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Voltage rise caused by high levels of distributed generation is manifesting as voltage regulation challenges for many electricity network service providers. In this environment it would be ideal to reduce supply voltage magnitudes, however, many network operators are hesitant to do so due to concerns related to consumer appliance performance at reduced supply voltage magnitudes. Voltage regulation requirements are defined by network standards and network service providers must ensure voltages remain within specified limits. Through an evaluation of domestic appliance performance when supplied at various voltage magnitudes, this paper examines the impact of varying voltage levels on residential appliances. Equipment energy demand, operation and actuation were monitored for each applied voltage magnitude. While no equipment failures were recorded, appliance behaviour varied significantly with applied voltage magnitude. Individual appliance conservation voltage reduction (CVR) factors have also been established. The results highlight the importance of good voltage regulation and provide substantiated appliance performance figures for future studies. The outcomes of this paper allow electricity network service providers to understand the implications of supply voltage magnitude on domestic appliance performance, whether it be understating of the impact of higher voltage magnitudes caused by distributed generation or implications of reducing voltage magnitudes to provide headroom for distributed generation integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern electric grid usages extensive non-linear loads leading to the increased harmonic current injection in the system. This paper proposes a data-driven algorithm based on a sparse decomposition approach with the Overcomplete Hybrid Dictionary (OHD) and provides in-depth mathematical analysis to detect and mitigate harmonics in emerging electric power systems. The sparse decomposition method is widely used in image processing applications with significant advantages to big-data applications. However, its application is not properly addressed in electric grids’ applications despite massive data generation in a smart grid environment. Hence, in this paper, the performance evaluation of a sparse decomposition-based algorithm using a greedy approach is proposed and carried out in a real-time simulation environment for Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) application for the real-time detection, classification, and mitigation of PQ events to show its suitability and effectiveness. Finally, the experimental results on a small-scale laboratory setup are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed sparse-based control algorithm for DSTATCOM in real-time applications. The comparative result shows that the proposed sparse-based method is advantageous for off-line PQ signal processing and capable of real-time detection, classification, and control of the power apparatus for harmonics mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses an improved inner current reference calculation to be employed in the control of modular multilevel converters operating during either balanced or unbalanced conditions. The suggested reference calculation is derived based on the AC and DC additive and differential voltage components applied to the upper and lower arms of the converter. In addition, the impacts caused not only by the AC network’s impedances but also by the MMC’s arm impedances are also considered during the derivation of the AC additive current reference expressions. Another issue discussed in this article regards that singular voltage conditions, where the positive-sequence component is equal to the negative one, may occur not only in the AC network but also internally (within the converter’s applied voltages). Several different inner current reference calculation methods are compared and their applicability during the former fault conditions is analyzed. The paper presents a detailed formulation of the inner current reference calculation and applies it to different unbalanced AC grid faults where it is shown that the presented approach can be potentially used to maintain the internal energy of the converter balanced during normal and fault conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage and current waveforms contain the most authentic and granular information on the behaviors of power systems. In recent years, it has become possible to synchronize waveform data measured from different locations. Thus large-scale coordinated analyses of multiple waveforms over a wide area are within our reach. This development could unleash a set of new concepts, strategies, and tools for monitoring, protecting, and controlling power systems and apparatuses. This paper presents an in-depth review and analysis of the advancements in synchronized waveform data, including measurement devices, data characteristics, use cases, and comparisons with synchrophasor data. Based on the findings, five strategies are proposed to discover and develop synchronized waveform based applications over multiple application areas. The paper also presents three complementary measurement platforms and two data screening algorithms for application implementation. It further discusses committee activities and standard developments useful to explore the full potential of the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inrush current generated by power transformer energization (TE) causes voltage sag of the nearby bus, the typical residual voltage of the voltage sag caused by transformer energization (VSTE) is about 0.7 p.u.--0.9 p.u. and lasts for a longer duration, which may lead to the sensitive equipment trips. This paper proposes an estimation method of voltage sag frequency considering VSTE. Firstly, based on the maximum entropy method, the residual flux distribution is calculated by considering the relationship between the residual flux and closing angle at the moment of TE. The voltage sag waveform caused by TE is calculated based on the estimation of the probability distribution of residual flux, to evaluate VSTE objectively and comprehensively. Secondly, this paper proposes a non-rectangular voltage sag equivalent frequency statistical method based on multiple magnitude-duration (MMD) function, to avoid the overestimation of voltage sag frequency by the traditional methods. Furthermore, this paper proposes an assessment algorithm of voltage sag frequency. Finally, the simulation of IEEE-30 test system verifies the necessity and correctness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As high-speed railways develop rapidly worldwide, the problems of neutral section and power quality are becoming increasingly prominent. These problems affect the normal operation of the power grid and the electric locomotives. The co-phase power supply schemes were proposed by researchers, which can solve these problems well. Among them, the MMC-based scheme (MMC-5 L) is a representative one. The existing scheme, when applied to the auto-transformer (AT)-fed system which is usually adopted by high-speed railways, needs to install an auto-transformer on the output side. To eliminate the auto-transformer and to obtain the more suitable and superior co-phase power supply schemes to AT-fed system, two improved schemes are proposed in this paper based on the novel MMC-based scheme (MMC-6 L) we proposed before. While establishing the mathematical model, creating the control system, and carrying out simulation verification of the proposed schemes, the proposed schemes are compared with MMC-6 L and MMC-5 L in terms of topological characteristics, control system complexity, power loss, and functionality. The results show that while the proposed schemes can fulfill the functions of the co-phase power supply scheme well like the MMC-5 L and MMC-6 L, they are more suitable and superior for the AT-fed system in terms of control system complexity and power loss. Among them, MMC-5L1CB performs best in power loss, and MMC-4L2CB performs best in control system complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonics, inter-harmonics, and low-frequency (below the fundamental frequency) components produced by nonlinear loads and renewables may cause undesired effects on electric power equipment including overheating, resonance, and voltage flickers. This paper presents a hybrid method for the detection of frequency components of the measured waveform that is nonstationary (time-varying) in a holistic manner. In the proposed method, the multi-syncrosqueezing transform (MSST) is firstly applied to determine time-frequency ridges for the low-frequency, fundamental, harmonic, and interharmonic components. Next, the algorithm of density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is adopted to precisely identify the prominent frequency components (i.e., intrinsic modes) using the MSST results. The time-domain waveforms corresponding to each detected frequency component and the original signal are then reconstructed via the inverse operation of MSST to assess the rms, and total harmonic and interharmonic distortion (THD and ITHD) trends of the recovered waveforms. The proposed method is validated by simulations and actual measurements to show its usefulness. Results are also compared with different time-frequency analysis methods to show the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage sag insurance (VSI) is an effective measure to reduce the voltage sag loss and risk for enterprises with insufficient mitigation confidence or economic ability. However, due to the lack of understanding of voltage sag risk (VSR), it is difficult for power utilities to identify the enterprises with VSI demands, and it is also unable to realize differentiated premium according to different enterprises' situations. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes an improved voltage sag premium model based on VSR. Firstly, the VSR factors are analyzed, such as the hazard, the vulnerability, the exposure. The process immune time is introduced to describe the vulnerability. Based on the traditional consideration of only the ability of users to resist voltage sag, the ability of users to recover from voltage sag is further considered. Then, the risk evaluation model of voltage sag is established. The evaluation results can help power utilities to judge whether enterprises have the demand of VSI. Finally, the improved premium model of VSI based on VSR is constructed to ensure the differentiation and rationalization of the premium. The correctness and rationality of this method are proved by ten manufacturing enterprises in China by analyzing the VSR and comparing the premium before and after the improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the presence of multiple power converters in a power system the total current may exhibit zero-crossing distortion in the form of recurrent damped oscillations with high magnitude. These oscillations are synchronized with the power system frequency. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the input current of single-phase ac-dc converters fitted with power factor correction (PFC) controllers. Emphasis is given on the impacts of the source impedance, and on how the number of converters connected to a common coupling point (PCC) impacts the PFC controller’s performance. A system model is developed followed by simulation and measurements in a real installation with electronic ballasts used to drive fluorescent lighting tubes. Results show that the recurrent damped oscillations originating from PFC controllers are close to the harmonic range and with a very low level of cancellation between devices. The magnitude therefore increases proportionally with the number of devices. As the source impedance increases, instability may occur. Possible explanations for these observations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources will be more vigorously deployed under the global trend of carbon emission reduction. The connection of numerous renewable energy sources poses an increasingly critical challenge to power quality (PQ) issues in power systems. Time-frequency analysis (TFA) is a foundational technique for real-time monitoring and disturbance detection for power signals. This paper develops an improved S-transform (IST) to accurately detect the disturbances such as oscillatory transient, time-varying harmonics and interharmonics, flicker, swell, sag, interrupt, phase jump, and frequency variation. The proposed IST features the exploration of a designed Gaussian window as the kernel function, whose shape and frequency spectrum can be controlled using a standard deviation based detection frequency parameter. This ensures that the detection requirements at different detection frequencies can be easily met. The IST can be realized by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and its inverse, which ensures that it can be implemented quickly. The IST can accurately detect the amplitude and phase information of fundamental signal, which is beneficial to determine the start and end time, and the intensity of disturbance. With the increase of detection frequency, IST also has excellent energy concentration performance. Simulation and experimental results validated the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Line-commutated converters are extensively used as the interface between ac grids and classic HVDC systems. At the inverter side, commutation failure of switches is one of the most common faults that can pose threats to the system operation. Practical and reliable study of such phenomena relies on accurate and efficient converter models for simulations. Recently, a parametric average-value model (PAVM) has been presented for ac–dc rectifiers, which considers the internal faults of the converter. In this paper, the PAVM methodology is extended to the dc–ac inverter systems, including the commutation failure of switches. The proposed PAVM also augments an automatic fault detection technique to determine the faulty switches. Using comprehensive simulation studies, the developed model is verified to accurately predict the commutation failure of switches and reconstruct the waveforms consistent with the detailed switching models of inverters while being computationally more efficient. The proposed PAVM is envisioned to be an efficient and accurate asset for simulation of HVDC systems and inevitable when faults of switches need to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supraharmonic (SH) disturbances are generated mainly by power electronics whose usage has increased significantly in the last decades. Consequently, supraharmonics have increased as well. The SH frequency range from 2 kHz to 150 kHz still lacks a normative measurement method. Compatibility levels and emission limits of SH are commonly presented as quasi-peak (QP) detector values for a bandwidth (BW) of 200 Hz measured by CISPR 16 receivers. In this context, this paper proposes an optimized method emulating the CISPR 16 receiver with QP detector for measuring grid disturbance levels. It makes innovative use of PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) units for estimating the highest distortion levels in the SH frequency range of the test signal, and in sequence, the QP detector with the appropriate specifications in the CISPR 16 standard is applied. Different cases of both synthetic and real signals were applied to the proposed method, which showed to be efficient in evaluating SH levels for current and voltage signals. An analysis of maximum permissible distortion levels is performed considering an individual SH distortion. In addition, the proposed method presents a computational cost reduction of approximately 91% in relation to the CISPR 16 method considering a specific case of signal containing SH distortions used for power quality analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, nonlinear loads such as load commutated inverter (LCI) drives are being used by industrial sector throughout the world. However, despite the LCI drive uses low-cost thyristors and their corresponding controllers, which have high efficiency and low manufacturing cost, there are concerns regarding the use of LCI drives which are two-fold: (i) they generate harmonics and (ii) they are sensitive to voltage sags occurring at their PCC. In the literature, passive harmonic filters have been suggested to address the former concern and therefore various filter designing techniques have been introduced. However, the need to elaborate a cost-effective filter to address both concerns regarding LCI drive operation has been neglected. Therefore, this paper presents an innovative approach for designing passive filters which can decrease the harmonic distortions generated by LCI drives while ensuring more reliable annual operation of these equipment. Besides, other aspects of passive filter designing, such as eliminating detuning effects, resonance elimination and harmonic loading of capacitors, have been taken into account to provide a general and practical filter designing approach for real industrial applications. In order to evaluate the innovative proposed approach, a passive filter is designed for LCI drive used in an Iranian large copper mine company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the role of the medium-voltage network and low-voltage loads in harmonic voltages with low-voltage customers and harmonic propagation. A general model as well as a detailed transfer function-based model are used. By applying them to an existing network, it is shown that remote low-voltage loads have a significant impact on the source and transfer impedance. The main impact occurs for a specific range of frequencies below the resonant frequency of the low-voltage network. The general model is able to estimate this frequency range with an acceptable level of accuracy. Furthermore, by utilizing the concept of overall transfer impedance, it is shown that voltage harmonic levels for harmonic orders around this frequency range are determined mainly by aggregated remote emission rather than local emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel transactive energy approach that uses the utility's distributed energy management system, the home energy management systems in the residential customers and the existing inter-communication infrastructure to: 1) enable the electric utilities to identify the negative impacts of integrating local distributed energy resources (such as rooftop solar photovoltaic) and electric vehicles; 2) provide voltage support, transformer management and phase balancing to mitigate such impacts (utilities’ objectives); and 3) create a day-ahead local energy market whose participants are the homeowners with home battery storage. In this market, the homeowners compete among each other through a dynamic Bertrand game to maximize their payoffs (customer's preferences). The results have demonstrated the capability of the proposed transactive energy approach to resolve the conflicting objectives between the utility and the customers by improving the service voltage, extending the lifetime of the transformers, and reducing the voltage unbalance, while increasing the profits for the homeowners through the energy arbitrage without sacrificing the homeowner's convenience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of an algorithm to extract power quality parameters on a low-end digital controller with constrained resources and computational capacity can promote comprehensive adoption of power quality control and monitoring infrastructure because of reduced cost and thus improve operational ability in a microgrid or distribution grid and support more in-depth integration of renewable energy. Since conventional harmonic extraction for single-phase grid mostly operate on Fourier transform, lock-in amplifier and their derivative algorithms, they demand large memory and computational power which are available with high-end application-specific processors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). In this paper, a computationally efficient harmonic extraction algorithm is proposed, which can be implemented on commercially available microcontrollers with ease, without compromising accuracy. A detailed theoretical analysis of the proposed method, along with various simulation and the experimental results are presented. Workarounds for minor implementation issues on digital controllers are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inevitable voltage sag events cause losses to distributed generation (DG) and sensitive users. Reasonable planning for both of them helps to mitigate the impact of voltage sag. In this paper, a joint optimal planning method is proposed for DG and large sensitive user (LSU) considering the influence of voltage sag. Firstly, the new models of accelerated trip and chain trip for DG under voltage sag are established, to characterize the influence of DG tripping on other DG and sag characteristics during the sag event accurately. Secondly, a new voltage sag frequency assessment method is proposed, which considers models of accelerated trip and chain trip for DG, the tripping characteristics of distance protection (DP), to quantify the voltage sag severity accurately of DGs and LSUs in the gird which is with DP. Lastly, a joint optimal planning model is established considering the losses of DG and LSU under voltage sag, to support the planning of DG and LSU in different scenarios. The method is applied to IEEE RTS-30 for verification, proving that the method can give a direction of the most beneficial solution for the planner, to reduce the losses of voltage sag to both the power system and users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased penetration of wind power has made its low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability more crucial than ever. Currently, the LVRT performance of wind generators is verified using experimental voltage sags with different magnitudes and durations. The actual fault, however, also causes the phase angle jump (PAJ) of the grid voltage. In this paper, the impact of PAJ on the LVRT capability of doubly fed inductor generator (DFIG) under three-phase fault is analyzed. To achieve this, detailed analytical calculations and experimental verifications are conducted. The results demonstrate that the PAJ imposes more challenges on the LVRT by intensifying the rotor overcurrent through the natural stator flux. As a result, DFIGs that have passed the existing LVRT test may still fail to comply with the grid code requirements in practice. To tackle this issue, an improved test procedure is recommended. The new procedure considers the impedance angle of the target system as an additional test condition, thus can reveal the LVRT performance of DFIG under the potential PAJ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a comprehensive optimization method of determining the size and location of dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) in distribution network considering customers’ demand for sag mitigation. The objective is to minimize the investment of DVRs subject to customers’ satisfaction. In the objective function, the unit price per kVA of DVR was described by a continuous function of the capacity to calculate the investment. In the constraints, a mitigation expectation index (MEI) was proposed to assess the customers’ demand for mitigation. The MEI indicates the proportion among all sag events affecting customers, which were expected to be mitigated by the customers. It is represented by the cumulative probability of residual voltage of sag events. To improve the computational efficiency, the binary encoding for the locations and real encoding for the output voltage of DVRs are combined as chromosomes in multiple population Genetic Algorithm (MPGA). The proposed method was testified with the IEEE 33 bus distribution system with different sensitive loads. Optimal results were obtained to satisfy different customers’ demand for sag mitigation efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the consequences of voltage sags is unexpected motor trips or stalls. This is caused by the simple voltage-magnitude-based tripping logic used in the motor contactors. Since a motor has momentum during a voltage sag, a deep voltage sag with a short duration does not necessarily lead to motor misoperation. Based on this reasoning, a novel motor contactor operation scheme is proposed in this paper. The proposed scheme takes into account both the magnitude and duration of a voltage sag plus the momentum of the rotor, in real-time, to decide if a motor will be tripped. The core idea of the scheme is to utilize the critical clearance time (CCT) of motors as the tripping time of AC contactors. The proposed scheme combines an offline analysis and an online calculation to minimize the computation burden in real-time operation. An improved motor parameter estimation method is also proposed to ensure the accuracy of the calculated CCT. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated and demonstrated through comparative case studies. Moreover, some practical issues are discussed to facilitate the real implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The allocation of fault current limiters (FCLs) is increasingly challenging in transmission systems these days. Specifically, the utilized deterministic expected short-circuit fault (SCF) scenarios are prone to cause over-configuration of FCLs. Moreover, the well-established local switching framework (LSF) renders inappropriate FCL switching and may further harm the system safe operation. Aiming at the above deficiencies, a novel 5G-based centralized switch FCL (CSF) framework as well as a method to allocate such flexible FCLs optimally is proposed in this paper. In the proposed CSF, the FCLs are switched by a FCL dispatching (FD) model considering system security constraints of both fault current and voltage sags. By exploiting the fast communication capability of 5G network as well as an off-line fault scanning strategy, the FD model is enabled to give online FCL switching schemes to meet the fast requirement of power system protection. Moreover, considering the probabilistic characteristic of SCFs, a bi-level FCL allocation model is established, in which the upper-level model sites and sizes FCLs considering the installation and expected switching costs while the lower-level model determines the optimal switched FCLs under each specific SCF scenario. Finally, numerical results are provided to verify the proposed allocation model, including its defending effect against SCFs in terms of fault current limiting, voltage sags relieving, as well as its cost-effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of harmonics in electric power systems causes deviations in voltage and current waveforms from the ideal sinusoidal form and, consequently, the traditional power calculation is unsuitable. One of the power theories defined for non-sinusoidal conditions is the IEEE Standard 1459-2010, based on Fourier Transform (FT). However, when applied to non-stationary signals, the FT leads to miscalculation due to spectral leakage, being unsuitable for non-stationary waveforms. In this paper, a new approach for the IEEE Standard 1459-2010 definitions is proposed using Stockwell Transform (ST). The ST provides a time-frequency resolution which retains magnitude and phase information of signals over time. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated in three scenarios including stationary waveforms, a non-linear circuit, and real measured data. The results were compared to the IEEE Standard 1459-2010 using the FT and the Stationary Discrete Wavelet Packet Transform (SDWPT) approaches. In the three scenarios studied, the proposed method presented a good estimation for each quantity defined in IEEE Standard 1459-2010 and provided more accurate results than FT-based and SDWPT-based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, there is no literature to evaluate the fault level of sensitive equipment (FLSE) caused by voltage sag from the perspective of the power grid. In practice, although the FLSE are dominated by the voltage sag of node, the voltage sag of the node is associated with whole power grid, including the voltage grade and location of the node, the distance between the concerned node and location of fault, and the weather and date at the time of fault, which are all named as voltage sag properties (VSP). In view of this gap, this paper evaluates the FLSE using the long-time monitoring data of VSP of some regional power grid by data mining method based on multidimensional matrix simplification and the improved gray target theory. The data mining process can be divided into three steps: 1) construct a database consisted of VSP and FLSE using long-time monitoring data, 2) mine the association rules between VSP and FLSE by multidimensional matrix simplification, and 3) match some actual scenario with the mined association rules by the improved gray target theory. Performance and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified through the simulation and field case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new multi-objective control strategy for inverter-interfaced distributed generation (IIDG) to ensure its safe and continuous operation under unbalanced voltage sags. The proposed control strategy can effectively improve the low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability, reduce active power oscillations, and limit overcurrent simultaneously, which are marked as the most important control objectives of IIDG during unbalanced voltage sags. The advanced voltage support scheme, which utilizes positive sequence component, is firstly proposed to maximize the LVRT capability of IIDG during unbalanced voltage sags. Then, to ensure the safety of IIDG, the active power oscillation suppression and current limitation algorithm are designed individually. Based on the control algorithms of such objectives, the multi-objective control method, including scenario classification and reference current determination, is then presented to achieve such three objectives under various system conditions simultaneously. Finally, case studies and evaluations based on MATLAB/Simulink are carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]