Per-Unit System

1.0 Introduction

The per-unit system is a widely system of normalization. Being familiar with it is essential to
functioning in the world of electric power engineering.

2.0 What is per-unit? (Section 5.5, 5.6)

The per-unit system is a way to transform the numerical quantities (voltages, currents, powers,
and impedances) to gain certain advantages while maintaining the basic relations between them
(Ohm’s laws).

The main advantage is that voltages tend to be very close to 1.0 and consequently numerical
algorithms are more reliable. In addition, the range of values for voltage, currents, powers, and
impedances tends to be narrower, offering opportunities to detect bad data.
The basic idea in the per-unit system is that all voltage, currents, powers, and impedances are
normalized according to
Value units
Value pu = (1)
BaseValue
In order to remain consistent with Ohm’s laws, we are allowed to choose the base values for any
two quantities we want (voltage, current, power, or impedance). Then the other two values must
be computed.

For example, it is common to choose the voltage and power bases.

• Voltage base is chosen as nominal voltage
• Power base is chosen as multiple of 10: 1, 10, or 100 kVA or MVA
Then, we compute:
S1φbase
I base = (2)
V LNbase
(V LNbase ) 2 V LNbase
Z base = = (3)
S1φbase I base
The above works for single phase systems or 3-phase systems. In addition, for 3-phase systems,
we also have:
V LLbase = 3V LNbase (4)
S 3φbase = 3 S1φbase (5)
S 3φ b a se
I b a se = I b a se,Y = (6)
3VL L b a se
(VLLbase ) 2
Z base = Z base ,Y = (7)
S 3φbase
In addition:
Z base , ∆ = 3 Z base ,Y (8)
1
I base , ∆ = I base ,Y (9)
3

3.0 Changing base

A calculation that is done very often is to convert a per-unit impedance on one base to a per-unit
impedance on another base.

1
A common situation when this calculation is required is when the purchasing a new piece of
equipment (e.g., transformer, generator) from a manufacturer (e.g., ABB, GE, Toshiba, etc.), that
has to be modeled in a system (e.g. power flow) study.

The manufacturer will typically supply data in per unit, but on bases that are chosen consistent
with the component ratings. These bases are unlikely to be the same as the bases used in the
system study.

These formula are easy to derive, by equating the impedance in ohms expressed as a function of
the per-unit impedance, e.g.,
Z Ω = Z pu 1 Z base 1 = Z pu 2 Z base 2 (10)
where
(VLLbase 1 ) 2 (VLLbase 2 ) 2
Z base 1 = , Z base 2 = (11)
S 3φbase 1 S 3φbase 2
Substituting eqs. (11) into (10) and solving for Zpu1 yields

Z pu1 = Z pu 2
Z base 2
= Z pu 2
( VLLbase2 ) S 3φbase1
2

Z base1 S 3φbase 2 (VLLbase1 ) 2

(12)

= Z pu 2
( VLLbase2 )
2
S 3φbase1
(VLLbase1 ) 2 S 3φbase 2
It may be easier for you to remember it when written in terms of the “new” base (base you are
converting to) and the “old” base (base you are converting from):

Z pu ,new = Z pu ,old
(V LLbase ,old )2
S 3φbase , new
(V ) 2 (13)
LLbase , new
S 3φbase ,old
It may be the case that only voltage base is changed, or that only power base is changed. The
part of eq. (13) that does not get changed will simply be 1.0, and so can be ignored in the
expression.

4.0 Perunitization of transmission systems

We will assume our system is “normal” as defined in Section 5.4. This means that the voltage
gain for any paralleled transformers is the same.\r

We will need to per-unitize the data for an entire transmission system. The difficulty here is that,
because of transformers, there are different nominal voltages.

The solution to this is to choose the voltage base for one “section” of the system. A section is a
set of interconnected components not separated by a transformer.

Then compute the voltage bases for all other sections of the system so that voltage bases of
different sections are in the same ratio as the line-to-line voltages.

Let’s work a problem.

Problem 5.19:

2
Draw an impedance diagram for the system whose one-line diagram is shown in Fig. 1.

Data for the system is:

G1: 50 MVA, 13.8 kV, X=0.15 pu
G2: 20 MVA, 14.4 kV, X=0.15 pu
G1 Fig. 1

M : 20 MVA, 14.4 kV, X=0.15 pu

T1 : 60 MVA, 13.2kV/161kV, X=0.10 pu
T2 : 25 MVA, 13.1kV/161kV, X=0.10 pu
T3 : 25 MVA, 13.2kV/160kV, X=0.10 pu
(I changed voltage rating on LV side of T2 and HV side of T3).
Line 1: 20+80 ohms
Line 2: 10+j40 ohms
Line 3: 10+j40 ohms
Load: 20+j15 MVA at 12.63 kV
We begin by choosing the system power base as S3φ,base=100 MVA.

Section A
We must also choose the voltage base in one section of the system. We will select 161kV in
Section D.

Now we compute the voltage bases in the other three sections of the system.
13 .2 V LLbaseA
Section A: = , V LLbaseA = 13 .2kV
161 161
13 .1 V LLbaseB
Section B: = , V LLbaseB = 13 .1kV
161 161
13 .2 VLLbaseC
Section C: = , VLLbaseC = 13 .2825 kV
160 161

Now we can use eq. (13) to convert the given per-unit impedances for G1, G2, M, T1, T2, and T3
into per-unit impedances on our new bases.

G1 :

Z pu , new = 0.15
( 13 .8) 2 100 = 0.3279
( 13 .2) 2 50

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G2 :

Z pu ,new = 0.15
( 14 .4 ) 100
2
= 0.9062
( 13 .1) 2 20
M:
( 14 .4) 2 100
Z pu , new = 0.15 = 0.8815
( 13 .285 ) 2 20
T1 :
100
Z pu ,new = 0.10 = 0.1667
60
T2 :
100
Z pu ,new = 0.10 = 0.4
25
T3 :

Z pu , new = 0.10
( 13 .2) 2 100
= 0.3950
( 13 .2825 ) 2
25
Note that the last calculation (for T3) could have been done as follows:

Z pu , new = 0.10
( 160 ) 2 100 = 0.3950
( 161 ) 2 25
Now let’s per-unitize the lines. The line impedances are all in ohms. So we need to find the
impedance base for Section D. From eq. (7), we get:

Z baseD =
( V LLbaseD )
2

=
(161 E 3) 2
= 259 .21Ω
S 3φbase 100 E 6
Then we compute
Z Line 1, Ω 20 + j 80
Z Line 1, pu = = = 0.07716 + j0.3086
Z baseD 259 .21
Z Line 2 ,Ω 10 + j 40
Z Line 2 , pu = = = 0.03858 + j 0.1543
Z baseD 259 .21
Z Line 3 , Ω 10 + j 40
Z Line 3 , pu = = = 0.03858 + j 0.1543
Z baseD 259 .21

Load:
The load requires a bit of thinking. We are told that it is 20+j15 MVA at 12.63 kV. Now we could
convert it to per-unit power by dividing by 100. However, the problem requires that we develop
the impedance diagram. So we need to convert this power-specification to an impedance
specification.

We can do this because we know the voltage at which the given power is consumed. But one
question remains. Since the power is complex, there needs to be an R and an X. But is the R and
X in series or in parallel?

We are not given this information and so it is up to us to assume one or the other. We will
assume a series combination. In this case,

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 2
V (12 .63 • 10 3 )2
Z Load Ω = * = = 5.1045 + j3.8284
S ( 20 − j15 ) • 10 6
Now we need to per-unitize it. To do this, we need the impedance base of Section C. This is
computed as:
(VLLbaseC ) 2 (13.2825 E 3) 2
Z baseC = = = 1.7642 Ω
S 3φbase 100 E 6
Now we may compute the per-unit impedance as
Z Load Ω 5.1045 + j3.8284
Z Load , pu = = = 2.8934 + j2.1700
Z baseC 1.7642