Sharif Digital Repository

A microgrid is a controllable component of the smart grid defined as a part of distribution network capable of supplying its own local load even in the case of disconnection from the upstream network. Microgrids incorporate large amount of renewable and non-renewable distributed generation (DG) that are connected to the system either directly or by power electronics (PE) interface. The diversity of technologies used in DGs and loads, high penetration of DGs, economic operation of DGs, dynamics of low-inertia conventional DGs and PE interfaced inertialess DGs and smart operation by means of enhanced communication infrastructure have raised challenges in widespread utilization of microgrids as... 

This paper presents an integer linear programming (ILP) framework for the optimal placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs), in the presence of conventional measurements. Furthermore, by the proposed method, the power system remains completely observable during all possible single contingencies for lines and measurement devices. In doing so, the potential of circuit equations associated with both PMUs and conventional measurements as well as the network topology are fully utilized by a system of equations to reach the minimum possible numbers of required PMUs. The limitation of communication channels is also taken into account in the proposed ILP-based framework. The method is implemented... 

With the increasing penetration of renewable energies as distributed generation (DG) in power systems, technical problems arise in both distribution and transmission system level. Voltage rise is the main barrier for connection of DGs in rural areas, while excessive reactive power demand from transmission system is the major concern for Transmission System Operators (TSO). Here, a centralized control scheme based on the Smart Grid is proposed to reduce the impact on the transmission system voltages and improve its stability, while mitigating the voltage rise issue in the distribution network. Reactive power output of DGs, substation capacitors and tap setting of transmission transformer are... 

The introduction of demand response concept, in addition to increment of penetration of distributed generation (DG) based on renewable energies, make opportunities for the novel control schemes to be integrated in power system on a smart grid framework. Voltage control methods in power systems needs proper coordination among reactive power resources and conventional volt/var control equipments. In this work, potential reactive power resources are investigated and then, reactive power output of renewable DG units and controllable loads along with operation of conventional voltage controllers are optimized using a centralized control scheme. Considering the variability of demand and... 

This paper presents a novel sectionalizing method for the build-up strategy in power system restoration. Power system restoration is the procedure of restoring power system elements after a partial or a complete blackout. Because of its economic and political importance, different strategies have been developed for power system restoration. One of the most practical and economical is the build-up strategy that includes the process of restoring separated parts (islands) in the power system and interconnecting them afterwards. This paper intends to develop a systematic algorithm for sectionalizing a power system considering various constraints such as black-start capability of generators,... 

With the proliferation of intermittent renewable energy sources, power systems need to withstand an increasing number of disturbances that may affect system frequency. In this paper, we focus on the effects of high penetration level of wind turbine-generators (WTG) on the power system operational planning from the frequency point of view. Specifically, an exact formulation for the minimum frequency calculation is presented to increase accuracy and speed of analyses. Then, the effect of WTG's frequency response on the power system frequency stability is investigated to compute the maximum acceptable generation outage as a function of penetration level. Finally, as an application to power... 

Photovoltaic (PV) arrays are composed of PV cells which have a nonlinear power-voltage characteristic. To extract maximum amount of energy from a PV array, it is essential to track maximum power point (MPP). When all PV cells are subject to the same solar energy, MPP is found easily. However, in some ambient conditions, PV cells are partially or completely shadowed. Under partial shading conditions (PSCs), overall power-voltage curve will have several peaks. This paper presents a novel approach for MPP tracking, utilizing configuration of PV cells in series and parallel that may deliver maximum power in shading conditions. As such, instead of blindly searching for the global MPP among local... 

Fault diagnosis following a disturbance in a power system is of great importance for the operators in the control center as a prerequisite for system restoration. In this article, for the first time, an analytic method for fault diagnosis, using the wide area measurement system (WAMS) and employing circuit rules, is developed. Instead of conventional information about status of protective relays and circuit breakers, voltage and current phasors at different points of the power network after fault occurrence are utilized. Because most of the power systems will be equipped with WAMS consisting of high-speed sampling features, the proposed method introduces a new application of WAMS for fault... 

Smart transmission grids are intended to utilize various measurements for enhanced operation. In particular, synchronized phasor measurements have found many applications in this context. This paper presents a linear weighted least-squares (WLS) method for fault location estimation of transmission lines by synchronized voltage measurements. The measurements may be taken from the faulted line terminals or buses far from the faulted line. The circuit equations of the network are used to find the transfer function between the fault location and each voltage measurement. Next, two auxiliary variables are defined to transform the nonlinear fault location estimation problem into a linear WLS... 

Placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs) in power systems has often been formulated for achieving total network observability. In practice, however, the installation process is not implemented at once, but at several stages, because the number of available PMUs at each time period is restricted due to financial problems. This paper presents a novel integer linear programming framework for optimal multi-stage PMU placement (OMPP) over a preset schedule, in order to improve the network observability during intermediate stages, in addition to its complete observability by the end of the PMU placement process. To precisely evaluate the network observability and fully exploit the potential of... 

In this paper, a modified frequency control model is proposed, where the demand response (DR) control loop is added to the traditional load frequency control (LFC) model to improve the frequency regulation of the power system. One of the main obstacles for using DR in the frequency regulation is communication delay which exists in transferring data from control center to appliances. To overcome this issue, an adaptive delay compensator (ADC) is used in order to compensate the communication delay in the control loop. In this regard, a weighted combination of several vertex compensators, whose weights are updated according to the measured delay, is employed. Generating the phase lead is the... 

This study introduces a novel approach to power system fault diagnosis by synchronised phasor measurements. Conventionally, faults are diagnosed through the status of protective relays and circuit breakers which are activated following a fault. However, the hidden failures of the protection system has itself often been among the main suspects of partial or widespread blackouts. This study proposes an alternative fault diagnosis approach independent of the function of the protection system. An analytical method is introduced for power system fault diagnosis using dispersed synchronised measurements and bus impedance matrix (Zbus). Fault inception is first detected by local phasor measurement... 

This study presents a novel method for fault location of transmission lines by multiple fault current measurements. In contrast to conventional methods, it is proposed to utilise several current measurements, which may be far from the faulted line. The circuit equations of the network are used to express each fault current as a function of fault location. Fault location is then estimated using a least-squares estimation technique. To achieve a robust estimation of fault location, statistical hypotheses-testing is employed for identifying erroneous measurements. The method is applicable to both synchronised and unsynchronised measurements. Moreover, fault location can be estimated regardless... 

This paper presents a novel approach for fault location of overhead transmission lines by voltage and current measurements in a remote substation. The method is applicable when not all of the transmission lines in an area are equipped with fault-locators, although there may be a critical substation (CS) in the area equipped with a digital fault recorder (DFR). In the proposed method, the circuit equations of the network are used to find the transfer function between the fault location and each voltage and current measurement in the CS. Next, two auxiliary variables are defined to transform the nonlinear fault location estimation problem into a linear least squares problem. A closed-form... 

While the importance of wide area measurement system (WAMS) consisting of phasor measurement units (PMUs) is recognized, there are still unidentified applications that can be addressed with the advance of technology. Traditionally, power system operators diagnosed the fault point through the status of protective relays and circuit breakers of the protection system. In large blackouts, however, the malfunction of protection system has itself often been among the suspects of the disaster. This paper proposes an alternative fault diagnosis approach independent of the function of protection system, utilizing PMU data and bus impedance matrix (Zbus). First, the proposed method diagnoses the fault... 

This paper presents a reliability-based approach to select appropriate wind turbine types for a wind farm considering site-specific wind speed patterns. An actual wind farm in the northern region of Iran with the wind speed registration of one year is studied in this paper. An analytic approach based on total probability theorem is utilized in this paper to model the probabilistic behavior of both turbines' availability and wind speed. Well-known probabilistic reliability indices such as loss of load expectation (LOLE), expected energy not supplied (EENS) and incremental peak load carrying capability (IPLCC) for wind power integration in the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) are examined. The... 

Dynamic economic dispatch (DED) determines system generation schedule in a specified time interval to meet load demand at each hour while satisfying generation system constraints. DED considering valve-point effects is a non-convex optimization problem and therefore conventional mathematical methods fail to solve this problem. This paper presents a hybrid gradient search - near optimal search method to solve the DED problem considering valve-point effects of generating units. Local minima obtained by Gradient Search Method (GSM) are utilized by a novel Near Optimal Search (NOS) method to find the global optimum of the DED problem. The efficiency and feasibility of the proposed method and its... 

With increasing the share of wind farms in generation profile, their contribution to frequency regulation has become crucial. This study presents an optimal robust first-order frequency controller in the wind farms, which collectively emulates the inertial response as well as governor droop of synchronous generators. To account for various uncertainties associated with system inertia, damping, and doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind turbine's parameters, the robustness of controller is verified through the 16-plant theorem. An analytic method based on the small-signal model of the system is utilised to determine the stability region of the first-order controller. To evaluate the... 

In this paper, the problem of placing a minimum number of phasor measurement units (PMUs) in a transmission system is considered so that faults on all lines of the network can be diagnosed and located irrespective of their locations. For this purpose, a PMU placement algorithm is applied to calculate the required data for impedance-based fault location of any fault line in the network, achieving the full potential of the circuit laws throughout the system. Another algorithm is then proposed to compute the voltage and current values of the fault line for fault-location purposes. Moreover, as many networks are already equipped with PMUs, the proposed algorithm makes it possible to locate... 

This study intends to develop a comprehensive procedure for evaluating locational value of a wind farm project incorporating reduction in transmission system losses, load delivery point interruption cost and operating cost of generating units. The energy extracted from the wind farm in normal operation condition is considered to replace the energy from fossil-fueled conventional units. In addition, composite system reliability analysis in the presence of wind power is carried out to evaluate total costs associated with curtailed energy at different load points as well as generation of generating units in contingency conditions. System reliability analysis related to large-scale wind farms,...