A Novel Approach for Tuning of Power

System Stabilizer Using Genetic

Algorithm

Authorised By
SANTOSH BHARADWAJ REDDY
Email: help@matlabcodes.com
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Abstract

The problem of dynamic stability of power system has challenged power system
engineers since over three decades now. The use of fast acting high gain AVRs and
evolution of large interconnected power systems with transfer of bulk power across weak
transmission links have further aggravated the problem of low frequency oscillations.

These oscillations limit the power transmission capability of a network and, sometimes
even cause a loss of synchronism and an eventual breakdown of the entire system. The
application of Power System Stabilizer (PSS) can help in damping out these oscillations
and improve the system stability. The traditional and till date the most popular solution to
this problem is application of conventional power system stabilizer (CPSS). However,
continual changes in the operating condition and network parameters result in
corresponding change in system dynamics. This constantly changing nature of power
system makes the design of CPSS a difficult task.

A new method has been proposed for tuning the parameters of a fixed
gain power system stabilizer. Conventional lead/lag PSS structure is retained but its
parameters are re-tuned using genetic algorithm (GA) to obtain enhanced performance.
The advantage of GA technique for tuning the PSS parameters is that it is independent of
the complexity of the performance index considered. The simplicity in design and
Implementation of the proposed stabilizers makes them better suited for practical
applications in real plants.

Low Frequency Oscillations in Power System

Small oscillations in power systems were observed as far back as the early twenties of
this century. The oscillations were described as hunting of synchronous machines. In a
generator, the electro-mechanical coupling between the rotor and the rest of the system
causes it to behave in a manner similar to a spring-mass-damper system which exhibits
oscillatory behavior following any disturbance from the equilibrium state. Small
oscillations were a matter of concern, but for several decades power system engineers
remained preoccupied with transient stability. That is the stability of the system following
large disturbances. Causes for such disturbances were easily identified and remedial
measures were devised. In early sixties, most of the generators were getting
interconnected and the automatic voltage regulators (AVRs) were more efficient. With
bulk power transfer on long and weak transmission lines and application of high gain,
fast acting AVRs, small oscillations of even lower frequencies were observed. These
were described as Inter-Tie oscillations.

Some Times oscillations of the generators within the plant were also observed. These
oscillations at slightly higher frequencies were termed as Intra-Plant oscillations.
The combined oscillatory behavior of the system encompassing the three modes of
oscillations are popularly called the dynamic stability of the system. In more precise
terms it is known as the small signal oscillatory stability of the system.

“A power system is said to be small signal stable for a particular steady-state

operating condition if, following any small disturbance, it reaches a steady state
operating condition which is identical or close to the pre-disturbance operating
condition."

The Drawbacks of Conventional Fixed Parameter Controllers

The main drawback of the above controllers is their inherent lack of robustness. Power
systems continually undergo changes in the load and generation patterns and in the
transmission network. This results in an accompanying change in small signal dynamics
of the system. The fixed parameter controllers, tuned for a particular operating condition,
usually give good performance at that operating condition. Their performance, at other
operating conditions, may at best be satisfactory, and may even become inadequate when
extreme situations arise. However such stabilizers have been very useful in system that
could be represented by single machine infinite bus models. In interconnected
multimachine systems the dynamic instability can manifest itself in the form of poorly
damped oscillation of one particular unit with the rest of the system or a group, or a group
of machines oscillating against another group of machines. Thus, a generating unit in a
multimachine environment often participates in both `local' and `inter-area' modes of
oscillations simultaneously. The spectral and temporal distributions of these modes are
largely determined by the rest of the system. As the operating conditions and system
configuration are constantly changing in actual power system the performance of the
fixed parameter stabilizers can not be always guaranteed.

Robust PSS design using Genetic Algorithms: the present approach

In this thesis a new method has been proposed for tuning of PSS using genetic algorithm.
Proposed method guarantees a robust performance over a set of operating conditions. A
more elegant approach to robust stabilizer design is used, in which fixed gain robust PSSs
have been designed to guarantee a minimum performance inspite of variations in the
plant operations, due to changes in load, line switching, transformer tap-changing and
other occasional disturbances. Based on system experience minimum performance
requirements of PSS have been decided and an attempt has been made to achieve it over a
wide range of operating conditions. The performance requirements of the PSSs are more
fully described.In the present approach the power system operating at various loading is
treated as a infinite set of plants. The problem of selecting the parameters of PSS which
simultaneously stabilize this set of plants is converted to a simple optimization problem
which is solved by genetic algorithm and an eigen value based objective function.

SMIB Model in Non-Linear Form

Consider the system shown in Figure. This shows the external network with two ports.
One port is connected to the generator terminals while the second port is connected to a
voltage source. Assuming both the magnitude Eb and phase angle of the voltage source
to be constant, and neglecting the network transient, the system can be modeled using
rotor mechanical equations, rotor electrical equations and excitation system model.

Figure: External two port network

Rotor Equations
Rotor Mechanical Equations
The mechanical equations in per unit can be expressed as

Where are inertia constant, rotor damping,

rotor angle, mechanical and electrical torques respectively. The above equation can be
expressed as two first order differential equations as:

Rotor Electrical Equations

Excitation System Model
The excitation system is represented by a first order model. Let Ka and Ta be the AVR
gain and its time constants respectively. The block diagram of AVR is shown in figure
and the equation describing it can be written as:

Figure: Excitation system block diagram.

PSS Model
For the simplicity a conventional PSS is modeled by two stage (identical), lead/lag
network which is represented by a gain KS and two time constants T1 and T2. This
network is connected with a washout circuit of a time constant Tw, as shown Figure.

Figure: Block diagram of PSS

Genetic Algorithm: An Overview

What is Genetic Algorithm?

Genetic Algorithms are adaptive methods which may be used to solve search and
optimization problems. Over many generations, natural populations evolve according to
the principles of natural selection and survival of the ottest. By mimicking the process,
genetic algorithms are able to `evolve' solutions to real world problems, if they have been
suitably encoded.
Coding
Before a GA can run, a suitable coding for the problem must be devised. It is assumed
that a potential solution to a problem may be represented as a set of parameters. These
parameters (known as `genes') are joined together to form a string of values (often
referred as `chromosome' or `Individual'). Binary coded strings having 1's and 0's are
mostly used.
Fitness Function
As pointed out earlier, GAs mimic the `survival of the fittest' principle of nature to make
a search process. Therefore, GAs are naturally suitable for solving maximization
problems. Minimization problems are usually transformed in to maximization problems
by suitable transformation. In, general, a fitness function is first derived from the
objective function and used in successive genetic operations. Certain genetic operators
require that the fitness function be nonnegative, although certain operators do not have
this requirement. For maximization problems, the fitness function can be considered to be
the same as the objective function. For minimization problems, the fitness function is an
equivalent maximization problem chosen such that the optimum point remains
unchanged.
GA Operators
The GA works with a set of individuals comprising the population. The initial popula-
tion consists of N randomly generated individuals where, N is the size of population. At
every iteration of the algorithm, the fitness of each individual in the current population is
computed. The population is then transformed in stages to yield a new current population
for the next iteration. The transformation is usually done in three stages by sequentially
applying the following genetic operators:
(1) Selection : In the first stage, the selection operator is applied as many times as there
are individuals in the population. In this stage every individual is replicated with a
probability proportional to its relative fitness in the population. The population of N
replicated individuals replaces the original population.
(2) Crossover: In the next stage, the crossover operator is applied with a probability pc,
independent of the individuals to which it is applied. Two individuals (parents) are
chosen and combined to produce two new individuals (offsprings). The combination is
done by choosing at random a cutting point at which each of the parents is divided into
two parts; these are exchanged to form the two offsprings which replace their parents
in the population. This is known as single point crossover. Figure 3.1 illustrates the
single point crossover operation.
(3) Mutation : In the final stage, the mutation operator changes the values in a randomly
chosen location on an individual with a probability pm. Figure shows the mutation
operation.

Figure: Single point crossover operation

Figure: A single mutation operation

Figure: The general structure of genetic algorithms
Figure: Flow Chart representation of the proposed method of tuning stabilizer

Performance Analysis of Proposed GA Based PSS

A number of studies involving variety of tests at different system and operating
conditions have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed stabilizer. All
results are compared with the performance of a conventional PSS having the following
transfer function:
Robustness Test and Eigen Value Plots
The fixed-parameter CPSS normally needs to be redesigned for each power system
application and has to be re-tuned if operating condition or the system configuration
changes. However, the PGAPSS, irrespective of system and operating conditions with the
specified bounds is expected to meet the D-stability criterion as defined earlier. The
PGAPSS must therefore meet the guaranteed minimum performance. Thus changes in the
system configuration or parameters should have a minor effect on the performance of the
PGAPSS.
Figure shows below the open loop poles of the system for the specified set of
operating conditions. The desired `D-contour' plot is also shown in the figure. As seen,
the system is poorly damped outside the D-contour or unstable for most of the operating
conditions.

Figure: Open loop poles

Figure shows the closed loop poles with CPSS. It is clear from the figure that D-
stability can not be achieved by application of CPSS as the system is unstable for few of
the operating conditions. Local modes are poorly damped for most of the operating
conditions. Hence CPSS does not guarantee robust performance for entire set of
operating conditions.
Figure shows the closed loop poles for the entire set of operating conditions with the
PGAPSS. As seen, robust D-stability of the closed loop has been achieved. Hence
PGAPSS guarantees desired performance for entire set of operating conditions.
 Figure: Closed loop poles with CPSS

Figure: Closed loop poles with PGAPSS

 Conclusions

The proposed design technique is seen to provide the desired closed loop
performance over the prespecified range of operating conditions.
The performance evaluation of the proposed stabilizer on single machine system
shows that this increased robustness could be achieved by application of genetic
algorithms to stabilizer design.
The design procedure is simple and bears much potential for practical
implementation.
It may be mentioned that the conventional PSS design is quite complex and requires
Considerable expertise. Considerable effort was also extended towards designing the very
Well tuned CPSS used for the comparative analysis.
Conventional stabilizer design for multimachine systems is even more complex. The
GA based stabilizer design technique proposed here could be quite helpful under such
circumstances.

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