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This paper describes a novel power system laboratory at Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya (B.V.M.) Engineering College, Gujarat, India, where every experiment was designed, wired and commissioned through senior design projects. The experiments on power system protection are especially unique in terms of their design and implementation and will be highlighted in this paper. They provide a real substation-like operating environment. Through these projects, the students, in addition to getting familiar with the fundamentals of protection, learned how different protection schemes are wired and how they operate in a real power system. For the institute, a quality laboratory was established at a low cost, which is a crucial issue for most colleges in many parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a clustering technique to rank the dominant modes of low frequency oscillations in power systems under model order uncertainty of the signal. The rotational invariance property of the signal subspace is utilized to obtain the modes of oscillations. Rotational invariance of the signal under multiple shifts is considered to obtain the preliminary estimates of the modes. Subsequently, the modes are clustered to obtain the dominant modes that belong to the signal subspace. A signal subspace participation index (SSPI) is used to rank the modes according to their dominance in signal subspace. Thereafter, the convex combination of the preliminary modes, estimated from the multiple shifts of the signal subspace, is used to obtain the final mode estimates. The simulation results are presented for signal generated using the modes obtained from a two-area system. Additionally, the methodology is also tested on field data obtained from the PMU installed at a generating station in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increase penetration of intermittent renewable sources causes reduction and time variation in system inertia, forcing dynamic changes in system coherency status. Besides increased penetration levels, other factors like intermittent generation and change in distribution of renewables also influence the system coherency that needs to be addressed. This paper examines the impact of variability of renewables on system coherency and proposes a coherency identification method based on spectrum similarity approach. The proposed method uses discrete cosine Stockwell transform to derive multiple time-frequency (TF) features that captures pair-wise similarity between synchrophasor frequency signals. Thereafter, mean shift spectral clustering is used to cluster the buses with most homogeneous TF spectrum. The proposed method is validated with renewable generation in the IEEE-39 bus system and a real transmission system of India grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common information model (CIM) in vogue represents transmission and distribution components, and market operations in the perspective of electrical system, as unified modeling language (UML) objects. UML is object centric. CIM can offer interoperability and facilitate model exchange for large systems and is being adopted by many utilities. However, dealing effectively with multiple business processes is the backbone of the restructured power systems. Since CIM lacks chronological process sense, this has to be superimposed on CIM models, which is not easy due to inherent limitations of UML. To overcome this, this paper proposes to utilize business process modeling notation (BPMN) standards as a kind of pre-processor. BPMN is used to represent process centric interoperability requirements as business objects. UML object representation in CIM model is derived subsequently from it. The proposal is illustrated with an application use case—deriving CIM model of day-ahead market (DAM) transaction of distribution company, from its business process representation. Semantic model of DAM transaction using CIM IEC 62325 (Markets) and extensions required are presented with a sample Indian system. DAM models in BPMN and CIM can be utilized to build an efficient software application. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conventional power system graphic applications use absolute coordinates approach, in which the objects are positioned with respect to a common origin. This can result in problems of re-adjustment and re-alignment in the network and substation diagrams when editing or merging the graphics. This paper introduces the notion of layouts and proposes a graphics model to facilitate positioning of graphical elements relative to each other in a hierarchy of layouts, thereby making the network diagrams flexible, sharable and extensible. This proposed graphics model, expressed in unified modeling language (UML), is shown to be compatible with the existing common information model (CIM) graphics model IEC 61970-453. Consequently, the need for extension of CIM graphics model is justified and an extension is proposed. Another key feature of the proposed model is configurability. Since the necessary parameters are explicitly modeled, the user only needs to provide configuration information describing the hierarchical connectivity of the substation or the network. The absolute coordinates can be calculated from the configuration and the power system diagrams can be auto-generated. This paper demonstrates the above benefits highlighting the technologies for implementation. Case study on 400-kV 20-substation diagrams of Maharashtra system in India is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an expert system approach to short-term expansion planning (STEP). The rules which drive STEP can be classified into MW, MVAR, and ampacity management rules. MW and ampacity management rules are for alleviating transmission line congestion. Reactive power management is required for voltage control at load busses, conformity to the capacity curve of the generators, and containing the MW losses within acceptable limits. Embedding reactive power management in STEP is a challenging task since ac load flow may not converge in absence of proper reactive power planning and load modeling. Therefore, we also propose enhancements to the fast decoupled load flow algorithm for on-the-fly reactive power management. The enhanced algorithm not only can detect divergent load flow scenarios but also self-correct it by restarting the whole process with greater degree of freedom in reactive power controls. The proposed approach leads to development of an automated tool for STEP which has the capability to work, even with incomplete information. A simple method for evaluating location and requirement of shunt reactor is also proposed. By analysis and comparative evaluation, we show that the proposed system can arrive at a solution which is close to optimal. Results on the Western Regional Grid of India with an approximate load of 28000 MW and 1200 nodes are presented to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an effective method of congestion management in power systems. Congestions or overloads in transmission network are alleviated by generation rescheduling and/or load shedding of participating generators and loads. The two conflicting objectives 1) alleviation of overload and 2) minimization of cost of operation are optimized to provide pareto-optimal solutions. A multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method is used to solve this complex nonlinear optimization problem. A realistic frequency and voltage dependent load flow method which considers the voltage and frequency dependence of loads and generator regulation characteristics is used to solve this problem. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE 30-bus system, IEEE 118-bus system, and Northern Region Electricity Board, India (NREB) 390-bus system with smooth as well as nonsmooth cost functions due to valve point loading effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megawatt (MW) power flow tracing can assess the extent of network usage by the participants that can be effectively used for multiple objectives like transmission pricing, loss allocation, etc. MW power tracing, a post-facto analysis of power flow solution, is amenable to multiple solutions. This implies multiplicity of solution space of transmission cost and loss allocation problems. The conventional tracing methods enforce a ‘proportionate sharing rule’ to calculate the shares. These shares are sensitive to quantity and distance as against the postage stamp method, which is immune to distance. Any of these methods will result in penalizing a set of constituents, which raises a fairness issue. This is evident from the experiences of developing countries like India. In this paper, a new paradigm is suggested that attempts to capture the best of the two methodologies by exploring multiplicity of the solution space of the tracing problem, within the given constraints. We show that the tracing problem can be formulated as a linear constrained optimization problem. We propose a tracing compliant modified postage stamp allocation method that computes a traceable solution that minimizes overall deviation from the postage stamp allocation. Results on actual data of central transmission utility of Western Regional Grid of India demonstrate the claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical transmission infrastructure worldwide has witnessed severe environmental hazards, accidents and in countries like Columbia and India malicious attacks leading to the sabotage of transmission towers. These events underscore the need to develop new techniques to ensure safe and reliable operation of the transmission infrastructure. This paper deals with an online monitoring technique based on mechanical state estimation of overhead transmission lines subjected to tower tilt. The proposed approach provides a quick assessment of the grid condition at the initial stages of an extreme mechanical event. A computational algorithm based on least squares state estimation is applied to transmission line sag-tension equations developed through a geometric transformation to determine conductor sag levels. The measurements of tower tilt, conductor tension, core temperature, inclination angle of conductor with the horizontal and other transmission line parameters are utilized for the purpose of state estimation. Appropriate warning alarms generated in the case of considerable changes in the sag levels or violation of limits enable operators to take designated actions during the initial stages of the physical disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries have emphasis on distributed generation (DG) technology for their generation expansion planning. The planning considerations and judicious choice of attributes are dictated by prevailing conditions. The attributes considered are capital costs, energy not served per annum, and profits from injecting power into the grid at peak load, all of which are important for a developing country. The uncertain futures considered are three possible loading conditions, which can be low, medium and high. Different scenarios (plans) are generated by various combinations of configurations. DGs can be configured as stand-alone mode, hybrid operation, or micro-grid formation with or without grid connection. With the increased complexities in DG planning options along with the multiple attributes to be accounted, more sophisticated techniques other than conventional economic analysis are needed to arrive at correct decisions by decision makers. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used for obtaining relative weights in an objective way. Further, the statistical method like interval-based multi-attribute decision making with tradeoff analysis is used for shortlisting the feasible plans and identifying the most appropriate plan. It is proposed to use the weights obtained from AHP for finding the performance efficiencies in data envelopment analysis (DEA) for evaluating the plans. A new composite utility function is proposed to resolve cases where performance efficiency is insufficient for evaluation in DEA application. The sample system is derived with reference to a rural electrification scheme in India. The assessment of plans is presented and discussed. The comparative strengths and weaknesses of the methods are reported on the basis of the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on a study which considered operational performance statistics of all coal-based generating units belonging to the National Thermal Power Corp. of India. Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate operational inefficiencies; Comparison of results.