SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE STABILITY BASICS
3-19
Therefore, if the total generation of the interconnected system (ΣP
i
) is greater than (f
o
/∆f) R P
L
,
then some of the generators electrically remote from the bus of load impact will not experience
the required frequency change of ∆f Hz in order for their governors to respond. Of course, some
of the generators in the system may not be under active governor control. This will have to be
accounted for in the above analysis.
It should be noted that the frequency change at some of the generator buses will always exceed
the governor dead band no matter how small the load impact is, since the mismatch between
generation and load created by the load impact, if left uncorrected, will continually increase the
frequency deviation from normal.
The transition from the inertial generation pick-up to the generation pick-up dictated by governor
action is oscillatory, the frequency of oscillation being a function of the machine inertia,
governor speed regulation and servomotor time constant. Eventually, the speed deviation and the
changes in the tie-line flows will be detected by the AGC system and the system generation
would be adjusted according to a set criterion.
Transient Stability by Equal Area Criterion
In power system stability studies the term transient stability usually refers to the ability of the
synchronous machines to remain in synchronism during the brief period following a large
disturbance. In a large disturbance, system nonlinearities play a dominant role. In order to
determine transient stability or instability following a large disturbance, or a series of
disturbances, it is usually necessary to solve the set of nonlinear equations describing the system
dynamics. Conclusions about stability or instability can then be drawn from an inspection of the
solution. Since a formal solution of the equations is not generally possible, an approximate
solution is usually obtained by a numerical technique.
For one and two machine systems, assuming that the machines can be represented by the
classical model, i.e., by constant voltage behind transient reactance, a simple graphical method
known as the equal area criterion can be utilized to assess transient stability. When a large
interconnected system is subjected to a large disturbance, as a rule, it splits into a small number
of groups of machines which swing against one another while the machines within each group
swing together. Frequently there are only two major groups and the general behavior of the
system is similar to that of a two machine system. In such situations, for the purpose of
approximate analyses, the large system may be replaced by an equivalent two machine system.
Consider a single synchronous machine connected to an infinite bus as shown in Figure 3.7.
Fig. 3.7 Single machine infinite bus system.
The swing equation of the machine is
ema
PPP
dt
dH
−==
2
2
o
2
δ
ω
(3.83)
which can be written as