CIGR Canada

21, rue dArtois, F-75008 PARIS

(CIGRE - 158) Conference on Power Systems
http : //www.cigre.org
Vancouver, October 17- 19, 2010
An Efficient Production Tool to Maximize
BC Hydro Peace System Transfer Limits While Factoring In
Dynamically Armed Generation shedding RAS Requirements


S. C. PAI
1
, B. R. CORNS
2

BC Hydro
1
(CAN),

BC Hydro
2
(CAN)
SUMMARY

A tool has been developed to facilitate the BC Hydro system planners efficiently computing the
transfer limits of Peace transmission system while taking generation shedding remedial action scheme
(RAS) into account. The tool fully takes advantage of the flexibility offered by the BC Hydro
Centralized RAS
[1]
thereby realizing the extra transfer capability through appropriate application of
generation shedding. The success of this tool has enabled the efficient production of operation limits
for various operating conditions which otherwise may not occur due to constraints. Furthermore the
systematic approach of computation has increased transfer limits with significant improvement in
quality and consistency. The availability of these new and/or refined limits has greatly enhanced the
system security and maximized economic benefit of the BC Hydro 500 kV backbone transmission
system. The calculation approach is in the process of being implemented in real time application
environment.


KEYWORDS

Transfer limits, dynamically armed, generation shedding RAS requirement, real time operation,
optimal transfer limits, centralized RAS, RAS dependent transfer limits
Steven.Pai@bchydro.com
Bryan.Corns@bchydro.com




1. INTRODUCTION

Bulk transmission systems are costly to develop, financially, socially, and environmentally.
Maximizing and searching for the transfer limits while ensuring system security is a top goal of
planners
[3,4]
. The availability of techniques and tools to determine the right limits have great impact to
the realization of the actual potentials of major transmission network. It is challenging to develop the
limits for the BC Hydro Peace transmission system, as the limits are sensitive to many variables due to
its configuration and nature. To have a sense of the magnitude of the complications, the limits are
affected by the individual status of seventeen 500 kV lines and eleven series capacitors. For a given
scenario of the transmission network configuration including the specific combination of the status of
series capacitors, the pre-outage transfer limit should be coordinated with the impact of about 30
contingencies and their associated mitigation measure including generation shedding. It was a huge
effort to manually produce one generation shedding table of transfer limits for a given network
configuration covering combinations of series capacitor connection statuses. Consequently only
limited numbers of tables were produced, which unfortunately sometimes caused complications in real
time operations. The first author was charged with the responsibility of updating the tables and
consequently was motivated to develop a new efficient technique. This paper describes a new off line
computation tool we have developed to facilitate the planners systematically finding optimal transfer
limits for the Peace transmission system. The success of this tool has resulted in the production of
sufficient Peace system generation shedding tables with consistent quality.


2. THE PEACE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM



Figure 1: BC Hydro Bulk Transmission System


The Peace 500kV transmission system is one of the two major backbone systems in BC Hydro for
bringing bulk power produced from remote places to the load center in Lower Mainland and
Vancouver Island areas in the southern region of the province of BC, Canada. The other is the South
Interior bulk transmission system. The Peace system consists of two major hydroelectric power plants,
the G. M. Shrum Generating Station (GMS) and Peace Canyon Generating Station (PCN), with a total
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capacity of 3430 MW. The area net surplus power is delivered through 3 x 500kV transmission lines
first to Williston Substation (WSN) and then to Kelly Lake Substation (KLY), with each segment
about 300 km long. Each line segment is 50% series compensated to improve system performance. At
GMS, WSN and KLY, local loads are served with step down substations and regional transmission
systems. Between WSN and KLY there is a 230kV transmission line parallel to the 500 kV lines
which somewhat complicates the operations of the backbone system. From WSN, a 500 kV line
extends west for approximately 440 km to Glennanan substation (GLN), Telkawa substation (TKW),
and finally to Skeena substation (SKA), each to serve some local loads and with shunt var devices to
regulate the system voltages. From SKA a 60 km 287 kV line connects to a large generation and load
industrial complex. The surplus power from the complex is transferred back towards the Peace
system. At KLY, the Peace transmission system is tied to the South Interior transmission system with
a series compensated 500kV transmission line to Nicola substation (NIC) to form a close connection
from where power from both systems could be transferred through 4 x 500kV series compensated
lines to LM and VI. Figure 1 gives a pictorial perspective of the system. The radial Peace transmission
system is long, heavily series compensated, and prone to various serious disturbances which could
result in transient and voltage instability. Adequate remedial action to mitigate the impact is essential
to the security of the system or the transfer limits would have to be significantly curtailed.


3. THE PEACE RAS SYSTEM

BC Hydro has used centralized Remedial Action Schemes
[1]
and other means
[2]
to mitigate the impact
of severe contingencies while others have applied different types of RAS to suit their particular
needs
[5,6]
. The BC Hydro RAS control actions include the application of shedding generators to
remove surplus power, tripping lines to reconfigure the system, and switching shunt var equipment to
regulate the voltages, etc. The required actions are pre-determined with off-line operation planning
studies and the results are translated into operation instructions
[7]
. The constraints are also
implemented in TSA, a real time tool inside the Energy Management System (EMS) to aid the
dispatchers in real time operations. TSA identifies the prevailing system condition through pattern
matching, then applies the associated limits and arms the RAS actions appropriate for that operating
condition. In the event of a disturbance, the set RAS action will immediately respond in cycles to
mitigate the impact, thus ensuring the system performance within acceptable range. TSA run cycles
every four minutes. The run also could be triggered by a system event, such as a network change, a
load change or a generation dispatch change.

Peace system is transient stability limited. To maintain stability, generation shedding RAS has been
made available to respond to the potential contingencies, including single and simultaneous double
outages, transmission line forced outages, and bypassing of series capacitors. The simultaneous double
outages are to address the risks of transmissions lines built on the same corridor.


4. THE CHALLENGES

For a given system, many parameters could significantly affect the system transfer limits. For Peace
transmission system, many key factors must be taken into account in a comprehensive and consistent
manner at the same time when determining the limits. For example, the network configuration,
generation dispatch, load levels, series capacitor status, generator terminal voltage level, availability of
braking resistors, applicable credible contingencies, generation shedding availability and requirement,
minimum number of units remaining on line after shedding to prevent over-voltages, and North Coast
system conditions, etc.

With a transmission line out of service, the transmission system strength could be significantly
reduced. Its impact depends on the location of the line in the system. With high generations and low
area load, the net power transfers would be high relative to the high loading condition, thus increasing
the stress and degrading the system performance. The series capacitor reduces the impedance and
2

strengthens the system. Disturbance that results in the loss of that series capacitor or the associated
line could cause transient instability and dynamic voltage problem. If the equipment that improves the
dynamic performance of the major generators is out of service, e.g. PSS, the reduced capability must
be factored into the analysis of transfer limits. The application of braking resistor to slow down the
rotors from speeding away is helpful to maintain transient stability. The availability status of that
device should be included when determining the transfer limits. Faults and subsequent forced outages
in this system could cause dynamic and post disturbance steady state performance problems, with
some more severe than others. Identifying the problematic contingencies and applying the appropriate
remedial actions to mitigate the impact of these disturbances is critical to ensure system security and
reliability. In the Peace transmission system, the impact caused by many contingencies need to be
factored into the assessment at the same time. Double contingencies are severe and they often require
large amount of generation shedding to prevent instability and low dynamic voltages. However, the
sudden reduction of large amount of power transfer throughout the entire Peace system could cause
temporary severe over-voltages in well-connected parts of the system. Determining the maximum
transfer for a given operating condition while simultaneously taking the required generation shedding
of all contingencies into consideration can be challenging and time consuming due to the iterative
nature of the process. The North Coast system is weakly connected to the Peace system with a large
generation at the remote end. Maintaining the transient stability of North Coast system needs to be
carefully considered when determining the Peace system transfer limits.

Despite the challenges, the planners conducting studies manually and using short cuts produced
several Peace generation shedding tables after investing huge amount of effort. Table 1 shows a
typical Peace system generation shedding table produced prior to the development of this tool. The
table is for one network configuration, covering rows of combinations of series capacitor connection
status. For a given row of series capacitor status, the pre-outage maximum generation is listed. In
addition, the post outage limits corresponding to the various disturbances are also stated. The amount
of generation shedding required to mitigate the impact for a given contingency would be the difference
between the actual generation and the post outage limit of that contingency. To compute the limits
manually, the task was very complex, labor intensive, time consuming, and prone to errors. For
example, to develop the operation limits for one Peace generation shedding table, it took an
experienced planner fully dedicated to the task for about two months. Therefore, the author had a
strong desire to develop a tool to facilitate the computation of Peace generation shedding tables as the
manual process was too demanding to be sustainable in resources and time.



Table 1: Portion of a representative Peace system generation shedding table produced manually


5. THE TOOL

An off line computer program was developed in 2000 after exploring different options including using
angular limits but none was promising at that time. Studies and insights of the characteristics of the
system led to the successful development of this tool in a few months by two persons.

The tool uses one base case of a certain network configuration, sets up one combination of the
capacitor statuses, develops the corresponding power flow case, conducts power flows and transient
3

stability simulations to search for the post outage limits for every credible contingency that may affect
the stability and post outage steady state performance. The results are stored in a spreadsheet
corresponding to that set of series capacitor status. Then the program sets the next set of series
capacitor status, and searches for the post outage limits for the contingencies. The process continues
until all the required combinations of series capacitors are covered. The results are then grouped into
two categories; the ones equipped with generation shedding actions and the ones that not. The steady
state preoutage limit for the specific combination of series capacitor conditions is then determined by
finding the minimum value of the ones that are not equipped with generation shedding capability. In
addition, the limit needs to be adjusted so that the amount of generation shedding of the worst
contingency must be below a certain level to avoid unacceptable disturbance to the integrated system.
The requirement of keeping certain minimum number of units remaining on line in the post outage
limits to prevent temporary overvoltage is monitored to ensure compliance. Figure 2 shows the
principle described above.



Figure 2: Coordinated approach to maximize the preoutage transfer limit
for a given system condition including the effect of generation shedding RAS actions

The post outage limit for a given contingency is found by searching for the maximum preoutage limit
that will produce acceptable post disturbance performance after applying the subject contingency
without using generation shedding. Hence the post outage limit of that contingency is essentially the
same value as the preoutage limit. This implies that without the generation shedding RAS available,
the preoutage transfer limits would need to be severely curtailed to the post outage limit to ensure
acceptable post disturbance performance. This highlights the benefits of dynamically armed generation
shedding capability as well as the importance of keeping them available and reliable.

The above process is computation intensive. To speed up the work, post contingency power flows are
run first to find the acceptable steady state performance. Then the case is checked with a time domain
simulation to ensure acceptable transient stability and dynamic voltage performance. If the case is
transient stability limited rather than power flows constrained, searching for the lower limit with
iterative reduction would be required.

4

Other variables that affect the Peace system limits are dealt with at different stages of the process. To
address the impact of transfer reduction due to off loading to serve area loads, separate runs are made
using base cases of different load levels. The resulting Peace generation shedding tables are applied to
the appropriate system loading conditions. The impact of secondary effect parameters such as braking
resistor availability, PSS status, generator terminal voltages etc. are taken into account by adjusting the
limits using rules developed in separate sensitivity studies. The North Coast system transient stability
is maintained by applying appropriate generation shedding to reduce the surplus power transfer over
the long distance line. The reduction in transfer is reflected in the calculation of Peace system limits.

A second program is developed to validate the results using a different approach from the one the table
is developed. This program uses the base case of the specific system configuration and develops a
preoutage case for a specified set of series capacitor conditions. Then it applies a contingency and the
required generation shedding according to the value stated in the new Peace generation shedding table,
runs a transient stability simulation and conducts a post-contingency power flow to check if the
performance meets the requirements. The process continues to the next set of series capacitor
combination until the entire Peace generation shedding table is validated. If there is a violation
suspect, the cell is highlighted for manual checking. Table 2 shows a typical Peace generation
shedding table produced and validated by the new tool.

Pre-Outage Limits
KDY1 KDY2 KDY3 MLS1 MLS2 MLS3 CHP CRK AMC81AMC82 GUI *PEACE GEN C5L1 C5L2 C5L3_7 C5L4 C5L1-2 C5L1-3 C5L1-7 C5L2-3 C5L2-7 C5L12 C5L13 C5L40 C5L41
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3429 3404 3404 3429 3429 2144 2217 2269 2218 2269 2804 2804 3429 3279
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 3429 3329 3329 3429 3429 2173 2164 2290 2164 2290 2788 2729 3429 3079
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 3429 3379 3379 3429 3429 2144 2164 2219 2164 2219 2804 2802 3429 3254
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 3429 3429 3429 3429 3429 2144 2164 2219 2164 2219 2829 2782 3429 3204
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 3429 3329 3329 3429 3429 2150 2163 2258 2163 2257 2789 2729 3429 3429
1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 3429 3354 3354 3429 3429 2189 2187 2291 2187 2291 2804 2754 3429 3429
1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 3129 3079 3079 3129 3129 2219 2176 2344 2177 2344 1892 2704 3429 3231
1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 3109 2984 2984 3109 3109 2144 2217 2269 2206 2269 2857 1874 3429 3404
1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3429 3204 3204 3429 3429 1369 2216 2269 2217 2269 2845 2804 3129 3129
Series Cap Combo(s) Post Outage Limits for The Following Contingencies


Table 2: Portion of a representative Peace system generation shedding table
produced with the new tool


6. THE TOOL PERFORMANCE AND FUTURE APPLICATION

The tool is efficient, accurate, comprehensive, well coordinated, and easily adjustable to adapt to new
changes in the Peace system. The approach of computing the preoutage limits has maximized what
could be realized by taking advantage of the capability of dynamically armed generation shedding in
the Peace system. The tool has enabled BC Hydro system performance planners to produce many
Peace system generation shedding tables in a matter of weeks that would have taken years to produce
in the past. Currently 102 Peace generation shedding tables covering two load levels have been
incorporated in the system operating instruction database and are used by TSA for real time
operations.

The principle and the technique employed by the new tool for computing the Peace system limits and
RAS arming requirements in an off line environment is currently in the process of being implemented
into a real time tool, the real time TSA to improve system operation efficiency and reliability.


7. CONCLUSIONS

This paper has introduced an effective means and an off line tool of searching for the Peace system
maximum transfer limits as well as the potential application of finding the system limits in real time.
The paper also has highlighted the huge potentials that dynamically armed generation shedding RAS
could provide to increase transfer limits in a secure manner.


5

6

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Gerry Garnett for his review, comments, and suggestions on the
methodology and the need to develop a verification program using a different approach. The authors
also would like to thank Sheldon Yan for the suggestions from a users perspective and for the
production of many Peace generation shedding tables.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] BCTCs Experience Towards A Smarter Grid - Increasing Limits and Reliability With
Centralized Intelligence Remedial Action Schemes; by Pai, S.C.; Sun, J .; Electric Power
Conference, 2008. EPEC 2008. IEEE Canada, Publication Date: 6-7 Oct. 2008
[2] Steven. C. Pai, "Automatic Load Shedding for Maintaining BC Hydro 500kV System Voltage
Stability after 2nd or Multiple Contingencies," IEE, 2-3 August 1993, Kuala Lumpur
[3] New Calculation Method of Total Transmission Capacity (TTC) Taking Into Account Various
Kinds of Stability; A. Yokoyama, S. Fujiwana, University of Toronto, 14th PSCC, Servilla,
J une 2002
[4] Maximum power transfer limited by voltage stability in series and shunt compensated schemes
for AC transmission systems; Indulkar, C.S.; Viswanathan, B.; Venkata, S.S.; Dept. of Electr.
Eng., Indian Inst. of Technol., New Delhi; IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery; Apr 1989
[5] J . Bertsch, et al, "Wide-Area Protection and Power System Utilization" Proceedings of the
IEEE, vol. 93, No. 5, May. 2005.
[6] Gilles Trudel, et al, Hydro-Quebecs defense plan against extreme contingencies IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 14, No. 3, August 1999
[7] G.M. Schrum / Peace Canyon 500 kV System, BC Hydro SOO 7T-13