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Estimation of Load Impedance in a Power System

M.C. Di Piazza*, P. Zanchetta** M. Sumner, D W P Thomas
* University of Palermo, Italy School of Electlical and EXectronic Engineering
* * Politecnicodi Bari, Italy University of Nottingham, UK

Abstract: This paper describes a novel technique for measuring detailed to include components such as power transformers,
power system impedance back to source. The technique employs a transmission lines, feeder load etc. In particular in load model
power electronic converter which injects a voltage transient onto the 2 a 1 MVA power transformer is represented by an R-L series
network via an inductor. The resulting current is correlated with the branch, and a 3 km long transmission line is represented by
disturbance voltage to determine the impedance. Simulation results an R-L series branch and a capacitance shunt branch. In this
indicate that this technique works effectively for various simple
network topologies. As the technique employs controlled power case a shunt R-L branch represents the system load. Model 3
electronic devices it may either be used as a stand alone piece of accurately represent a medium scale power system. In
measurement equipment, or it may be embedded into the functions particular a 1 MVA transformer is represented by a series
of an Active Shunt Filter for improved hannonic control. iaductive branch while an R-L series branch and an R-C
shunt branch represent a 3-km long transmission line. In
Keywords: power systems, impedance, measurement, power quality. addition, two R-L loads are represented in model 3 as shunt
R-L branches: the one placed before the transmission line. in
1. INTRODUCTION particular, is represented together with its reactive power
compensating capacitor.
The accurate determination of load and transmission
impedance characteristics in a power system is receiving
considerable interest from the research community [ 1-71. One
of the main reasons is that it allows the identification of
potential system harmonic and resonance problems.
Additionally it can provide a better understanding of the
propagation modes for many conducted electromagnetic
disturbances, both at harmonic and higher frequencies. I-
J
Methods used to measure the frequency characteristic of load Figure. 1 - Load model 1
impedance in a power system are usually based on the
injection of a current disturbances [1,3,4,5] onto the system
and on the measurement of the resulting voltage transient.
These measurements are then evaluated using signa1
processing techniques to provide an impedance estimation.

This paper describes the development of system impedance

identification algorithms which may ultimately be employed
on portable measurement equipment. The algorithms have
been evaluated using the MATLAB maths processing
package, on data obtained from circuit simulations from both
SABER (a dedicated electrical simulation package) and the
MATLAB power systems toolbox. In each cases, a very good
impedance estimation is achieved

11. LOADMODELCHARACTERISTICS
For this work three systemlload models have been adopted, as
illustrated in Figs. 1 - 3. The representation of Figure 1 is
very simplified system where only an inductive load is taken
into account [7]. In models 2 and 3 the representation is more
Figure. 3 - Load model 3

The load model admittance transfer functions have been

calculated in order to provide a comparison with estimated
values. The transfer functions of load models 1, 2 and 3 are
given respectively in equations (l), (2) and (3):
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3.2671*104S2 +0.8955S+600
Y,= (1)
0.0467s + 70

+ 3.3123*10-8s’+ 2.3583*lW’S + 1.24*IF3

l.O434*1tT1’S4+ 1.0186*10-’2S’
=
1.0656*1 FloS3+ 7.1262*1O-*S2+5.4115*1V4S+ 0.314
Y2

2.0736.10-2)S6+ 1.7314.10-17S’
+ 2.8936.1O-l4S4+3.3261.1O-’OS3+4.7837.10-7S2+ 2.1962.104S +0.0288
’’ = 2.0736.10-20S6+3.4465.10-’7Ss+5.8233.10-l3S4+8.1050.10-’0S3+ 2.5553.10-6S2+0.0027S +0.8285
(3)

III. EVALUATION SYSTEM

Both Saber and the Power System Blockset (PSB) Toolbox
within the Simulink and MATLAB environment provide easy
to use electrical circuit simulation packages. The circuits of
Figures 1-3 were quickly implemented within both
environments with transient data readily obtained and ported
to MATLAB for post processing. The results discussed in this
paper are based on data obtained from the PSB simulations.

In the first instance, an ideal controlled voltage source is

connected via a small inductor to the desired point of -
Hgure.4 Injected voltage transient source (80111s)
measurement on the power system. A voltage transient is
injected for a period of 80ms, and the voltage transient Figure 5 shows the complete PSB simulation for load model 3,
reference, and current injected into the system are recorded including the transient injection circuit.
(via anti-aliasing filters). These are then processed using the
Matlab embedded function TFE (Transfer Function
Estimation) [8]to estimate the loadlsystem impedance within
the range 0 - 1000 Hz.

The TFE function estimates the transfer function of a system

with known input and output vectors (X and Y, for example)
using Welch’s averaged periodogrum method [8]. Those
vectors are divided into overlapping sections, each of which
is detrended, then windowed using a Hanning window and
then zero-padded to a the chosen length. The magnitudes
squared of the discrete Fourier transforms of the input vector
sections are averaged to form the Power Spectral Density of
the input quantity, PXx. The products of the discrete Fourier
4
Figure. 5 -Load model 3: PSB simulationscheme
transforms of the input and output vector sections are
averaged to form Pxv, i.e. the Cross Spectral Density of input IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
and output quantities. The system transfer function is then
obtained as the quotient of P,, and P,,. Using the TFE it is Very good impedance estimations have been obtained with
possible to specify the Hanning window length and the value models 1 and 2, for the case of an energised systems fed by a
of the sampling frequency used for scaling of plots. For sinusoidal voltage supply of 240V rms, 50 Hz. The
estimating the impedance, the input quantity is the voltage estimation is not particularly good for model 3 due to the
and the output quantity is the current. Finally, the estimated impulsive current resulting from the high dV/dt in the
impedance characteristic is compared with the ideal one injected transient voltage interacting with the shunt capacitor.
obtained by means of the Bode diagram of the calculated In order to improve this estimation, the injected voltage
theoretical impedance of each model, in order to evaluate the transient source was filtered using a low pass filter with cut-
accuracy of the estimation. off frequency of IkHz. As it is possible to see from Figures
6-8 the estimation is quite good in all the three models with
The transient voltage injected in the system is the same for all the filtered transient voltage.
the considered load models and it is illustrated in Figure 4.
The transient shape excites the harmonic frequencies of
interest. The choice of the transient time duration equal to
80ms leads to a frequency resolution of 12.5Hz.
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Figure. 6 - Impedanceestimationin model 1 with the filtered transient
Figure 7. - Impedanceestimationin model 2 with the filtered transient
Figure 8. -Impedance esamation in model 3 with the filtered transient
The value of the current flowing in the circuits (in particular
in models 2 and 3), however is far too high. In order to
reduce the amplitude of this measured current (preferably to a
maximum amplitude of 10A) considering the power system
energised, several different approaches have been tried.
1. Reduction of the transient voltage source amplitude;
2 . Use of a voltage feed-forward compensation;
3. Use of a current feedback through a PID regulator;
4. Use of a combined system with current feedback and
voltage feed-forward compensation;
5. Use of a combined system with current feedback and
voltage feed-forward compensation together with a
reduction of the transient voltage source amplitude.
With regard to the first strategy, it is possible to reduce the
amplitude of the voltage transient signal to 3V for all the
models before the impedance estimation becomes
unsatisfactory. This however does not result in a sufficient
reduction of the measured current level which remains very
high for model 2 (Im=15500A) and model 3 (Im=5500A).
This large current is due to the supply voltage, not the
transient injection.
Method 2 uses a measure of the supply voltage, which is
added to the transient signal to act as a feed-forward
compensation. The measured current before the injection of
transient is reduced to about a peak value of 870A for model
2, 360A for model 3 and very close to OA for model 1.
Maintaining the initial level for the voltage transient, it is
possible to measure a current response with still high peak
values: (I,=35A for model 1, Im40000A for model 2,
I,=8000A for model 3). Using the transient voltage signal
with reduced amplitude (at 3V), the current Peak value results
under 0.5A for model 1, about 1200A for model 2 and 430A
for model 3. which is still too large.
A further reduction of current level can be obtained by a
current feedback through a PID regulator, imposing an ideal
reference signal of OA. In this way it is possible to have a
good estimation of the load impedance in all the three cases
reducing the peak value of the measured current to about 2OA
for model 2 and 3.
The best solution, however, seems to be the 4" method which
employs the current feedback and the feed-forward voltage
compensation together. Figures. 9-11 show the impedance
estimation for the three models.
This method allows a better estimation than the case of the
only feedback current loop, and it is possible to obtain lower
current peak values using lower proportional coefficients in
the PID regulator. Furthermore the current reaches a value
very close to zero before the application of transient voltage
signal that, in these last simulations, has been performed at
the instant 0.14s in order to allow a stabilisation of current
amplitude.
A
E. loo
$,.
E
U
0
H loo
5
D O
5 .,m
.
I
H
p -w
a ~ m w x a y x ) x a a o m , m o m ~ m o
F " w (W)
Figure. 9 - Impedance estimationof load model 1 with current feedback and
voltage feed-forward compensation;.
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Figure. 12 - Impedance estimation in model 1 with a superimposed white

Figure.10 - Impedance estimation of load model 2 with curcent feedback and noise (1 %)
voltage feed-forward compensation;.
It can be seen from these figures, that the impedance
estimates around 50Hz are not accurate. This is because the
transient voltage reference is used for estimation, not the
actual voltage at the point of common connection and
therefore the influence of the 50Hz line supply voltage is not
accounted for.

Figure.1 I - Impedance estimation of load model 3 with current feedback and

voltage feed-forward compensation.

The reduction of transient voltage level, together with current

feedback and voltage feed-forward compensation, as in the
Figure. 13 - Impedance estimation in model 2 with a superimposed white
solution 5, leads to worse load impedance estimations due to noise ( 1%)
the reduced transient signal level Method 4 is therefore the
best solution and is used in all the following simulations.

In order to evaluate the limit value of the signal to noise ratio

giving a sufficiently accurate estimation, a white noise signal
with amplitude up to 10% of the maximum current amplitude
has been superimposed to the measured current before the
anti-aliasing filtering. In the worst case (a white noise of 10%
of the current peak value), the impedance estimation can be
still considered acceptable for all the load models. The
simulation results of impedance estimation obtained for
model 1, 2 and 3 superimposing a white noise signal with
amplitude equal to 1% of the maximum current amplitude,
Figure.14 - Impedance estimation in model 3 with a superimposed white
reproducing real operating conditions, are illustrated in
noise (1 %)
Figures 12 -14.
It is possible to overcome this problem by considering a
sampling time interval for the current of twice the duration of
voltage transient, measuring, in the first half, the response of
the system due only to the line voltage. The TFE estimation
will be then applied on a vector obtained by subtracting the
first half of current response from the second half of the
current response ie a vector that results from both the injected
voltage transient and the 50Hz line voltage. The impedance
estimations for the three models, in the same cases of Figure
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12 -14 are illustrated in Figures 15 - 17.

-
Figure. 18 Injected voltage transient source for higher resolution (160ms)

-
O m
t
p
E-
:=
0
o i m w x O ~ s m g 0 m c m s m i O m
FrequMy W )

-
figure. 19 Impedance estimation of load model I with the 160ms transient
signal.
Figure.16 - Impedance estimation in model 2 with a 50Hz component
compensation g'
3 2

E 1

0
o m z m Y o n m m b x m o a m s m r m o

..- 0 1m"
FreqY-G) 6w 7ca bx 'Om

o ~ m m Y o a o s m b x m o b x m r m o Figure. 20 - Impedance estimation of load model 2 with the 1 " s transient

Frsqus~y(W signal
figure.17 - Impedance estimation in model 3 with a 50Hz component
compensation

The estimation technique can be further improved by

.
g'
increasing the frequency resolution. This can simply be
$ 2
achieved by injecting the same voltage transient signal, but
E l
with time duration of 160ms (see Fig. 18) giving a resolution 0

of 6.25 Hz. Estimates using the longer duration transient

(with supply compensation and 1% measurement noise) are 3 lm
illustrated in Figures 19-21. 9
5%
9

$ -50
a
-lW
0 1 m m x O ~ 6 m e w m o a m c m r O m
F W u e W (HZ)

Figure 21 - Impedance estimation of load model 3 with the 16011stransient

signal

V. CONCLUSIONS
In this work a theoretical method for impedance estimation in
a power system has been presented. The system has been
excited by a transient voltage injection with time duration of
8Oms. This voltage and the resulting measured current
transient have been then processed by means of theMatlab
embedded "FE function in order to cany out the impedance
versus frequency characteristics of three proposed load
models. Such characteristics have also been compared with
the ideal Bode diagrams of the load models' calculated
theoretical impedance.
Simulation results, obtained using the Matlab Power System
Toolbox, under different injection conditions and circuits
arrangement gives us the following information:
0 A good impedance estimation is obtained by injecting
into the system a suitable transient voltage.
0 An improved estimation can be obtained filtering the
injected voltage transient by means of a low pass filter
with cut-off frequency of 1 W ,
0 The method of using both a current feedback and a
voltage feed-forward compensation reduces the very
high amplitude of the measured current (whilst
maintaining good impedance estimation),
0 An improved accuracy of 50 Hz impedance estimation
, can be obtained considering a larger current sampling
time and then suitably modifying the vector, which the
TFE is applied to.
Estimations can be further improved by increasing the
frequency resolution by injecting the same voltage
transient signal, but with time duration of 160ms.
In order to test the proposed impedance estimation method in
a more real situation, a non-ideal transient voltage source,
such as a PWM type source, is intended to be applied for the
injection of transient signal. Moreover impedance estimation,
in the case of load models containing non-linear components,
will be carried out.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Italian authors express their thanks t o "Consiglio Nazionale
delle Ricerche" for sponsoring them in development of the
research activity presented in this paper.
VII. REFERENCES
[l] M.Nagpal, W.Xu, J.Sawada, "Harmonic impedance measurement using
three phase trensients", IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 13, No.
1, January 1998.
[Z]Jason P. Rhode, Arthur W. Kelley, Mesut E. Baran, "Line impedance
measurement: a non- disruptive wide band technique", IEEE 1995
[3] 2.SrraSZczyk, "Problems in real time identification of power systems",
IEEE Instrumentation an Measurement Technology Conference, St Paul,
Minnesota, USA, May 18 -21 1998.
[4] Adly A Girgis, R. Brent McManis, "Frequency domain techniques for
modelling dislxibution or transmission networks using capacitor switching
induced transient", IEEE Trans on Power Delivery, vol. 4, No.3, July 1989.
[5] AS. Morched, P.Kundur ,"Identification and modelling of load
characteristics at high frequencies", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems,
vol. PWRS-2 No. 1, February 1987.
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[a] R. M. Vines, H. J. Trussel, K. C. Shuey, J.B. O'Neal, Jr, "Impedance of
the residential power distribution circuit", IEEE Transactions on
ElectromagneticCompatibility,vol. EMC-27, No.1, February 1985.
[7] J. Paul, D.W.P. Thomas, M.Sumner, 'Time domain simulation of line
admittance measurement using current injection", intemal report, University
of Nottingham.
[SI MATLAB Reference Guide, The Mathworks Inc, 1992
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Maria Carmela Di Piazza received the degree
with honours in Electrical Engineering from
University of Palermo (Italy) in 1997. She was
visiting scholar at ELASIS-FIAT in Pomigliano
DArco (Naples) to develop her thesis on
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) in electric
road vehicles in March and June 1997 and later in
October 1998. She worked on "Investigufion of
Electromagnenc Emissions Proctuoed By Power
Converters In Rrrilway Systems'*sat ANSALDO
TRASF'ORTI (Nq~ks)in July 1999 receiving a sponsorship ftom the
European Community. She was also a visiting scholar at School of Electrical
end Electronic Engineering at University of Nottingham between December
1999 and March 2000 studying new methods for impedance estimation in
electrical power systems. She is currently completing a three-year Ph.D.
course in Electrical Engineering at the University of Palermo and her
research focus is on EMC and the control of electric drive systems.
Dr. Pericle Zanchetta received the MSc.
degree in Electronics Engineering from the
"Politecnico di Bari", Italy, in February 1994.
Since then he's been working with the
Converters, Electrical Machines and Drives
research team of the same Polytechnic. He
received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering in 1997 with a thesis entitled
"Power quality in the electronics energy
conversions". Since 1998 he's Assistant Professor of Power Electronics of
Politecnico di Bari at the Electrical and Electronics Department. His main
research interests are in the field of modelling low frequency conducted EML
virtual instrumentation,modelling and simulation of power converters, active
power filters, multilevel inverters and fuay logic controllers.
Dr Mark Sumner CEng, MIEE, MIEEE received the
B.Eng degree in Eleclrical and Electronic
Engineering ftom Leeds University in 1986. and
then worked for Rolls Royce Ltd in Ansty for a
short time before embarking on research work in
vector controlled induction motor drives at
Nottingham University. He received his PhD in
1990, and after working at Nottingham as a research
assistant, was appointed lecturer in October 1992.
His research interests cover microprocessor control
of power electronic systems including advanced
sensored and sensorless induction motor drives
research, active shunt filters, system identification
and the development of new converter topologies.
Dr David W P Thomas CEng, MIEE, MIEEE
received the BSc degree in Physics from Imperial
College of Science and Technology, the MPhil
degree in Space Physics from Sheffield
University, and the PhD degree in Electrical
Engineering from Nottingham University, in 1981,
1987 and 1990 respectively. In 1990 he joined the
School of Elecmcd and Electronic Engineering at
the University of Nottingham as a Lecturer. His
research interests are in Electromagnetic
Compatibility, Protection and Simulation of Power
Networks, Electrostatic Precipitation and High
Voltage Insulation Testing.