Adaptive Wide-Area Primary Frequency Controller for Improving Power Grid Dynamic Performance

This paper discusses an adaptive wide-area primary frequency controller that improves the dynamic frequency behavior, and consequently overall stability of the power grid. The control scheme is based on wide-area measurement of frequency and rate of change of frequency at several buses in the system, processing the measured values, and modulating the reference voltage of the shunt connected Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices and Power System Stabilizers (PSSs). The control parameters are adaptively being tuned up on a real-time basis according to 1) the severity of the disturbance and 2) the way it affects the power system, which meaning the areas that have been more affected would make greater contribution to modulating the reference voltage signals. The building block of the controller is the Multi-functional Multi-band Power System Stabilizer (MF-MBPSS) technology. This type of advanced control, developed by Hydro-Quebec, is an evolution of the existing IEEE PSS4B type stabilizer that is capable of utilizing wide-area measurements available from Pharos Measurement Units (PMUs) or other devices. The performance of the proposed controller has been verified on the PSS/E model of the Eastern Interconnection which is being widely used for transmission planning and several other system studies in the state of New York.