Figure: Equal area criterion applied to the system, 1 – normal system, 2 – fault applied, 3
– faulted line isolated
The system will be stable if a decelerating area A2 can be found equal to accelerating area
A1 before δ reaches the maximum allowable value δ max. As area A1 depends upon clearing
time tc (corresponding to clearing angle δc), clearing time must be less than a certain value
(critical clearing time) for the system to be stable.
The larger initial loading (Pm) increases A1 for a given clearing angle (and time) and
therefore quicker fault clearing would be needed to maintain stable operation.
Applying equal area criteria;
For the system to be stable, A2 = A1, yields

By substitution, we get

Then, to obtain critical clearing time;

For tc (or δc) > tcr (or δcr), the system would be unstable as A2 < A1.
Case 2: Short Circuit Away from Line Ends
When the 3 – phase fault occurs away from line ends (say in the middle of a line), there is
some power flow during the fault though considerably reduced, since the terminal voltage
of the generator will not be zero, as different from case a where Pe2 = 0 as shown in figure
below (a). this circuit reduces to that of figure below (c) through one delta – star and one
star – delta conversion.

Where,
Before the occurrence of a fault, the power angle equation is given by

Therefore, the power angle equation during the fault period is given by

The power angle equation after the fault is cleared given by

Figure below shows a power angle curve for the above all equations. Stable system
operation is possible if an area A2 equal to A1 for δ2 ≤ δmax. In this case, accelerating area
A1 corresponding to a given clearing angle δc is less than in case a, giving a better chance
for stable operation.
Figure: Fault on middle of one line of the
system with δc < δcr.

At δc = δcr, for the system to be stable, A2 = A1 and δ2 = δmax, the maximum allowable for
stability as shown in figure below.

Figure: Fault on middle of one line of the system

in case of critical clearing angle
Applying equal area criterion to the case of critical clearing angle, we have

Where,

Integrating, we get

Or

Then,
Case 3: Reclosure
If the CBs of line 2 are reclosed successfully (i.e., the fault was a transient one and
therefore vanished on clearing the faulty line), the power transfer once again becomes

Since reclosure restores power transfer, the chances of stable operation improve as shown
in figure below.
For critical clearing angle

Applying equal area criterion to the case of critical clearing angle, we have

Where trc = tcr + τ; τ = time between clearing and reclosure.

Correspondingly, δrc = δcr + φ
for 50 Hz system & for 60 Hz system
Figure: Fault in middle of a line of the system with reclosure
The result of the integration and recalling the stability condition of A 2 = A1, yields

By substituting and using numerous trigonometric identity simplification results

If further simplification results

Using and squiring both sides yields quadratic equation as follow;

The solution is

Take the right/correct angle that satisfies .

Improvement of Transient Stability Problem
Stevenson – FACTORS AFFECTING TRANSIENT STABILITY – page 743
Kothary – SOME FACTORS AFFECTING TRANSIENT STABILITY – page 496
Ducan Glover - Design Methods for Improving Transient Stability – page 730
z
Figure below shows a single-line diagram of a three-phase, 60-Hz synchronous
generator, connected through a transformer and parallel transmission lines to an
infinite bus. All reactances are given in per-unit on a common system base. If the
infinite bus receives 1.0 per unit real power at 0.95 p.f. lagging, determine (a) the
internal voltage of the generator and (b) the equation for the electrical power
delivered by the generator versus its power angle d.

 
A 50 Hz synchronous generator has a transient reactance of 0.2 per unit and an inertial
constant H of 5.66 MJ/MVA. The generator is connected to an infinite bus through a
transformer and a double circuit transmission line as shown in Figure below. Reactances
are expressed on a common MVA base as marked on the diagram. The generator is
delivering a real power of 0.77 per unit to bus bar 1. The voltage magnitude at bus 1 and
the infinite bus voltage are 1.1 and 1.00o per unit respectively. Determine the generator
excitation voltage and obtain the power – angle equation