Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) are running the main 132kV power transmission grids in the Sultanate of Oman. In the year 2001, PDO and OETC grids were interconnected with a 132kV Over head transmission line linking Nahada 132kV substation at PDO's side to Nizwa 132kV sub-station at OETC's side. Since then the power exchange between PDO and OETC is driven by the natural impedances of the system and the frequency and power exchange is controlled by manually re-dispatching the generators. In light of the daily load profile and the forecasted Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states electrical interconnection, it is a great challenge for PDO and OETC grids operators to maintain the existing operation philosophy. The objective of this research is to investigate Automatic Generation Control (AGC) technology as a candidate to control the grid frequency and the power exchange between PDO and OETC grid. For this purpose, a dynamic power system model has been developed to represent PDO-OETC interconnected power system. The model has been validated using recorded data from the field which has warranted the requirement of refining the model. Novel approaches have been followed during the course of the model refining process which have reduced the modelling error to an acceptable limit. The refined model has then been used to assess the performance of different AGC control topologies. The recommended control topologies have been further improved using sophisticated control techniques like Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and Fuzzy Logic (FL). Hybrid Fuzzy Logic Proportional Integral Derivative (FLPID) AGC controller has produced outstanding results. The FLPID AGC controller parameters have then been optimised using Multidimensional Unconstrained Nonlinear Minimization function (fminsearch) and Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) method. The PSO has been proved to be much superior to fminsearch function. The robustness of the LQR, the fminsearch optimized FLPID and the PSO FLPID optimized AGC controllers has been assessed. The LQR robustness found to be slightly better than the FLPID technique. However the FLPID supercedes the LQR due to the limited number of field feedback signals in comparison to the LQR. Finally, a qualitative assessment of the benefits of the ongoing GCC interconnection project on PDO and OETC has been done through modelling approach. The results proved that the GCC interconnection will bring considerable benefits to PDO and OETC but the interconnection capacity between PDO and OETC needs to be enhanced. However, the application of AGC on PDO and OETC will alleviate the PDO-OETC interconnection capacity enhancement imposed by the GCC interconnection.

As the technology behind renewable energy sources becomes more advanced and cost-effective, these sources have become an ever-increasing portion of the generation portfolios of power systems across the country. While the shift away from non-renewable resources is generally considered beneficial, the fact remains that intermittent renewable sources present special challenges associated with their unique operating characteristics. Because of the high variability of intermittent renewables, the frequency performance of the system to which they are connected can degrade. Generators assigned to regulate frequency, keeping it close to the desired 60 Hz, are forced to ramp up and down quickly in order to offset the rise and fall of the variable resources (in addition to the rise and fall of load), causing transient frequency deviations, power swings, major interface transfer variations and other significant issues. This research measures the impact of intermittent renewable resource penetration level on power system frequency performance, and offers methods for managing that performance. Currently, the generally accepted amount of regulation (rapidly-dispatchable reserve, used as a supplement to base generation on a short time scale to avoid performance issues) is 1% of peak load. Because of the high variability associated with intermittent renewables, including wind generation (the focus of this thesis), it is expected that this amount of regulation must increase in order to maintain adequate system frequency performance. Thus, the primary objective of this thesis is to quantify the amount of regulation necessary to maintain adequate frequency performance as a function of the penetration level of wind generation. Presently, balancing resource requirements are computed, in both industry and in the research literature, using static models, which rely entirely on statistical manipulation of net load, failing to capture the intricacies of dynamic system and generator interactions. Using a dynamic model with high temporal resolution data, instead of these statistical models, this thesis confirms the need for additional regulation as wind generation penetration increases. But beyond that, our research demonstrates an exponentially increasing relationship between necessary regulation and wind generation percentage, indicating that, without further technological breakthroughs, there is a practical limit to the amount of wind generation that a typical system can accommodate. Furthermore, we compare our dynamic model results with those of the statistical models, and show that the majority of current statistical models substantially under-predict the necessary amount of regulation to accommodate significant amounts of wind generation. Finally, we verify that the ramping capability of the regulating generators impacts the amount of necessary regulation, although it is generally ignored in current analysis and related literature.

Cette thèse se focalise sur le problème du contrôle des flux de puissance entre plusieurs systèmes électriques AC non-synchrones reliés par un réseau à courant continu (DC). Elle propose trois schémas de commande afin de permettre aux sous-systèmes de partager leurs efforts de réglage de la fréquence et réduire ainsi le besoin de réserves propres et les coûts associés. A partir des mesures des fréquences de toutes les zones, le premier schéma de commande modifie les puissances injectées par chaque zone AC vers le réseau DC, de manière à faire réagir le système collectivement à des déséquilibres de charge. Cette réaction collective permet à chaque zone AC de réduire sa propre réserve primaire. Le deuxième schéma de commande a le même objectif que le premier, mais il agit sur les tensions continues des convertisseurs HVDC. En particulier, il modifie la tension continue de chaque convertisseur en fonction de la déviation de fréquence de la zone AC à laquelle il est connecté. Le dernier schéma de commande vise à rétablir les fréquences et les échanges de puissance à leurs valeurs nominales et prévues, respectivement, à la suite d'un déséquilibre. Il peut être combiné avec les deux autres schémas de commande. Des étudies théoriques démontrent les propriétés de stabilité des trois schémas de commande. Les résultats de simulation sur un réseau électrique de référence avec cinq zones AC illustrent leur bonne performance. / This thesis addresses the problem of frequency control in a power system composed of several non-synchronous AC areas connected by a multi-terminal HVDC grid. For this system, we propose three control schemes, two for primary frequency control and one for secondary frequency control. Based on remote measurements of the other areas' frequencies, the first control scheme modifies the power injections from the different AC areas into the DC grid so as to make the system collectively react to load imbalances. This collective reaction allows each individual AC area to downscale its primary reserves. The second control scheme has the same objective with the first one, but acts on the DC voltages of the HVDC converters. In particular, it modifies the DC voltage of each converter based on the frequency deviation of the AC area it is connected to. The last control scheme aims at restoring the frequencies and the power exchanges to their nominal or scheduled values in the aftermath of a power imbalance. It can be combined with the other two control schemes. Theoretical studies reveal the stability properties of the three control schemes. Simulation results on a benchmark power system with five AC areas confirm their good performance.

Radical changes to present day power systems will lead to power systems with a significant penetration of renewable energy sources and smartness, expressed in an extensive utilization of novel sensors and cyber secure Information and Communication Technology. Although these renewable energy sources prove to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions into the environment, its high penetration affects power system dynamic performance as a result of reduced power system inertia as well as less flexibility with regards to dispatching generation to balance future demand. These pose a threat both to the security and stability of future power systems. It is therefore very important to develop new methods through which power system security and stability can be maintained. This research investigated the development of methods through which the contributions of on-load tap changing transformers/transformer clusters could be assessed with the intent of developing real time adaptive voltage controlled demand response schemes for power systems. The development of such a scheme enables more active system components to be involved in the provision of frequency control as an ancillary service and deploys a new frequency control service with low infrastructural investment, bearing in mind that OLTC transformers are already very prevalent in power systems. In this thesis, a novel online adaptive supervisory controller for ensuring optimal dispatch of voltage-controlled demand response resources is developed. This novel controller is designed using the assessment results of OLTC transformer impacts on steady-state frequency and was tested for a variety of scenarios. To achieve the effective performance of the adaptive supervisory controller, the extensive use of statistical techniques for assessing OLTC transformer contributions to voltage controlled demand response is presented. This thesis also includes the use of unsupervised machine learning techniques for power system partitioning and the further use of statistical methods for assessing the contributions of OLTC transformer aggregates.

The general trends in the past decade of increasing solar cell efficiency, decreasing PV system costs, increasing government incentive programs, and several other factors have all combined synergistically to reduce the barriers of entry for PV systems to enter the market and expand their contribution to the global energy portfolio. The shortcomings of current inverter functions which link PV systems to the utility network are becoming transparent as PV penetration levels continue to increase. The solution this thesis proposes is an approach to control the inverters real and reactive power output to help eliminate the problems associated with PV systems at their origin and in addition provide the grid with ancillary support services. The design, modeling, and analysis of a grid-tied PV system was performed in the PSCAD software simulation environment. Results indicate that in the presence of grid disturbances the smart inverter can react dynamically to help restore the power system back to its normal state. A harmonic analysis was also performed indicating the inverter under study met the applicable power quality standards for distributed energy resources.

This thesis addresses the problem of frequency control in a power system composed of several non-synchronous AC areas connected by a multi-terminal HVDC grid. For this system, we propose three control schemes, two for primary frequency control and one for secondary frequency control. Based on remote measurements of the other areas' frequencies, the first control scheme modifies the power injections from the different AC areas into the DC grid so as to make the system collectively react to load imbalances. This collective reaction allows each individual AC area to downscale its primary reserves. The second control scheme has the same objective with the first one, but acts on the DC voltages of the HVDC converters. In particular, it modifies the DC voltage of each converter based on the frequency deviation of the AC area it is connected to. The last control scheme aims at restoring the frequencies and the power exchanges to their nominal or scheduled values in the aftermath of a power imbalance. It can be combined with the other two control schemes. Theoretical studies reveal the stability properties of the three control schemes. Simulation results on a benchmark power system with five AC areas confirm their good performance.

This thesis proposes a nonlinear differential semblance approach to full waveform inversion as an alternative to standard least squares inversion, which cannot guarantee a reliable solution, because of the existence of many spurious local minima of the objective function for typical data that lacks low-frequency energy. Nonlinear differential semblance optimization combines the ability of full waveform inversion to account for nonlinear physical effects, such as multiple reflections, with the tendency of differential semblance migration velocity analysis to avoid local minima. It borrows the gather-flattening concept from migration velocity analysis, and updates the velocity by flattening primaries-only gathers obtained via nonlinear inversion. I describe a general formulation of this algorithm, its main components and implementation. Numerical experiments show for simple layered models, standard least squares inversion fails, whereas nonlinear differential semblance succeeds in constructing a kinematically correct model and fitting the data rather precisely.

In the future, renewable energy share, especially wind power share, in electricity generation is expected to increase. Due to nature of the wind, wind power generation pattern includes uncertainties which affects the energy prices in the electricity markets. New simulations are needed for efficient planning process for the resources in the power systems to address the uncertainties in demand, generation, legal, economical and technical limitations. In this study, the aspects of planning process for wind power generation is described and some example scenarios are implemented with the help of MATLAB software.

The total amount of frequency deviations have during the last decade increased exponentially in the Nordic synchronous power system. The transmission system operators have therefore decided to implement load frequency control as a new automatic control system to stem these frequency deviations. The aim of this feasibility study is to analyse the effects of an LFC implementation in Swedish hydropower stations by using a more dynamic river governing. The method chosen to analyse the effects of LFC-governing was to create a Matlab Simulink hydropower station library including dynamic modules for rivers and turbine governors. The library is then used to create a river reach that is implemented in an ENTSO-E model for the Nordic frequency reserves. The governing of the river uses economical dispatch theory to optimally distribute a LFC setpoint signal from the ENTSO-E model to the different hydropower stations. Results show that the developed method has a future potential to create more frequency controlled reserves. By creating a central governing unit it was possible to govern frequency controlled reserves over an entire river reach under certain scenarios, but there are still many obstacles to overcome before an actual implementation. The method does however show both the possibilities and drawback of frequency controlled reserves in cascade coupled hydropower systems.

A critical requirement of any remote microgrid is its capability to control the balance between electric generation and load within the confines of the microgrid itself. The integration of significant amounts of “as available” renewable generation to any electric grid (macro or micro) makes it more difficult to maintain this balance and can result in large frequency deviations on a microgrid. Ancillary services provide the resources required to maintain the instantaneous and ongoing balance between generation and load. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) can provide regulating reserves, a type of ancillary service, by modulating active power for frequency control, referred to as load frequency control (LFC), to reduce frequency deviations caused by sudden changes in renewable generation. Historically, the most common methodology for reducing frequency disturbances exacerbated by wind plants with BESS systems is ramp rate control and more recently lead compensation. This thesis proposed a modified lead compensator for use in microgrid applications. A PSS®E microgrid model, based upon existing validated models, was developed to test the effectiveness of the LFC controllers used to dispatch the BESS as a regulating resource to allow increased wind energy penetration levels on remote microgrids. A model of the remote microgrid of the island of Maui, Hawaii was chosen as the basis for the designs. Daily wind power data from 2012 was classified and indexed on an hourly basis by severity of variation. The worst hour for power variation from the wind plants was identified from this indexing and used as the basis for simulating the LFC controllers. The results compared the effectiveness of droop, ramp rate, lead compensation, and modified lead compensation controllers in reducing the variability in the grid frequency caused by changes in wind power generation. An RMS of variation with respect to an average over different time windows was used as the comparison metric. The combined modified lead compensator with ramp rate control showed the best performance of the overall system behavior. / text