Tuning of Power

System
Stabilizer

Why PSS?

Exciters which are essential for maintaining steady state

stability, transient stability and fast control of terminal voltage
can contribute to oscillatory instability in power system

This type of instability can endanger system security and limit

power transfer

The Major factors that contribute to Oscillatory instability are :

Generator or tie line loading
Transfer capability of the transmission line
Power factor of the generator
AVR gain

Why PSS?

Block diagram representation for small signal performance

of system with AVR and Exciter

Why PSS?
Case study:

For a specific case, the parameters of a system with a thyristor

exciter and system conditions such that K5 is negative are as
follows:
K1=1.591 K2=1.5 K3=0.333 K4=1.8 T3 =1.91 K5=-0.12
K6=0.3
TR=0.02
Gex(s) = KA H=3.0 KD=0.0
K5 is negative for high values of external system reactance and
high generator outputs

Why PSS?
Damping and Synchronizing torque components at the rotor
Oscillation Frequency:
Assumed rotor oscillation frequency is 10 rad/s

T E 1.8714 12.27 r
The net Synchronizing torque coefficient is Ks=1.8714 pu torque/rad
The damping torque coefficient is KD = -12.27 pu torque/pu speed
change
Thus, there is negative damping which results in Oscillatory
instability of system

Effect of the AVR on Ks and KD at =10 rad/s for different

values of AVR gain KA
KA

0
10
15
50
100
200

Ks(fd)

-0.0025
-0.0079
-0.0093
0.0029
0.0782
0.2804

Ks= K1+ Ks(fd)

1.5885
1.5831
1.5817
1.5939
1.6692
1.8714

KD(fd)

1.772
0.614
0.024
-4.090
-8.866
-12.272

From the table it can be seen that as the AVR gain increases the
damping becomes negative which makes the system Oscillatory
instable

Introduction to PSS

The basic intent of adding a Power System Stabilizer is to

enhance damping by controlling its excitation using auxiliary
stabilizing signal, thus extending power transfer limits

This is done by providing a component of electrical torque in

phase with the rotor speed deviations

Structure and Tuning of PSS

Block Diaghram of PSS

Wash out Circuit

Provided to eliminate steady state bias in the output of

PSS which will modify the generator terminal voltage
Is expected to respond only to transient variations in the
input signal and not to the dc offsets in the signal

Wash out circuit:

Selection of time constant ( Tw ):

Wash out circuit acts essentially as a high pass filter and it

must pass all frequencies that are of interest

If only local mode are of interest, the time constant Tw can be

chosen in the range of 1 to 2

If inter area modes are also to be damped, then Tw must be

chosen in the range of 10 to 20

There is also noticeable improvement in the first swing stability

when Tw is increased from 1.5 to 10

Dynamic Compensator

Provided to compensate for phase lag

Transfer function of Dynamic compensator with two lead-lag
stages which is used in the industry is

T (s)

K s (1 sT1 )(1 sT 3)
(1 sT2 )(1 sT4 )

Ks is the gain of PSS ,

Time constants T1 to T4 are chosen to provide a phase lead for the
input signal in the range of frequencies that are of interest (0.1 to
3.0 Hz)

For design purposes, the PSS transfer function is approximated to

T(s), the transfer function of the dynamic compensator

Dynamic Compensator

The plots of the phase angle of the one stage lead lag
compensator with variation in frequency are shown below for
different values of the centre frequency fc defined by
fc

1
2

T1T2

Depending on phase compensation required fc and n are selected

System With PSS

Block diagram representation for small signal performance

of system with AVR and PSS

Dynamic Compensator
Selection of time Constants:

As in practice both the generator and the exciter exhibit

frequency dependent gain and phase characteristics, PSS
transfer function Gpss(s), should provide phase compensation
between the exciter input and the electrical torque

To provide pure damping torque at all frequencies, ideally the

phase characteristics of PSS must balance the phase
characteristics of the plant transfer function (GEP(s)) at all
frequencies, which is not practical

Dynamic Compensator
The following design criteria is used for phase
compensation of PSS

The compensated phase lag (phase of P(s) =GEP(s) PSS(s))

should pass through 90 degrees at frequency around 3.5 Hz
(for frequency input signal this can be reduced to 2.0 HZ)

The compensated phase lag at local mode frequency should

be below 45 degrees, preferably near 20 degrees

The gain of the compensator at high frequencies( which is

proportional to T1T2/T3T4) should be minimized

Dynamic Compensator
Selection of gain:

Root locus analysis is performed and the optimal PSS gain

is chosen for the particular tuning condition as the gain that
results in maximum damping of the least damped mode

From the studies carried out in [3], the optimal gain (Kopt) is
related to the value of the gain (KI) that results in instability

For speed input stabilizers Kopt=1/3 KI

For frequency input stabilizers Kopt=2/3 KI
For power input stabilizers Kopt=1/8 KI

Torsional Filter

Torsional Filter in the PSS is essentially a band reject or a low

pass filter to attenuate the first torsional mode frequency.

The transfer function of the filter can be expressed as

n2
FILT ( s ) 2
s 2 n s n2

Torsional Filter
The criteria for designing of the torsional filter are:

The maximum possible change in damping of any

torsional mode is less than some fraction of the inherent
torsional damping

The phase lag of the filter in the frequency range of 1 to 3

Hz is minimized

Limiter:

When load rejection takes place, the AVR acts to reduce the terminal
voltage whereas PSS action calls for higher value of the terminal voltage

Limiter limits the output of the PSS to prevent the PSS counter the action
of AVR

Negative limit of PSS output is of importance during back swing of the

rotor ( after the initial acceleration is over)

PSS action in the negative direction must be curtailed more than in the
positive direction

Ontario hydro uses -0.05 p.u as the lower limit and 0.1 to 0.2 as the higher
limit

Example:

A synchronous generator is connected to an infinite bus through

an external reactance xe=0.4 pu. The generator is initially
supplying power of 1 p.u with terminal voltage at 1.0 pu. The
infinite bus voltage is 1.0. A static exciter with a single time
constant AVR is considered (KE=200, TE=0.05). Design a speed
input PSS to damp local modes.
The machine data: xd=1.6, xq=1.55, xd =0.32 , Td0=6.0,
H= 5,

D=0, fB=60 Hz

Sol: The initial conditions and K1 to K6 are calculated from the

operating point

The phase angle of GEP(s) as a function of is shown below

Phase angle of GEP(j) Vs Frequency

The phase angle decreases as frequency increases. At the

rotor oscillation of about 7 rad/sec, the phase lag is 35o . At
the cut off frequency of 3.5 Hz (22 rad/sec), the phase lag is
around 120o

A compensator transfer function

T (s)

K s (1 sT1 )
1 sT2

With a centre frequency of 3.5 Hz is selected. The maximum

Lead (which occurs at 3.5 Hz) is selected as 30 deg so that the
Compensated phase lag is 90 deg at 3.5 Hz. The ratio of n=T1/T2
has to satisfy
where

tan-1 T1c tan-1 T2c = 30o

c 2f c
tan

1
1

T1T2 T2 n

n tan

1
30o
n

The solution of above equation is n=3. The time constants are

selected as
T1=0.078 s, T2=0.026 s
The phase angle of the compensator is shown below

Phase angle of Compensator T(j)

The phase lead provided by the PSS at the rotor oscillation

frequency is around 19o. This results in compensated phase lag
of about 16o at 7 rad/s.

The phase angle of the compensated phase ( T(s)GEP(s) )

is shown below

Compensated phase angle Vs frequency

The washout circuit time constant is Tw is selected as

2.0 s as the PSS is mainly designed for damping local
modes of frequency around 1 Hz

Selection of gain ( Ks ):
Method 1:
The loci of two roots (eigen values), one corresponding to the
local (rotor) mode and the other corresponding to exciter mode as
gain Ks is varied are shown in below figure

Root Loci with variation in stabilizer gain

The root corresponding to the local mode moves to the left as

Ks increases from zero and for higher PSS gain, the frequency
of oscillation continues to decrease until the complex root splits
into two real parts.

The root corresponding to exciter mode moves to the right and

crosses imaginary axis at around Ks=74

The optimum value of gain Ks is the value at which the critical

mode is maximum damped. In this case value of Ks=16
Method 2:
The value of gain= Ks(at which system is unstable) / 3 25

Operation of PSS for different operating conditions:

The plot of the variation of angle of GEP(j) for four different
operating conditions is shown in fig

Variation of Phase of GEP(j) for different operating conditions

From the above fig. it can be seen that the phase lag of GEP(j)
is maximum for full load (Pg=1.0) and strong system (xe=0.4)
conditions. Hence PSS designed for the operating conditions
Pg=1.0, xe=0.4 is expected to operate satisfactorily at other
operating conditions

Operation of PSS for Large

The data of the above example is taken for simulation of a 3
disturbance
phase at the generator terminals. The limits on PSS output are

0.05 and limits on Efd are 6.0 . The fault is cleared in 4 cycles.
Assuming the post fault system condition identical to prefault
system. The results of the simulation with and without PSS are
shown below

Rotor angle Without PSS

Rotor angle With PSS

References

Prabha Kundur, Power System Stability and Control,

(Book), Tata McGraw-Hill, 2007
K R Padiyar, Power System Stability and Control, (Book),
BS Publications, 2006
E.V. Larsen and D.A. Swann, Applying Power System
Stabilizers, part I,II and III, IEEE Trans. Vol. PAS-100,, pp.
3017-3046, June 1981

P.Kundur, M.Klein, G.J. Rogers and M.S. Zymo,

Application of power system stabilizers for enhancement
of overall system stability, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 614-626, May 1989

Thank You