Thesis (M. Tech. Electrical engineering) -- Central University of technology, Free State, 2012 / Infrared thermography is a non-contact method of identifying the thermal behaviour of various plant equipment and machines, including their components, qualitatively via pattern recognition and quantitatively via statistical analysis. This allows for the development of condition monitoring and predictive failure analysis. It is well established that optimized maintenance planning can be more effective when a problem is detected in the early stages of failure. For example, in electrical systems an elevated electrical resistance caused by loose or corroded connections, broken conductor strands and dirty contact surfaces, results in localized heating, and a unique infrared pattern when analysed leads to the location of the problem and an indication of its severity. In recent years industrial thermography has used infrared detectors in the long wave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum normally between 8μm and 15μm, due partly to the fact that these wavelengths are not susceptible to solar radiation and/or solar glint. A number of scientific experiments were carried out on test apparatus to improve the understanding of the impact of convection, ambient air temperature and relative humidity on resultant infrared thermal images. Two similar heat sources, simulating a hotspot, at different temperature settings were used to determine whether the hotspot temperature should also be considered in conjunction with the atmospheric elements. The need for these experiments has also been identified by EPRI (Electrical Power Research Institute) in the USA as necessary to develop international severity criteria, and it is hoped that this study will contribute to this goal.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die Stabilität und Regelung von Stromnetzen mit hohem Anteil Erneuerbarer Energien (EE). Dabei stehen drei Forschungsfragen, zu den neuartigen Herausforderungen für die zukünftige Stromnetzstabilität im Zuge der Energiewende, im Vordergrund. Erstens soll untersucht werden wie die Resilienz von Stromnetzen gemessen und im zweiten Schritt auch verbessert werden kann. Dabei zeige ich den notwendigen Detailgrad für transiente Stabilitätsuntersuchungen auf. Die zweite Frage lautet wie, trotz des zunehmenden Ausbaus von EE in Verteilnetzen, die statische Spannungsstabilität garantiert und Leitungsüberlastungen verhindert werden können. Hierfür analysiere ich mit einem konzeptionellen hierarchischen Verteilnetzmodell das zukünftige Potential für die Erzeugung von Blindleistung aus dezentralen Ressourcen am Beispiel Deutschlands. Die dritte Frage, wie eine dynamisch-stabile Integration von EE möglich ist, bildet den Hauptfokus meiner Dissertation. Dabei untersuche ich wie neuartige dynamische Aspekte EE, wie intermittente Fluktuationen oder auch Mess- und Reaktionszeiten von Leistungselektronik, die dynamische Netzstabilität beeinflussen und wie mögliche Instabilitäten durch Konzepte der Nachfragesteuerung behoben werden können. Dabei stoße ich bei der Analyse lokaler intermittenter Fluktuationen in ohmschen Verteilnetzen auf ein bemerkenswertes Wechselspiel zwischen Eigenschaften der Netzdynamik und -topologie. Als Zweites zeige ich wie mit der Einführung von Leistungselektronik und den damit verbundenen Mess- und Reaktionszeiten Resonanzkatastrophen hervorrufen werden können. Schließlich präsentiere ich wie die dezentrale Nachfragesteuerung von Elektroautos dynamische Instabilitäten, hervorgerufen durch Fluktuationen von EE, bereinigen kann. Zusammenfassend behandelt diese Arbeit verschiedene Aspekt zur Stabilität zukünftiger Stromnetze und integriert dabei sukzessive neuartige dynamische Aspekte von EE. / This PhD thesis is centered around the "Stability and Control of Power Grids with high Renewable Energy Share". With a conceptual modelers approach, I tackle three overarching questions related to the novel challenges the energy transition poses for the stability of future power grids. The first question focuses on how to measure and subsequently improve the resilience of a power grid. Here, I contribute important insights on the necessary model detail for transient stability assessments. The second question concerns how to ensure static voltage stability and avoid capacity overloading while the deployment of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the distribution grid layers is massively increasing. As a possible solution to this problem I analyze the future technical potential of reactive power provision from decentral resources in Germany. The third question, and main focus of this thesis, is on how to integrate renewable energies in a dynamically stable way. Specifically, I investigate the influence of intermittent RES and measurement delays from power electronic resources on frequency stability and how the latter can be restored by concepts of demand control. First, for local intermittent fluctuations in lossy distribution grids I find a remarkable and subtle but robust interplay of dynamical and topological properties, which is largely absent for lossless grids. Second, I show how delays may induce resonance catastrophes and how the existence of critical delays sets an upper limit for measurement times. Third and last, I present how the right parameterization of decentral electric vehicle control can completely overcome issues of short-term dynamic instability related to RES fluctuations. This control avoids demand synchronization and high battery stress. Altogether, this thesis investigates the stability of future power grids moving towards integrating more aspects of renewable energy dynamics. Finally, I point out open questions to encourage further research.

This thesis is devoted to the development of new approaches for control coordination of PSSs (power system stabilisers) and FACTS (flexible alternating current transmission system) devices for achieving and enhancing small-disturbance stability in multi-machine power systems. The key objectives of the research reported in the thesis are, through optimal control coordination of PSSs and/or FACTS devices, those of maintaining satisfactory power oscillation damping and secure system operation when the power system is subject to persisting disturbances in the form of load demand fluctuations and switching control. Although occurring less frequently, fault disturbances are also considered in the assessment of the control coordination performance. Based on the constrained optimisation method in which the eigenvalue-based objective function is minimised to identify the optimal parameters of power system damping controllers, the thesis first develops a procedure for designing the control coordination of PSSs and FACTS devices controllers. The eigenvalue-eigenvector equations associated with the selected electromechanical modes form a set of equality constraints in the optimisation. The key advance of the procedure is that there is no need for any special software system for eigenvalue calculations, and the use of sparse Jacobian matrix for forming the eigenvalue-eigenvector equations leads to the sparsity formulation which is essential for large power systems. Inequality constraints include those for imposing bounds on the controller parameters. Constraints which guarantee that the modes are distinct ones are derived and incorporated in the control coordination formulation, using the property that eigenvectors associated with distinct modes are linearly independent. The robustness of the controllers is achieved very directly through extending the sets of equality constraints and inequality constraints in relation to selected eigenvalues and eigenvectors associated with the state matrices of power systems with loading conditions and/or network configurations different from that of the base case. On recognising that the fixed-parameter controllers, even when designed with optimal control coordination, have an inherent limitation which precludes optimal system damping for each and every possible system operating condition, the second part of ii the research has a focus on adaptive control techniques and their applications to power system controllers. In this context, the thesis reports the development of a new design procedure for online control coordination which leads to adaptive PSSs and/or supplementary damping controllers (SDCs) of FACTS devices for enhancing the stability of the electromechanical modes in a multi-machine power system. The controller parameters are adaptive to the changes in system operating condition and/or configuration. Central to the design is the use of a neural network synthesised to give in its output layer the optimal controller parameters adaptive to system operating condition and configuration. A novel feature of the neural adaptive controller is that of representing the system configuration by a reduced nodal impedance matrix which is input to the neural network.

Security analysis of a power system requires a process called contingency analysis that analyzes results from all possible single contingencies (i.e. outages) in the system. The process of contingency analysis requires the definition of a parameter that is used to monitor a certain aspect of the system, which is called a performance index. The performance index definitions used traditionally have been highly nonlinear, and the results have not accurately predicted the outcome of the performance index in some cases. These incorrect results are referred to as misrankings since the contingency results are usually placed in order of severity so that the most severe cases are evident. This thesis considers a new definition of contingency ranking using a more linearized definition of the performance index. The construction of both the new, proposed definition and the classic definition both consider the current loading of circuits in the system as compared to their rated values. Specifically, the parameter measured by the proposed definition measures the difference, while the more nonlinear definition uses a ratio of the two quantities, which is then raised to a higher power. A small, four bus test system is used to demonstrate the benefits of the new, more linearized definition. The average percent error for all single line contingencies of the system decreased by over 9.5% using the proposed definition as compared to the previous one. This decrease in error allows this performance index to monitor a similar parameter (comparing current loading and current rating of the lines) and achieve a higher degree of accuracy. Further linearization of this proposed definition also shows a reduction in the average percent error by an additional 22% so that when compared to the original, highly nonlinear definition, the average error is reduced by almost 30%. By linearizing the definition of the performance index, the results are more accurate and misrankings are less likely to occur from the security analysis process.

The research topics presented in this dissertation focus on validation of customer-level voltage synchrophasor data for transmission system analysis, detection and categorization of power system events as measured by phasor measurement units (PMUs), and identification of the influence of power system conditions (wind power, daily and seasonal load variation) on low-frequency oscillations. Synchrophasor data can provide information across entire power systems but obtaining the data, handling the large dataset and developing tools to extract useful information from it is a challenge. To overcome the challenge of obtaining data, an independent synchrophasor network was created by taking synchrophasor measurements at customer-level voltage. The first objective is to determine if synchrophasor data taken at customer-level voltage is an accurate representation of power system behavior. The validation process was started by installing a transmission level (69 kV) PMU. The customer-level voltage measurements were validated by comparison of long term trends and low-frequency oscillations estimates. The techniques best suited for synchrophasor data analysis were identified after a detailed study and comparison. The same techniques were also applied to detect power system events resulting in the creation of novel categories for numerous events based on shared characteristics. The numerical characteristics for each category and the ranges of each numerical characteristic for each event category are identified. The final objective is to identify trends in power system behavior related to wind power and daily and seasonal variations by utilizing signal processing and statistical techniques. / text

M. Tech. Engineering: Electrical. / Discussing the developing an entirely software based synchrophasor platform for transient stability analysis of a multi-machine system by exploiting the possibility of distributing a precise time reference by means of communication networks and an open source software-only Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to synchronise PMUs and evaluates the precision of this synchronisation in the event of faults in a power system.

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / Discusses the practical management of electrical networks, no perfect monitoring of an electrical power system state is available, either because it is expensive or technically unfeasible due to the poor quality of the available measurements in the control centre. To have a stable network, the control centre must receive the network information to be able to provide a proper security in unforeseen situation. As a power system network is a complex and a non-linear system, it is important to use more advanced methods for its analysis and control in a real time environment. The aim of this research work is therefore, to apply several state estimation algorithms using artificial intelligence by developing their mathematical models for the purpose of comparing their performances in estimating the state variable of the power system. The three types of state estimation algorithms investigated for this research work are: the Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Newton method for state estimation (NSE).

The Eskom Transmission Network experiences an exceptionally high number of line faults, the cause of which, may not be correctly identified. This thesis analyses a number of all the possible factors responsible for causing these faults. The objective is to assign probable causes of these faults and that the correct preventative or corrective measures may be planned. The percentage of unexplained line faults is estimated to be 35 % of the total system faults. It is important for the Transmission Group of Eskom to minimise the number of faults. Major efforts to minimise identified faults such as bird streamers, veld fires, sugar cane fIfes, lightning and a hypothesised light pollution, light wetting mechanism has been undertaken by the transmission grid authority. This thesis presents an analysis of the statistical data of the unknown faults (unknown faults is defined as lines that trip due to a reason which could not be identified) that has been undertaken. This analysis takes into account a number of categories of causes of line faults. The period, for which the performance of the lines was analysed for was the years inclusive of 1993 to 1997. The investigation has focused on the identification of the under-performing lines of the main Transmission Network. The identified poorly performing lines have been compared with each other from the perspective ofthe following variables: • Region • Voltage (System Voltage) • Climatic Data Line faults - Time ofDay analysis • Line Faults - Time of Year analysis. The analysis indicates that the majority of unexplained flashovers occur between 22 :00 and 07:00 the following morning (Britten et al, 1999). Almost all of the under performing lines in South Africa fall in the sub-tropical/humid climatic area. All the lines studied are insulated with standard glass disc insulators. The analysis indicated that most of the unexplained line faults occur during the months when the seasons change, e.g. from autumn to winter. The analysis further indicates that most unexplained line faults occurred during the months of April to May and August to September. Of note is that during the period of this investigation bird guarding was performed on some lines. Installing bird guards may reduce those line faults that are caused by bird streamers. However, the bird pollution (deposited on glass disc insulators) that is not washed off at the same time as the bird guard installation may cause the line to trip due to the combination of the pollution and wetting resulting in a pollution type flashover. This is a possible cause of some unexplained line faults that occur from April to May. Bird streamers are also identified as the most probable cause of the unexplained faults which occur during the late evening periods (22:00 - 00:00). Pollution (with wetting) during the early morning periods may result in faults for the period 00:00 to 02:00. Line faults in the early morning periods (04:00 - 7:00) could be due to bird streamers or pollution and wetting, depending on the time of year in which the faults occurs. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The purpose of the proposed research is to design a Decentralized Voltage/Stability Monitoring and Control System to counteract voltage violations and the impact of disturbances/contingencies on power system voltage stability. A decentralized voltage and stability control system is designed to coordinate the controls of the local secondary voltage control devices and necessary load shedding without requiring information about the rest of the system. The voltage/stability control can be formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. The control objectives include, but are not limited to: minimization of system active/reactive losses; maximization of the system stability margin; and minimization of the control actions. The constraints of the optimization problem depend on the specifications of the actual system components. For the first time, margin sensitivities of the control actions are included in the control formulation. The concept of using margin sensitivity to evaluate the post-control load margin is presented as a fast and accurate way to assess potential voltage and stability control options. A system decomposition procedure is designed to define the disturbance-affected zone as an independent control subsystem. A normal constraint algorithm is adopted to identify the most suitable control solution in a shorter timeline than the typical utility voltage-control practice. Both steady-state and dynamic simulations are performed to compare the proposed system with typical utility control practices.