ECE 333

Renewable Energy Systems

Lecture 6: Power System Operations

Prof. Tom Overbye

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
overbye@illinois.edu
Announcements

• Be reading Chapter 3; also read Prof. Sauer's article on

course website explaining reactive power
• Quiz today on HW 2
• HW 3 is posted; it will be covered by an in-class quiz on
Thursday Feb 12
– Material from Power Systems history and operations will be
covered on exams (such as true/false)
• Talk by Jana Sebestik, "Sparking
Interest in Smart Grid Stuff",
Friday Feb 6 at 1pm in NCSA
Auditorium
1
In the News: Pakistan Blackout

• On Sunday Jan 25, 2015 Pakistan had a nationwide

blackout, the worst in their history, with 80% of the
country out
– Service was restored to major
cities later in the day
– Blackout was tied to rebels
blowing up two 220 kV
transmission lines between
Guddu-Quetta
– Caused a cascade that took out
most of the rest of their grid
Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/world/asia/widespread-blackout-in-pakistan-
deals-another-blow-to-government.html?_r=0;
http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/national_energy_grid/pakistan/pakistaninationalele
ctricitygrid.shtml 2
Natural Gas Boom, Bust and Boom

Source: EIA
3
2007 Illinois Electricity Crisis

• Two main electric utilities in Illinois are ComEd and

Ameren
• Restructuring law had frozen electricity prices for ten
years, with rate decreases for many.
• Prices rose on January 1, 2007 as price freeze ended;
price increases were especially high for electric
heating customers who had previously enjoyed rates
as low as 2.5 cents/kWh
• 2014 average residential rate (in cents/kWh) is 11.42
in IL, 11.27 IN, 13.94 WI, 20.13 NY, 8.77 WA, 16.22
in CA, 37.59 in HI, 12.53 US average
4
The Rise of Renewables: Wind

While
2014
additions
were a
jump from,
2013 they
were still
muchbelow
2012 values

Source: AWEA Wind Power Outlook 4th Qtr, 2014 (released 1/28/15)
5
Recent Growth in Solar

• Solar is growing rapidly in the US,

but its growth if being fueled by
low cost imported panels primarily
from China.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Sept 10, 2012 6

The Smart Grid

• The term “Smart Grid” dates officially to the 2007

“Energy Independence and Security Act”, Title 13
(“Smart Grid”)
• Use of digital information and control techniques
• Dynamic grid optimization with cyber-security
• Deployment of distributed resources including
• Customer participation and smart appliances
• Integration of storage including PHEVs
• Development of interoperability standards

7
Smart Grid Perceptions (Some of
Us Like the Term “Smarter”)

8
Illinois 2012: Municipal Aggregation

• Urbana and Champaign residents started seeing

substantially lower electric bills as a result of municipal
aggregation
• This was approved by a 2-1 margin in 3/2012 referendum
• Municipal aggregation means all residents of a
community get their electricity from a third party
supplier chosen by the city (as opposed to the local
utility) unless they specifically opt out. .
• They still get bills from Ameren, and do pay an
electricity delivery charge (about 30 to 40% of total bill)
• Recently Ameren rates have dropped, making third
party options less attractive 9
Renewable Portfolio Standards
Set by States

Source: http://www.dsireusa.org/ 10
Power System Operations:
One-line Diagrams
• Most power systems are balanced three phase
systems.
• A balanced three phase system can be modeled as a
single (or one) line.
• One-lines show the major power system
components, such as generators, loads, transmission
lines.
• Components join together at a bus.

11
Substation Bus

12
Power System Time Frames

Next few slides will consider the power flow (quasi-steady)

time frame
Image source: P.W. Sauer, M.A. Pai, Power System Dynamics and Stability, 1997, Fig 1.2, modified
13
 PowerWorld Simulator Three Bus
System
Load with
green Bus 2
-20 MW
4 MVR
20 MW
-4 MVR Bus 1
1.00 PU
arrows 204 MW
102 MVR
indicating 1.00 PU
106 MW
amount 0 MVR

150 MW AGC ON -34 MW -14 MW Note the

of MW 116 MVR AVR ON
10 MVR 4 MVR 100 MW

34 MW 14 MW power
flow -10 MVR -4 MVR

Home Area Bus 3 1.00 PU balance at

102 MW
Used 51 MVR each bus
150 MW AGC ON
37 MVR AVR ON
to control
output of
generator Direction of arrow is used to indicate
direction of real power (MW) flow
14
Power Flow

• A common power system analysis tool is the power flow

– It shows how real and reactive power flows through a network,
from generators to loads
• Solves sets of non-linear equations enforcing
"conservation of power" at each bus in the system (a
consequence of KCL)
– Loads are usually assumed to be constant power
– Used to determine if any transmission lines or transformers are
overloaded and system voltages
• Educational version PowerWorld tool available at
– http://www.powerworld.com/gloversarmaoverbye
15
Metro Chicago Electric Network

16
Power Balance Constraints

• Power flow refers to how the power is moving

through the system.
• At all times in the simulation the total power
flowing into any bus MUST be zero!
• This is know as Kirchhoff’s law. And it can not be
repealed or modified.
• Power is lost in the transmission system.

17
Power Balance Constraints

• Power flow refers to how the power is moving

through the system.
• At all times in the simulation the total power
flowing into any bus MUST be zero!
• This is know as Kirchhoff’s law. And it can not be
repealed or modified.
• Power is lost in the transmission system.

18
Basic Power Flow Control

• Opening a circuit breaker causes the power flow to

instantaneously (nearly) change.
• No other way to directly control power flow in a
transmission line.
• By changing generation we can indirectly change
this flow.

19
Transmission Line Limits

• Power flow in transmission line is limited by

heating considerations.
• Losses (I^2 R) can heat up the line, causing it to
sag.
• Each line has a limit; Simulator does not allow you
to continually exceed this limit. Many utilities use
winter/summer limits.

20
Overloaded Transmission Line

21
Interconnected Operation
• Power systems are interconnected. Most of North
America east of the Rockies is one system, with most
of Texas and Quebec being exceptions
• Interconnections are divided into smaller portions,
called balancing authority areas (previously called
control areas)
• Balancing authorities sometimes correspond to a
single utility, but increasingly they include a large
number of utilities.
• NERC Reliability Coordinators are charged with
overseeing the reliable operation of the grid
22
NORTH AMERICAN
INTERCONNECTIONS

23
NERC Reliability Coordinators

Illinois is
split, with
the ComEd
part in PJM,
with the
rest of the
state in MISO

Source: http://www.nerc.com/page.php?cid=5%7C67%7C206
24
Balancing Authority (BA) Areas

• Transmission lines that join two areas are known as

tie-lines.
• The net power out of an area is the sum of the flow
on its tie-lines.
• The flow out of an area is equal to

total gen - total load - total losses

= tie-flow

25
North American Balancing Authorities

Source: http://www.nerc.com/AboutNERC/keyplayers/Pages/default.aspx
26
Area Control Error (ACE)

• The area control error is the difference between the

actual flow out of an area, and the scheduled flow.
• Ideally the ACE should always be zero.
• Because the load is constantly changing, each utility
must constantly change its generation to “chase” the ACE.
MISO ACE|
(in MW) from
9/19/12. At
the time the
MISO load
was about
65GW
https://www.misoenergy.org/MarketsOperations/RealTimeMarketData/Pages/ACEChart.aspx 27
Automatic Generation Control

• BAs use automatic generation control (AGC) to

automatically change their generation to keep their
ACE close to zero.
• Usually the BA control center calculates ACE based
upon tie-line flows; then the AGC module sends
control signals out to the generators every couple
seconds.

28
Three Bus Case on AGC

-40 MW 40 MW
Bus 2 8 MVR -8 MVR Bus 1
1.00 PU
266 MW
133 MVR
1.00 PU
101 MW
5 MVR

-77 MW -39 MW
150 MW AGC ON
25 MVR 12 MVR 100 MW
166 MVR AVR ON
78 MW 39 MW
-21 MVR -11 MVR
Bus 3 1.00 PU
Home Area
133 MW
67 MVR
250 MW AGC ON
34 MVR AVR ON

29