Effects of Different Parameters on Power System
Transient Stability Studies
M. Amroune
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Setif 1, Algeria.
E-mail: amrounemohammed@yahoo.fr
Abstract The transient stability studies plays a vital role in
providing secured operating configurations in power systems.
This paper shows an analysis of the effects of various parameters
on the transient stability studies of power system. The various
parameters for which the analysis is presented include the Fault
Clearing Time (FCT), Fault location, load increasing, machine
damping coefficient D, and Generator Armature Resistance
GAR. Under the condition that the power system is subjected to a
three-phase short-circuit fault, the Critical Clearing Time (CCT)
is calculated using numerical integration method. The analysis
has been carried out on the IEEE 30-bus test system. From this
analysis, we can conclude the importance of these different
parameters on power system transient stability studies.
Keywords- transient stability analysis; numerical integration
method; critical clearing time; damping coefficient; generator
armature resistances
I. INTRODUCTION
The transient stability is one of important items in the
planning and maintaining security of power system operation.
A transient stability is concerned with the ability of the power
system to maintain synchronism when subjected to a severe
disturbance. These disturbances can be faults such as: a short
circuit on a transmission line, loss of a generator, loss of a
load, gain of load or loss of a portion of transmission network
[1][2].
One of the requirements of transient stability analysis is to
compute a transient stability index (TSI) for the contingencies,
which is used to assess the stability of single contingency and
furthermore rank the severity of different contingencies [3].
The Critical Clearance Time of a fault is generally
considered as the best measurement of severity of a
contingency and thus widely used for ranking contingencies
in accordance with their severity [4]. In this paper Critical
Clearing Time (CCT) is employed as a transient stability index
to evaluate test system. In IEEE report [5], the Critical
Clearing Time is defined as the maximum time between the
fault initiation and its clearing such that the power system is
transiently stable.
The CCT is efficient factor for estimation of transient
stability limits of large power to avoid any cascading outages
28
T. Bouktir
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Setif 1, Algeria.
E-mail: tbouktir@yahoo.fr
which may lead to black out.
The transient stability limits refers to the amount of power that
can be transmitted through some point in the system with
stability when the system is subjected to sever
disturbance. The transient stability limits depends on
duration and location of fault, construction parameters
of the network and generators, and dynamic
characteristics of loads [6][7][8]. In this order the main
objective of this paper is to know the effects of various
parameters on the transient stability studies of power
system i.e. Fault Clearing Time (FCT), Fault location,
load increasing, machine damping coefficient and
Generator Armature Resistance GAR. The analysis has been
carried out on the IEEE 30-bus test system.
Many methods for transient stability analysis and
assessment have been proposed and improved over the years,
such as equal area criteria, numerical integration and
Lyapunove method [9][10][11], in this study the numerical
integration method is required in order to get the exact CCTs.
The numerical integration method is the most reliable and
accurate method for transient stability assessment [12].
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF POWER SYSTEM
This section gives a mathematical model for the power
system network which includes modeling of synchronous
machines and the network.
A. Swing equation
The equation governing the motion of the rotor of
synchronous machine is based on elementary principal in
dynamics which states that the accelerating torque is the
producer of the moment of inertia and angular
acceleration [6]:
T m = J m +T e +T D (1)
Where Tm [Nm] is the mechanical energy input at the rotor
shaft; Te [Nm] is the torque equivalent of the generator
electrical output power; J [kg m2] is the combined polar
moment of inertia of the rotor masses; m [rd/sec2] is the
acceleration of the rotor masses; TD [Nm] is the damping
torque of the generator. The damping term TD in equation (1)
is a very small percentage of Te and thus equation (1) is
sometimes approximated by [13]:
T m = J m +Te (2)
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This equation can be represented in terms of electrical transient reactance. (ii) The governors action are neglected and
power [10]: the input powers are assumed to remain constant during the
entire period of simulation. (iii) Using pre-fault bus voltage, all
d 2 f
= ( Pm Pe ) (3) loads are converted to equivalent admittances to ground and are
dt 2 H assumed to remain constant. (iv) The mechanical rotor angle of
each machine coincides with the angel of the voltage behind
Where is the electrical power angle in radians and the machine reactance. (v) Machines belonging to the same
kinetic energy in [ MJ ] at rated speed station swing together and are said to be coherent. A group of
H = (4) coherent machines is represented by one machine.
machine rating in [ MVA ]
f is the system frequency; H is the inertia constant of machine A. Solution steps
expected on the common MVA base; Pm is the The algorithm for the transient stability studies involves the
mechanical input power and Pe is the electrical output. following steps:
It is often desirable to include a component of damping
not accounted for in the calculation of Pe separately. Reads the line and bus data. It includes the data for
This is accomplished by adding a term PD proportional lines, transformers and shunt capacitors.
to speed deviation in the above equation as follows [14]: Form admittance matrix, Ybus.
d 2 f
= ( Pm Pe PD ) (5) Solve the initial load flow.
dt 2 H
Where Reads generator data.
d Modify Ybus by adding the generator and load
PD = D (6)
dt admittances.
D is the generator damping coefficient. Compute the pre-fault admittance matrix Ypre-fault by
B. Electrical network modelling eliminating all nodes except the internal generator
nodes.
The machine classical electromechanical model is
represented by the following differential equations: Solve the generator swing equation for the pre-fault
d i period.
= i s
dt Set t = 1s a three-phase fault occurs at any line in the
(7) system, and fault bus voltage equal to zero.
d 2 i f
= ( P P P )
dt 2 Hi
mi ei Di
Compute the new faulted admittance matrix Yfault.
th
The electrical power of the i generator is given by [6]: Solve the swing equation for the fault period.
Pei = E R ii + C ij sin i j + ( 90 ij )
m

i
2 o
(8) Isolate the line witch fault occurred.
j =1

Where Compute the post-fault system admittance matrix Ypost-

fault.
i = 1, 2,3,m is the number of synchronous machines.
Cij = |Ei||Ej||Yij| is the power transferred at bus ij. Solve the swing equation for the post fault period.
E is the magnitude of the internal voltage.
Plots the swing curves for all generators.
Yij are the internal elements of matrix Y.
Rii are the real values of the diagonal elements of Y. In this paper, we define the CCT as the small lest from all
CCTs values for different generators.
III. TRANSIENT STABILITY EVALUATION
IV. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
Transient stability analysis is used to investigate the stability
of power system under sudden and large disturbances, and This section presents computer simulation studies with
plays an important role in maintaining security of power programs developed in the environment of MATLAB software.
system operation. The transient stability analysis is performed The analysis has been carried out on the IEEE 30-bus test
by combining a solution of the algebraic equations describing system shown in Fig. 1. It consists of 6 synchronous machines,
24 loads and 41 transmission lines. Detailed parameters of this
the network with numerical solution of the differential
system can be found in [15].
equations. However, due to the non-linearity of the differential
equations, the solving process is tedious and complicated.
Thus, numerical integration methods have been applied to
examine a systems stability.
In order to reduce the complexity of the transient stability
analysis for the considered test systems, the following
assumption are accepted [10]: (i) Each synchronous machine is
represented by a constant voltage source behind the direct axis

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TABLE 2. OPF RESULTS

BUS
PG (MW)

1 176.920
2 48.451
5 20.972
8 22.432
11 12.146
13 12.000
P loss 9.522
Total cost 802.35 ($/h)

The analysis of effects of various parameters on power system

transient stability studies is presented here. The various
parameters for which the analysis is presented include the
Fault Clearing Time (FCT), fault location, load increasing,
generator damping coefficient D and generator armature
resistances GAR.
A. Effect of Fault Clearing Time (FCT)
In order to know the effect of Fault Clearing Time (FCT)
on transient stability a disturbance in the form of a three phase
to ground fault is occurs at t = 1 second at bus 1, cleared by
opening the line connecting the nodes 12. The rotor angle
differences are shown in Figure 2. If the fault is cleared rapidly
Figure 1. Single line diagram of the IEEE 30-bus system the angular deviation is less and subsequently the system may
become stable. This angular deviation increases if the fault
The test system is analyzed using optimal power flow clearing time increases and ultimately if the fault is cleared
(OPF). A standard OPF problem can be formulated as after Critical Clearing Time (CCT) the system will lose
follows [16][17]: synchronism. In this case the CCT is equal to 166 ms.
ng
F ( x ) = (ai + bi Pgi c i Pgi2 ) (9) 200
i =1 1-2
180
1-3 FCT = 100 ms
Pi (V , ) + Pdi Pgi = 0 (10) 160 1-4
1-5 FCT = 166 ms
A ng le ro to riq u e re la tif, d e gre e

Q i (V , ) + Q di Q gi = 0 (11) 140 1-6

120 *** FCT = 167 ms
Pgimin Pgi Pgimax ;i=1,...ng (12) 100

Q gimin Q gi Q gimax ;i=1,...ng (13) 80

60
Where F(x) is a cost function; ai, bi, ci are cost coefficients
40
shown in the Table 1; Pgi and Qgi are the active and reactive
power generations at ith bus; Pdi and Qdi are the active and 20

reactive power demands at ith bus; Pi and Qi are the active and 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
reactive power injections at ith bus. t, sec
The Optimal Power Flow results obtained with used of
the Lambda Iteration Method [10] are listed in Table 2. Figure 2. Rotor angle differences with fault at bus 1

TABLE 1. GENERATOR COST COEFFICIENTS

B. Effect of fault location
BUS Cost Coefficients PGMIN PGMAX In this sub-section the effects of fault location in transient
a b c (MW) (MW) stability are analyzed. A three-phase fault is located at two
1 0 2 0.00375 50 200 different locations, one closer to the generating stations (at bus
2 0 1.75 0.0175 20 80 1 with opening the line 12), in this case the CCT is equal to
5 0 1 0.0625 15 50 166 ms (Fig. 1), the other one far from the generating stations
8 0 3.25 0.0083 10 35
11 0 3 0.025 10 30
(at bus 6 with opening the line 46).
13 0 3 0.025 12 40 Fig. 3 shows the angular positions of the machines in the
system for a fault on line 46. It is found that the CCT is equal

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to 620 ms, which is higher then the CCT of the fault at bus 1
(on line 12).
Table 3 gives the CCTs for different fault locations in IEEE
30-bus system. It is clear that the fault that is nearer to the

Power generation
generating station must be cleared rapidly than the fault on the
line distant from the generation station.

400
1-2
350 1-3
1-4
FCT = 620 ms
300 1-5
1-6 FCT = 621 ms
A ngle rotorique relatif, degree

Total loading change

250
Figure 4. Power generation
200

150

100

50

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t, sec

Figure 3. Rotor angle differences with fault at bus 6

TABLE 3. CCTS FOR DIFFERENT FAULT LOCATION IN IEEE 30-BUS

Faulted bus Open line CCT (ms)

1 12 166
1 13 219
2 12 236 Figure 5. Voltage magnitude values
2 24 299 In order to evaluate the effects of load variation in transient
2 25 306 stability analysis, a three-phase fault occurs at bus 1 with
2 26 300 opening the line 12. The obtained CCTs for different load
3 34 537
values are listed in Table 4. It is very clear that the effect of
3 13 518
4 24 505
load increasing in decreasing the CCT.
4 34 513
TABLE 4. CCTS FOR TOTAL LOADING CHANGE
4 46 514
6 26 607
6 46 620 Total loading Base
10 20 30 40
change (%) case
Total loading
283.4 311.74 340.08 368.24 396.76
change (MW)
C. Effect of load increasing
CCTs
The man objective of this sub-section is to know the impact 166 133 110 107 104
(ms)
of load increasing on the power system Critical Clearing Time.
For this reason, active load at all buses in the IEEE 30-bus
system are increased from base case by 10%, 20%, 30%, and D. Effect of damping coefficient D
40%. Real example of this case is electrical peak load of The machine damping coefficient D represents the natural
energy consumption. damping of the system. In this sub-section, the effect of this
Figure 4 and Figure 5 shows respectively the power coefficient on the transient stability evaluation has been
generation and system voltage magnitudes for total loading investigated.
change. It is observed that more then allowed level of load Fig.6 and Fig.7 show the rotor angle differences with and
increasing, power generation increased and voltage at all buses without of damping coefficient for a short circuit at 1, the FCT
dropped. in this case is set at 100 ms.
From figures it can be seen that under the fault occurred
with consideration of damping coefficient, the oscillation
amplitudes and shapes are different. The damping coefficient
prevents the growth of oscillations; when the FCT = 110 ms

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(Fig. 7) the system with D remains stable and can return to E. Effect of Generator Armature Resistances (GAR)
steady state finally. However, the system with D neglected is The influence of generator armature resistances on transient
unstable. stability limits is presented in this sub-section. Two scenarios
Table 5 shows how the CCTs increase with including the were analyzed. In the first one the GAR is included; in the
damping coefficient D for the different fault locations. second situation the GAR is neglected. The rotor angle
differences with and without considering of GAR are shown in
Figure 8. The FCT is set at 168 ms, the system without
150
armature resistances is go out of step (FCT > CCT). However,
1-2 With D
1-3
the system with armature resistances is stable.
1-4 Without D
1-5
1-6 200
A ngle rotorique relatif, degree

100
180 1-2
1-3 With GAR
160
1-4

A n g le ro to riq u e re la tif, d e g re e
140 1-5 Without GAR
50 1-6
120

100

80
0
60
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t, sec 40

20
Figure 6. Rotor angle differences with fault at Bus 1 (FCT = 100 ms)
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
300 t, sec
1-2 With D
1-3
Figure 8. Rotor angle difference with fault at Bus 1 (FCT = 168 ms)
250 1-4 Without D
1-5 Anothers simulations have been performed for different
1-6 fault locations IEEE 30-bus system, in order to compare
A ngle rotorique relatif, degree

200
accurately CCTs with and without generator armature
150 resistances. The results from the cases study are presented in
Table 6 and Figure 9.
100 The comparative results have shown that the impact of
generator armature resistances in transient stability analysis.
50 From the obtained results it is investigated that the generator
armature resistance has an effect on the transient stability
0 analysis. In some cases the CCT is expected values 5 and 6
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 ms for example the fault at bus 2 with openings of the circuit
breakers at both ends of line (25), faults at bus 4(24), 4(3
t, sec

Figure 7. Rotor angle differences with fault at Bus 1 (FCT = 110 ms) 4), 4(46) and 6(46). It is very clear that the effect of
generator armature resistances in power system Critical
TABLE 5. CCTS WITH AND WITHOUT OF DAMPING COEFFICIENT
Clearing Time. For this reason the transient stability analysis
of power system can be accurately represented by including
Faulted CCT without D CCT with D the armature resistances of the synchronous machines.
Open line
bus (ms) (ms)
1 12 105 166
1 13 166 219
2 12 156 236
2 24 219 299
2 25 222 306
2 26 220 300
3 34 384 537
3 13 372 518
4 24 365 505
4 34 371 513
4 46 380 514
6 26 365 607
6 46 362 620

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TABLE 6. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CCTS FOR IEEE 30-BUS SYSTEM represented by including the armature resistances of the
synchronous machines.
CCT CCT
Faulted CCT
Open line without with GAR
bus (ms) REFERENCES
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Under three-phase short-circuit fault, the rapid clearing of
the fault promotes power system stability;
The fault that is nearer to the generating station must be
cleared rapidly than the fault on the line distant from the
generation station;
More then allowed level of load increasing a power
generation increased, voltage at all buses dropped and Critical
Clearing Time decreased.
The damping coefficient prevents the growth of oscillations
and improves the power system Critical Clearing Time;
Generator armature resistances have an effect on results of the
transient stability analysis, for this reason the transient
stability analysis of power system can be accurately

33 2014 UTA
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