UNIT-I

INTRODUCTION

Syllabus: Electrical Transmission Networks, Conventional Control

Mechanisms-Automatic Generation Control, Excitation Control, Transformer
Tap-Changer Control, Phase-Shifting Transformers; Advances in Power-
Electronic Switching Devices, Principles and Applications of Semiconductor
Switches; Limitations of Conventional Transmission Systems, Emerging
Transmission Networks, HVDC and FACTS.

1.1 ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION NETWORKS

The rapid growth in electrical energy use, combined with the demand
for low cost energy, has gradually led to the development of generation sites
remotely located from the load centers. In particular, the remote generating
stations include hydroelectric stations, which exploit sites with higher heads
and significant water flows; fossil fuel stations, located close to coal mines;
geothermal stations and tidal-power plants, which are site bound; and,
sometimes, nuclear power plants purposely built distant from urban centers.
The generation of bulk power at remote locations necessitates the use of
transmission lines to connect generation sites to load centers. Furthermore,
to enhance system reliability, multiple lines that connect load centers to
several sources, interlink neighboring utilities, and build the needed levels of
redundancy have gradually led to the evolution of complex interconnected
electrical transmission networks. These networks now exist on all continents.

An electrical power transmission network comprises mostly 3-phase

alternating-current (ac) transmission lines operating at different
transmission voltages (generally at 230 kV and higher). With increasing
requirement of power-transmission capacity and/ or longer transmission
distances, the transmission voltages continue to increase; indeed, increases
in transmission voltages are linked closely to decreasing transmission losses.
Transmission voltages have gradually increased to 765 kV in North America,

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with power transmission reaching 1500 MVA on a line limited largely by the
risk that a power utility may be willing to accept because of losing a line.

An ac power transmission network comprises 3-phase overhead lines,

which, although cheaper to build and maintain, require expensive right-of-
ways. However, in densely populated areas where right-of-ways incur a
premium price, underground cable transmission is used. Increasing
pressures arising from ecological and aesthetic considerations, as well as
improved reliability, favor underground transmission for future expansion.

In a complex interconnected ac transmission network, the source-to-a-

load power flow finds multiple transmission paths. For a system comprising
multiple sources and numerous loads, a load-flow study must be performed
to determine the levels of active- and reactive-power flows on all lines. Its
impedance and the voltages at its terminals determine the flow of active and
reactive powers on a line. The result is that whereas interconnected ac
transmission networks provide reliability of power supply, no control exists
on line loading except to modify them by changing line impedances by
adding series and/ or shunt-circuit elements (capacitors and reactors).

The long-distance separation of a generating station from a load

center requiring long transmission lines of high capacity and, in some cases
in which a transmission line must cross a body of water, the use of ac/ dc
and dc/ ac converters at the terminals of an HVDC line, became a viable
alternative many years ago. Consequently, beginning in 1954, HVDC
transmission has grown steadily to the current ±600 kV lines with about
4000 A capacity. Also, direct current (dc) transmission networks, including
multi terminal configurations, are already embedded in ac transmission
networks. The most significant feature of an HVDC transmission network is
its full controllability with respect to power transmission.

Until recently, active- and reactive-power control in ac transmission

networks was exercised by carefully adjusting transmission line impedances,

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as well as regulating terminal voltages by generator excitation control and
by transformer tap changers. At times, series and shunt impedances were
employed to effectively change line impedances.

1.2 Conventional Control Mechanisms.

In the foregoing discussion, a lack of control on active- and reactive-

power flow on a given line, embedded in an interconnected ac transmission
network, was stated. Also, to maintain steady-state voltages and, in selected
cases, to alter the power-transmission capacity of lines, traditional use of
shunt and series impedances was hinted.

In a conventional ac power system, however, most of the

controllability exists at generating stations. For example, generators called
spinning reserves maintain an instantaneous balance between power
demand and power supply. These generators, in fact, are purposely operated
at reduced power. Also, to regulate the system frequency and for
maintaining the system at the rated voltage, controls are exercised on
selected generators.

1.3 Automatic Generation Control (AGC)

The megawatt (MW) output of a generator is regulated by controlling

the driving torque, Tm, provided by a prime-mover turbine. In a
conventional electromechanical system, it could be a steam or a hydraulic
turbine. The needed change in the turbine-output torque is achieved by
controlling the steam/water input into the turbine. Therefore, in situations
where the output exceeds or falls below the input, a speed-governing
system senses the deviation in the generator speed because of the load-
generation mismatch, adjusts the mechanical driving torque to restore the
power balance, and returns the operating speed to its rated value. The
speed-governor output is invariably taken through several stages of
mechanical amplification for controlling the inlet (steam/water) valve/ gate

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of the driving turbine. Figure 1.1 shows the basic speed-governing system of
a generator supplying an isolated load. The operation of this basic feedback-
control system is enhanced by adding further control inputs to help control
the frequency of a large interconnection. In that role, the control system
becomes an automatic generation control (AGC) with supplementary signals.

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To avoid competing control actions, in a multi generator unit station each
speed-governor system is provided with droop (R) characteristics through a
proportional feedback loop (R, Hz/ MW). Figure 1.2 shows an AGC on the
principal generating unit with supplementary control. In contrast, the
second, third, and remaining generating units in a multiunit station operate
with their basic AGCs. In a complex interconnected system, the
supplementary control signal may be determined by a load-dispatch center

1.4 Excitation Control

The basic function of an exciter is to provide a dc source for field

excitation of a synchronous generator. A control on exciter voltage results in
controlling the field current, which, in turn, controls the generated voltage.
When a synchronous generator is connected to a large system where the
operating frequency and the terminal voltages are largely unaffected by a
generator, its excitation control causes its reactive power output to change.

In older power plants, a dc generator, also called an exciter, was

mounted on the main generator shaft. A control of the field excitation of the
dc generator provided a controlled excitation source for the main generator.
In contrast, modern stations employ either a brushless exciter (an inverted
3-phase alternator with a solid-state rectifier connecting the resulting dc
source directly through the shaft to the field windings of the main generator)
or a static exciter (the use of a station supply with static rectifiers).

An excitation-control system employs a voltage controller to control

the excitation voltage. This operation is typically recognized as an automatic
Voltage regulator (AVR). However, because an excitation control operates
quickly, several stabilizing and protective signals are invariably added to the
basic voltage regulator. A power-system stabilizer (PSS) is implemented by
adding auxiliary damping signals derived from the shaft speed, or the

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terminal frequency, or the power—an effective and frequently used
technique for enhancing small-signal stability of the connected system.
Figure 1.3 shows the functionality of an excitation-control system.

1.5 Transformer Tap-Changer Control:

Next to the generating units, transformers constitute the second family

of major power-transmission-system apparatuses. In addition to increasing
and decreasing nominal voltages, many transformers are equipped with tap-
changers to realize a limited range of voltage control. This tap control can be
carried out manually or automatically. Two types of tap changers are usually
available: offload tap changers, which perform adjustments when de-
energized, and on-load tap changers, which are equipped with current-
commutation capacity and are operated under load. Tap changers may be
provided on one of the two transformer windings as well as on
autotransformers.

Because tap-changing transformers vary voltages and, therefore, the

reactive power flow, these transformers may be used as reactive-power-
control devices. On-load tap-changing transformers are usually employed to
correct voltage profiles on an hourly or daily basis to accommodate load

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variations. Their speed of operation is generally slow, and frequent
operations result in electrical and mechanical wear and tear.

1.6 Phase-Shifting Transformers:

A special form of a 3-phase–regulating transformer is realized by

combining a transformer that is connected in series with a line to a voltage
transformer equipped with a tap changer. The windings of the voltage
transformer are so connected that on its secondary side, phase-quadrature
voltages are generated and fed into the secondary windings of the series
transformer. Thus the addition of small, phase-quadrature voltage
components to the phase voltages of the line creates phase-shifted output
voltages without any appreciable change in magnitude.
A phase-shifting transformer is therefore able to introduce a phase shift in a
line.

Figure 1.4 shows such an arrangement together with a phasor

diagram. The phasor diagram shows the phase shift realized without an
appreciable change in magnitude by the injection of phase-quadrature
voltage components in a 3-phase system. When a phase-shifting
transformer employs an on-load tap changer, controllable phase-shifting is
achieved. The interesting aspect of such phase shifters is that despite their
low MVA capacity, by controlling the phase shift they exercise a significant
real-power control. Therefore, they are used to mitigate circulating power
flows in interconnected utilities. A promising application of these devices is in
creating active-power regulation on selected lines and securing active-power
damping through the incorporation of auxiliary signals in their feedback
controllers. From this description, it is easy to visualize that an incremental
in-phase component can also be added in lines to alter only their voltage
magnitudes, not their phase.

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1.7 Advances in Power-Electronics Switching Devices

As we know that , the full potential of ac/ dc converter technology was

better realized once mercury-arc valves were replaced by solid-state
switching devices called thyristors. Thyristors offered controlled turn-on of
currents but not their interruption. The rapid growth in thyristor voltage and
current ratings accelerated their application, and the inclusion of internal
light triggering simplified the converter controls and their configurations
even more. Most applications, however, were based on the natural
commutation of currents. In special cases where forced commutation was
required, elaborate circuitry using discharging capacitors to create
temporary current zeroes were employed.

Thyristors are now available in large sizes, eliminating the need for
paralleling them for high-current applications. Their voltage ratings have
also increased so that relatively few are required to be connected in series to
yield switches or converters for power-transmission applications. Actually,
the present trend is to produce high-power electronic building blocks
(HPEBBs) to configure high-power switches and converters, thus eliminating

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the custom-design needs at the device level. Availability of HPEBBs should
accelerate development of new FACTS devices. The HPEBB thyristors are
available in compact packaging and in sufficiently large sizes (e.g., 125-mm
thyristors: 5.5 kV, 4 kA or 4.5 kV, 5.8 kA) for most applications. For
switching applications, such as that for tap changers or static phase shifters,
anti-parallel–connected thyristor modules, complete with snubber circuits,
are available. These switches provide sufficiently high transient-current
capacity to endure fault currents.

The GTO semiconductor devices facilitate current turn-on as well as

turnoff by using control signals. This technology has grown very rapidly;
consequently, high-power GTOs are now available (100 mm, 6 kV or 150
mm, 9kV). Full on–off control offered by GTOs has made pulse width–
modulated (PWM) inverters easy to realize.

Advances in semiconductor technology are yielding new efficient,

simple to-operate devices. The insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) and
the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)–controlled thyristor (MCT) control
electric power using low levels of energy from their high-impedance MOS
gates, as compared to high-current pulses needed for thyristors or GTOs.
Unfortunately, the available voltage ratings of these devices are still limited.

The MOS turn-off (MTO) thyristor combines the advantages of both

thyristors and MOS devices by using a current-controlled turn-on (thyristor)
and a voltage-controlled turn-off having a high-impedance MOS structure.
Hybrid MTOs are being proposed that show substantially low device losses
relative to GTOs. Because MTOs use nearly half the parts of GTOs, their
application promises significant reliability improvement

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1.8 Principles and Applications of Semiconductor Switches

In high-power applications, semiconductor devices are used primarily

as switches. To accommodate switching in an ac system, two unidirectional
conducting devices are connected in an anti parallel configuration, as shown
in Fig. 1.6. Such a switch may be employed per phase to connect or
disconnect a shunt-circuit element, such as a capacitor or reactor, or to
short-circuit a series connected– circuit element, such as a capacitor. A
reverse-biased thyristor automatically turns off at current zero, for which
reason an anti parallel thyristor connection is used to control the current
through a reactor by delaying its turn on instant, as shown in Fig. 1.6(b). It
is easy to see that the current through a connected reactor may be
controlled from full value to zero by adjusting the delay angle, a, of the
gate’s firing signal from 900 to 1800

Thus a thyristor switch offers current control in a reactor, rendering it

a controlled reactor. However, because a capacitor current leads the applied
voltage by approximately 900, the capacitor switching always causes
transient in-rush currents that must be minimized by switching charged
capacitors at instants when the voltage across the switch is near zero.
Therefore, a thyristor switch is used only to turn on or turn off a capacitor,
thereby implementing a switched capacitor.

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 Parallel combination of switched capacitors and controlled reactors
provides a smooth current-control range from capacitive to inductive values
by switching the capacitor and controlling the current in the reactor. Shunt
combinations of thyristor-controlled reactors (TCRs) and thyristor-switched
capacitors (TSCs) yield static var compensators (SVCs).

Thyristor switches may be used for shorting capacitors; hence they

find application in step changes of series compensation of transmission lines.
A blocked thyristor switch connected across a series capacitor introduces the
capacitor in line, whereas a fully conducting thyristor switch removes it. In
reality, this step control can be smoothed by connecting an appropriately
dimensioned reactor in series with the thyristor switch—as shown in Fig.
1.7—to yield vernier control. This application of thyristor switches creates
the thyristor-controlled series capacitor (TCSC) FACTS controller.

In the foregoing applications, thyristor switches were used to control

the current through circuit elements, such as capacitors and reactors. The
switches are also used to perform switching actions in on-load tap changers,

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which may be employed as thyristor-controlled phase-shifting transformers
(TCPSTs).

Generally, the use of fully rated circuit elements is expensive, so to

perform similar functions, another important class of FACTS controllers is
realized by dc/ ac converters. The application of GTO devices makes forced
commutation possible, and therefore PWM converters offer a more elegant
solution. The output voltages of PWM converters contain low-harmonic
content. The voltage source converters (VSCs) form the basic element of
this new class of FACTS controllers, and numerous applications of this
technology exist

An alternative to a thyristor-controlled SVC is a GTO-based VSC that

uses charged capacitors as the input dc source and produces a 3-phase ac
voltage output in synchronism and in phase with the ac system. The
converter is connected in shunt to a bus by means of the impedance of a
coupling transformer. A control on the output voltage of this converter—
lower or higher than the connecting bus voltage—controls the reactive power
drawn from or supplied to the connected bus. This FACTS controller is known
as a static compensator (STATCOM) [20] and is shown symbolically in Fig.
1.8

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 The use of voltage-source converters to inject a voltage by way of
series-connected transformers leads to another interesting group of FACTS
controllers: the SSSCs, which inject voltages to compensate for the line-
reactance voltage drops. It is easy to visualize that if the reactive drop of a
line is partly compensated by an SSSC, it amounts to reducing the line
reactance (XL), or in other words, it is akin to controlled series
compensation. The injected voltage in the line is independent of the line
current. Figure 1.9 shows a 1-line diagram of an SSSC, which controls the
active-power flow on a line.

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 The functions of an SSSC and a STATCOM, in fact, may be combined
to produce a unified power-flow controller (UPFC), A 1-line diagram of a
UPFC is shown in Fig. 1.10. In the UPFC shown, a dc energy source is shared
between the STATCOM and SSSC. Normally, no net energy is drawn from
this source, but to compensate for the controller losses, the STATCOM can
operate so that it draws the compensating active power from the connected
ac bus. Thus a UPFC offers a fast, controllable FACTS device for the flow of
combined active–reactive power in a line.

Finally, there are FACTS controllers classified as power-conditioning

equipment. These controllers are employed as battery-energy–storage
systems (BESSs) or superconducting magnetic-energy–storage (SMES)
systems. These controllers also use GTO-based converters, which operate in
dual roles as rectifiers for energy storage and inverters for energy return.

1.9 EMERGING TRANSMISSION NETWORKS

A historic change is overtaking electrical power utility businesses.

Customers are demanding their right to choose electrical energy suppliers
from competing vendors—a movement that has arisen from the benefits of
lower costs of such services as long-distance telephone calls, natural-gas
purchases, and air travel. The industries embracing these activities have
been recently deregulated, and in these sectors, competition has been
introduced. The basic belief is that competition leads to enhanced efficiency
and thus lower costs and improved services.

For nearly 100 years, electrical power utilities worldwide have been
vertically integrated, combining generation, transmission, distribution, and
servicing loads. Also, most such utilities have operated as monopolies within
their geographic regions. Their method of operation has been “power at
cost,” and their principal financers have been governments. Therefore, to

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many people the pressure of electrical power utilities to operate efficiently
has been missing

On becoming responsible for its own business, a power-transmission

company must make the best use of its transmission capacity and ensure
that transmission losses are reduced to their lowest values. Also, any loss of
transmission capacity means loss of income for the company; therefore, all
actions must be taken to ensure that unwanted circulating power is not
clogging the available transmission capacity. In addition, energy congestion
in critical transmission corridors must be avoided to eliminate the risk of
missed business opportunities.

Finally, to offer the greatest flexibility to market operators, a

transmission company must create the maximum safe operating limits to
allow power injection and tapping from its buses without risking stable
operation. The success of a transmission company depends on offering the
maximum available transmission capacity (ATC) on its lines

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