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This article presents a control method for output power smoothing of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) using the inertia of wind turbine and the pitch control. The WECS used in this article adopts an AC–DC–AC converter system. The generator-side converter controls the torque of the PMSG, while the grid-side inverter controls the DC-link and grid voltages. For the generator-side converter, the torque command is determined by using the fuzzy logic. The inputs of the fuzzy logic are the operating point of the rotational speed of the PMSG and the difference between the wind turbine torque and the generator torque. By means of the proposed method, the generator torque is smoothed, and the kinetic energy stored by the inertia of the wind turbine can be utilized to smooth the output power fluctuations of the PMSG. In addition, the wind turbines shaft stress is mitigated compared to a conventional maximum power point tracking control. Effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the numerical simulations.

The transition to competitive and retail markets for electric utilities around the world has been a difficult and controversial process. One of the difficulties that hindered the development and growth of competitive power markets is the absence of efficient computational tools to assist the design, analysis, and operation of competitive power markets. PowerWorld simulator is a software package that has strong analytical and visualization functions suitable for extensive power flow study of an electric power system. However, like many other power flow simulators, PowerWorld cannot be used directly for analysis and evaluation of a competitive power market. This article investigates mathematical models associated with a competitive power market and how these models can be converted and transformed in such a way that makes it possible to use PowerWorld for the competitive power market study. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, models of several small-scale competitive power markets are built in MatLab by using conventional approaches. Results generated by both PowerWorld and MatLab are compared. Finally, the article demonstrates how the PowerWorld simulator is used to investigate a larger and practical competitive power system.

This article focuses on developing a non-invasive method for determining capacitances using frequency response data. The proposed methodology involves acquiring driving-point impedance of the winding under consideration over wide frequency range. With certain terminal conditions and using the terminal impedance measured at specific frequencies, input and shunt capacitances are determined. For the purpose of estimating series capacitance of the winding, an algorithm is proposed. To demonstrate the capability of the method, initially model coils that have provisions for connecting external capacitances are considered. Then, it is found that the estimated values of capacitances are nearly same as those of connected capacitances. The method is, then, extended to transformer winding, and a capacitive ladder network is constructed. To assess the accuracy of estimation, capacitive voltage distribution is utilized. That is, the voltage distribution in the winding is compared with that of synthesized circuit. A good agreement between those data reveals that the estimated capacitance values are accurate.

In stressed power systems with large induction machine component, there exist undamped electromechanical modes and unstable monotonic voltage modes. This article proposes a sequential design of an excitation controller and a power system stabiliser (PSS) to stabilise the system. The operating region, with induction machines in stressed power systems, is often not captured using a linearisation around an operating point, and to alleviate this situation a robust controller is designed which guarantees stable operation in a large region of operation. A minimax linear quadratic Gaussian design is used for the design of the supplementary control to automatic voltage regulators, and a classical PSS structure is used to damp electromechanical oscillations. The novelty of this work is in proposing a method to capture the unmodelled nonlinear dynamics as uncertainty in the design of the robust controller. Tight bounds on the uncertainty are obtained using this method which enables high-performance controllers. An IEEE benchmark test system has been used to demonstrate the performance of the designed controller.

In this article, the analysis of the flicker emission during continuous operation of a mid-scale fixed-speed wind turbine connected to a distribution system is presented. Flicker emission is investigated based on simulation results, and the dependence of flicker emission on short-circuit capacity, grid impedance angle, mean wind speed, and wind turbulence is analyzed. The simulations were conducted in different programs in order to provide a more realistic wind emulation and detailed model of mechanical and electrical components of the wind turbine. Such aim is accomplished by using FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) to simulate the mechanical parts of the wind turbine, Simulink/MatLab to simulate the electrical system, and TurbSim to obtain the wind model. The results show that, even for a small wind generator, the flicker level can limit the wind power capacity installed in a distribution system.

This article presents artificial immune system for solving multi-area economic dispatch (MAED) problem with tie line constraints considering transmission losses, multiple fuels, valve-point loading and prohibited operating zones. Artificial immune system is based on the clonal selection principle which implements adaptive cloning, hyper mutation, aging operator and tournament selection. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified on three different test systems, both small and large, involving varying degree of complexity. Compared with differential evolution, evolutionary programming and real-coded genetic algorithm, considering the quality of the solution obtained, the proposed algorithm seems to be a promising alternative approach for solving the MAED problems in practical power system.

Voltage stability is an important issue in the planning and operation of deregulated power systems. The voltage stability problems is a most challenging one for the system operators in deregulated power systems because of the intense use of transmission line capabilities and poor regulation in market environment. This article addresses the congestion management problem avoiding offline transmission capacity limits related to voltage stability by considering Voltage Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow (VSCOPF) problem in deregulated environment. This article presents the application of Multi Objective Differential Evolution (MODE) algorithm to solve the VSCOPF problem in new competitive power systems. The maximum of L-index of the load buses is taken as the indicator of voltage stability and is incorporated in the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem. The proposed method in hybrid power market which also gives solutions to voltage stability problems by considering the generation rescheduling cost and load shedding cost which relieves the congestion problem in deregulated environment. The buses for load shedding are selected based on the minimum eigen value of Jacobian with respect to the load shed. In the proposed approach, real power settings of generators in base case and contingency cases, generator bus voltage magnitudes, real and reactive power demands of selected load buses using sensitivity analysis are taken as the control variables and are represented as the combination of floating point numbers and integers. DE/randSF/1/bin strategy scheme of differential evolution with self-tuned parameter which employs binomial crossover and difference vector based mutation is used for the VSCOPF problem. A fuzzy based mechanism is employed to get the best compromise solution from the pareto front to aid the decision maker. The proposed VSCOPF planning model is implemented on IEEE 30-bus system, IEEE 57 bus practical system and IEEE 118 bus system. The pareto optimal front obtained from MODE is compared with reference pareto front and the best compromise solution for all the cases are obtained from fuzzy decision making strategy. The performance measures of proposed MODE in two test systems are calculated using suitable performance metrices. The simulation results show that the proposed approach provides considerable improvement in the congestion management by generation rescheduling and load shedding while enhancing the voltage stability in deregulated power system.

This article deals with automatic generation control of a multi-area interconnected thermal system in different modes using intelligent integral and proportional-integral controllers. Appropriate generation rate constraint has been considered for the thermal generation plants. The two cumulated thermal areas are considered with reheat turbines. Performances of reheat turbine on dynamic responses have been investigated. Further, selection of suitable integral and proportional-integral controllers has been investigated with a minority charge carrier inspired algorithm. Cumulative system performance is examined considering with different load perturbation in both cumulative thermal areas. Further, system is investigated with different area control errors, and results are explored.

The doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) have been recognized as the dominant technology used in wind power generation systems with the rapid development of wind power. However, continuous operation of DFIG may cause a serious wind turbine generators tripping accident, due to destructive over-current in the rotor winding which is caused by the power system fault or inefficient fault ride-through (FRT) strategy. A new rotor current control scheme in the rotor-side converter (RSC) ispresented to enhance FRT capacities of grid-connected DFIG. Due to the strongly nonlinear nature of DFIG and insensitive to DFIG parameter’s variations, a novel sliding mode controller was designed. The controller combines extended state observer (ESO) with sliding model variable structure control theory. The simulation is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control approach under various types of grid disturbances. It is shown that the proposed controller provides enhanced transient features than the classic proportional-integral control. The proposed control method can effectively reduce over-current in the RSC, and the transient pulse value of electromagnetic torque is too large under power grid fault.

In recent days, every researcher wants to develop his/her model in real-time. Simulation tools have been widely used for the design and improvement of electrical systems since the mid-twentieth century. The evolution of simulation tools has progressed in step with the evolution of computing technologies. Now a days, computing technologies have improved dramatically in performance and become widely available at a steadily decreasing cost. Consequently, simulation tools have also seen dramatic performance gains and steady cost decreases. Researchers and engineers now have access to affordable, high-performance simulation tools that were previously too cost prohibitive, except for the largest manufacturers and utilities.This article has introduced a specific class of digital simulator known as a real-time simulator by answering the questions “What is real-time simulation?” “Why is it needed” and “How it works”. The latest trend in real-time simulation consists of exporting simulation models to FPGA. In this article, the steps involved for implementation of a model from MATLAB to REAL-TIME are provided in detail. The detailed real-time results are presented to support the feasibility of real-time digital simulator.