Monitoring, Analysis and Mitigation of Power System Oscillations Using Synchronized Measurements

Date: Tuesday, May 24                              Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm (CEST)

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Name of the organizer: Evangelos Farantatos

Organization: EPRI, USA

Email: efarantatos@epri.com

Short biography of the chair: Evangelos Farantatos received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 2006 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2009 and 2012, respectively. He is a Senior Project Manager with the Grid Operations and Planning R&D Group at EPRI, Palo Alto, CA. He is managing and leading the technical work of various R&D projects related to synchrophasor technology, power systems monitoring and control, power systems stability and dynamics, renewable energy resources modeling, grid operation and protection with high levels of inverter-based resources. He is a Senior Member of IEEE. In summer 2009, he was an intern at MISO.

Panel Abstract: Poorly damped or undamped oscillations present a significant threat to the secure and economic operation of power grids. The number of oscillation events and their severity have been increasing, due to stressed and atypical grid operating conditions and changing resource mix with the increasing integration of renewables and retirement of conventional generators. In conventional power grids, power system stabilizers (PSS) on conventional generators have been used to suppress oscillations. However, the retirement of conventional plants is expected to result in insufficient stabilizing capability from the remaining generators, the location of which may also render them inappropriate to suppress these oscillations. Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Synchrophasors is an emerging technology for grid monitoring and control. With PMUs due to the high resolution and GPS synchronized measurements, oscillations can be monitored and controlled. This panel will discuss latest technologies and ongoing activities from academia and industry on the topic of oscillations mitigation using synchronized measurements

Panelist 1:

Name: Lin Zhu

Organization: EPRI, USA

Short biography: Lin Zhu (EPRI, US): Dr. Lin Zhu is currently a Technical Leader at Electric Power Research Institute. He was a Research Assistant Professor at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He received his B.S. degree and Ph.D. degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2005 and 2011, respectively, both in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include power system dynamic, renewable energy integration, smart distribution grid, and microgrid. Many of his research accomplishments have been translated into actual products or product prototypes ready for commercialization. He led a team and developed an adaptive power grid oscillation damping controller, which was recognized with R&D 100 Awards in 2021. He has been the co-PI of two NSF awards and the lead PI of 20+ industry projects. Dr. Lin Zhu is a Senior Member of IEEE and CIGRE member

Title of presentation: GridDamper: An Adaptive Power Grid Oscillation Damper

Abstract: Recently, multiple severe oscillation events have occurred in the interconnected power grids in Continental Europe and North America. With the increasing integration of renewables and the retirement of conventional generators, more severe and more frequent oscillation events could be experienced if not sufficiently controlled. This presentation will introduce GridDamper, a field-deployment-ready technology to mitigate three major categories of oscillations (natural, forced, and sub-synchronous) and allow more renewable integration in power grids. GridDamper adaptively updates its parameters, sensors, and actuators to guarantee power grid stability and reliability. The performance of GridDamper has been validated in four realistic large-scale power grid models with actual events through simulations and controller hardware-in-the-loop testing. GridDamper earned the R&D 100 Awards for 2021.

Panelist 2:

Name: Yi Zhao

Organization: University Tennessee Knoxville, USA

Short biography: Yi Zhao (University Tennessee Knoxville, US): Dr. Yi Zhao received her B.S. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China in 2008 and her Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2013. She worked as a Postdoc at Tsinghua University before she joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee in March, 2017. Currently, she is a Research Associate at the University of Tennessee. Her main research interests include power system stability analysis and control, large-scale system simulation. She has investigated the application of wide-area damping control system in several realistic power grids around the world, including China Southern Grid, US Eastern Interconnections, Continental European power grid, and Great Britain Power Grid. She is a winner of R&D 100 Awards of 2021 for her contributions to adaptive wide-area oscillation damping controller design, development and implementation

Title of presentation Implementation and Demonstration of a Wide Area Oscillations Damping Controller with Real Time Simulators in a Hardware In the Loop Setup

Abstract: Real Time Simulators (RTS) and Hardware In the Loop (HIL) experiments can help accelerate the advancement and deployment of Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) systems. This presentation will focus on the development of a Wide Area Oscillations Damping Controller (WADC) on a generic hardware platform, and its testing using RTS (e.g RTDS and OPAL-RT) in a HIL setup, for various power grid models. The performance of the developed WADC has been validated on the HIL test setup under different scenarios, including measurement error/noise, constant and stochastic time delays, consecutive and stochastic data package loss. The experiment results demonstrate that the developed WADC can provide sufficient damping to suppress the targeted oscillation mode.

Panelist 3:

Name: Cosimo Pisani

Organization: TERNA, Italy

Short biography: Cosimo Pisani (TERNA, Italy): Cosimo Pisani was born in Benevento, Italy, in 1985. He received the M.Sc. degree with honors in Energy Engineering from the University of Sannio, Benevento, in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Naples “Federico II,” Naples, Italy, in 2014. During his PhD in collaboration with Terna, the Italian Transmission System Operator, he investigated some dynamic stability issues of large interconnected power system such as the European one (i.e. European Network of Transmission System Operator). From May 2014 to March 2016 he was Research Fellow at University of Sannio. From March 2016 he is with Terna. Currently, he is head of Stability and Network Calculations at Dispatching and Switching Department. He is project manager or however directly involved in several project covering network stability studies, real time algorithm and tool development for monitoring and control of electrical power systems, design of Special Protection Schemes to counteract instability phenomena, High Voltage Direct Current systems. He is the author or coauthor of over 60 scientific papers published in reviewed journals and presented at international and national conferences. His research interests include the applications of dynamic stability of power systems, Wide Area Monitoring and Protection systems, Special Integrity Protection Schemes, High Voltage Direct Current Systems, Power system restoration. He is leader of WAMS task force within ENTSO-E System Protection and Dynamic group as well as member of CIGRE C2.17 working group Wide Area Monitoring Systems – Support for Control Room Applications and currently member of the CIGRE C2.18 working group Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control Systems – Decision Support for System Operators.

Title of presentation Field Implementation, Deployment and Demonstration of a Wide Area Oscillations Damping Controller at TERNA

Abstract: Low frequency oscillations have been a significant threat to the secure and economic operation of the Continental European grid. Several severe oscillation events with low damping ratio have occurred in the past, for instance, on December 3rd 2017, undamped low frequency oscillations between the South and North Italian power system. Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control (WAMPAC) systems that rely on PMU measurements can be used to mitigate such oscillations. This presentation will summarize the field implementation, deployment and demonstration of a Wide Area Oscillations Damping Controller (WADC) at TERNA’s control center and at a selected substation. The WADC control architecture and infrastructure will be summarized. System commissioning and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) procedures will be described. Preliminary results from field testing will be also shown.

Panelist 4:

Name: Gilles Torresan

Organization: RTE, France

Short biography: Gilles Torresan (RTE, France): Gilles Torresan received the degree in electrical engineering from Grenoble INP, France. He joined Réseau de Transport d’Electricité (RTE), the French Transmission System Operator (TSO), in 2001. He worked in the Operation department for 18 years, mainly involved in power system stability studies. He is currently working for the Research and Development department and his main fields of interest are power system stability, grid code for generators and oscillation monitoring

Title of presentation RTE’s Oscillation Monitoring Tool

Abstract: RTE (French Transmission System Operator) is going to put in operation its oscillation monitoring tool. This presentation will introduce the concept and the challenges of such a tool:

  • History of the project
  • Project framework
  • Algorithms used
  • Practical examples