IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 9, No.

2, May 1994 995

FAST TRANSIENT STABILlTY ESTIMATION
USING A NOVEL DYNAMIC EQUIVAT.,ENT REDUCTION TECHNIQUE

Fang Da-zhong T.S. Chung A.K. David

Department of Electrical Power & Automation Department of Electrical Engineering,

Engineering, Tianjin University, China Hong Kong Polytechnic, Hong Kong

Abstract is inherently slow due to the integration process involved in

solvingnumerous differential equations, especially for a large
A new Dynamic EquivalentPower System (DEPS) model for power system.
fast first swing transient stability assessment is proposed in The extended 'equal area criterion' methods were developed
this paper. The DEPS model makes use of the phenomenon by Rahimi [5] and Xue [6] and extented by Lemmon,
that during a fault on a large power system, there are many Mamandur and Barcelo [7]. Although they are very fast,
generators that are only lightlydisturbed when compared with they suffer from accuracy problems.
severely disturbed machines. The method substitutes these The TEF methods are the most promising ones under
less disturbed machines by one equivalent generator but intensive research in the context of on-line TSA [1,2,3,4].
allows some model parameters to become time dependent. They are based on determiningwhether the TEF V at clearing
The crucial feature is that a novel method of classification of time is less than a threshold value V,, the TEF at the
the less disturbed machines based on a Taylor series controlling Unstable Equilibrium Point (UEP) [1,2]. The
expansion which achieves a very rapid assessment of first controlling UEP has to be computed through iterative
swing Critical Clearing Time (CCT) has been developed. procedures and faces serious convergence problem in
This method is fundamentally different from other published calculation. Furthermore, for a large power system the
dynamic equivalent techniques, such as the extended equal computation time is considerable [16]. Therefore both the
area criterion method and the identification of coherent erratic behaviour and the computational requirements of the
generators, and both reliability and efficiency are better. TEF method could be major drawbacks.
With this DEPS model the efficiency of the traditional first This paper introduces a new model, which we shall call the
swing transient stability analysis could be fundamentally Dynamic Equivalent Power System (DEPS) model, to speed
improved. Extensive tests performed on several IEEE test up TSA. The DEPS model is based on the phenomenon that
systems show that the proposed model is suitable for fast for disturbances of large power systems the number of lightly
transient stability assessment in large systems. disturbed generators is large, making it possible to substitute
all less disturbed machines by one equivalent generator. The
Key-words: Power system transient stability, Power system fundamental difference from any other available dynamic
dynamic equivalent, Power system analysis. equivalent system method, such as the extended equal area
criterion method and the coherent generators method [17,181,
is that the parameters of the equivalent generator have been
1. Introduction developed as a Taylor series expansion in time. It will be
shown in this paper that this gives a more accurate expression
The determinationof critical clearing time (CCT) after a fault of the original power system and that this makes it possible
is a major topic in power system analysis, planning and to develop a very fast algorithm for determining CCT. Three
operation. Three methods: the numerical integration method, main steps are involved in the algorithm. They are: (1) fault-
the extended 'equal area criterion' method and the Transient on system trajectory swing curve simulation, (2) reduction of
Energy Function Method (TEF) method are widely used. the post-fault power system to a low dimension dynamic
Numerical integration is the most reliable method for equivalent and (3) evaluation of CCT of a disturbance. With
Transient Stability Analysis (TSA) at present. However, it the DEPS model the efficiency of the traditional first swing
transient stability analysis is greatly improved. Extensive
93 SM 485-3 PWRS A paper recommended and approved
tests have been done on the IEEE 50-generator 145-bus test
by the IEEE Power System Engineering Committee of power system and the test results show that the model is
the IEEE Power Engineering Society or presentation reliable and that the algorithm is suitable for large power
at the IEEE/PES 1993 S u m & Meeting, Vancouver, B. C . , system first swing TSA.
Canada. July 18-22, 1993. Manuscript submitted Dec.
28, 1992; made available for printing May 3, 1993
2. Formulation
PRINTED IN USA
The system equations for an N generator system in the
classical formulation with respect to the centre of inertia
(COI) are [1,2]:
0885-8950/94/$04.000 1993 IEEE
996

and 8, is the CO1 of part B. Now the system equations (1)-

(4) can be reduced from N to M dimension. Let generators
number i =1 , ...,M-1 belong to set A and generator M be the
Pi=P,-D, equivalent generator of set B. The parameters of generator
N
M can be written as follows (see Appendix 1 for derivation):

N
P&= (C@.n0,+D,cos0&
j = l j*i

i =l,2,-,N

Where e,, w, = rotor angle and speed of machine

i in CO1 frame,
M, = inertia constant of machine i ,
MT = M*+M,+ ...+M, ,
N the number of machines,
=
P,,,,= mechanical input of machine i ,
Dv = E&",, EFjGU ,
Gu+jBu = elements of the internal Y-matrix,
Et = internal bus voltage of machine i,
Pd =mechanical input of machine i.

3. Dynamic Equivalent of Power System (DEB) Although, a large number of machines can be classified into
part B, the parameters related to equivalent generator M of
For a large power system, the computationexpended and the the internal nodal admittance matrix become time dependent
memory required by TEF methods such as Lyapunov's direct because of time variation of the qj values. However, a
method or by time domain numerical integration methods are
Taylor series approximation provides an accurate and
excessive. To alleviate this problem a low dimension DEPS
computationally rapid way of accounting for these relatively
is developed in this paper. Intuitively, it is clear that when less significant changes. Arranging these time varying
a disturbance occurs the generators far from the fault-point
parameters of equations (9)-(13) as:
are disturbed much less than those near the fault-poiat. It is
possible to replace the generators with smaller disturbance by C,=[C&p...,C~-, J' (14)
an equivalent generator. Many methods have been reported
and are usually based on coherency identification of the C M =[CMpCm * * a S y y-11 (19
machine swing curve behaviour. In this paper the dynamic
equivalent reduction is tackled using a method based on less
disturbed generators identification as shown in the following
steps.
Suppose during a disturbance the set B consists of those
and defining the time t dependent vector
machines which are less disturbed and the set A consists of
the rest of the power system. After a disturbance is cleared
the advanced machine (or machines), which belong to set A,
T=[l, f,
t2
-
2!'
... ,e]
k!
begin to separate from the remaining machines. The transient
behaviour of the machines within part B remains relatively
It has been shown in Appendix 2 that,
stiffly connected and therefore a Taylor series approximation
of their relative movement provides good modelling accuracy Ccy=(P+Q)T
while achieving fast computational speeds. The use of this
technique is now described. Define qj as, Cm=T'(P-Q)'

(p.=8.-0,
J J , v jea, t>tc, (3 D,=(R+S)T
where

D,=T*(R-s~ , and
D,,=OT
where P, Q,R Md S are (Mxk) matrices and 0 is a(1xk)
row vector with elements pv qp r6. sg and oj that depend
on the angles of machine set B at clearing time tcl=O.
P, Q,R, S and 0 need to be calculated once only and this
is one of the reasons for the extreme speed of CCT
evaluation by this method. Using the expressions for
cospkt)and sinpht)derived in Appendix 2 it can be shown
that
Pu =Ec p p p
fEB
and rn to r,, are identical, with C, replaced by D,
and s , ~to s,, are identical, with D, replaced by -C,
(2s)
997
With those equations the original N dimension differential
equations (1)-(2) of the power system will be transformed to
an M dimension time-variational differential equations. For
a large system it is obvious that if M is much less than N the
efficiency of the simulation of the swing curve trajectory will
be tremendously improved. The computational effort for
updating the coupling terms to/from the M-I machines of set
A to the M-th machine (i.e. equations (9)-(13)) using the
above Taylor series formulae is much less than the effort
involved in trying to solve the original N dimensional
problem.
During numerical integration it is not necessary to update
the time varying parameters at each integration step.
Simulation results have shown that equations (19)-(22) need
be updated only at about 0.4 s interval, while of course the
Taylor series coefficients, equations (23)-(25), need be
computed only once. Updating parameters means using
different values of t (e.g. t=0.4 s, 0.8 s, ...)in the vector T
to obtain new sets of parameters from equations (19)-(22).
4. Selection of Less Disturbed Generators
References [131-[141 give valuable insights to identify
severely disturbed machines. In this section we introduce an
approach to determine less disturbed machines based on
similar reasoning. The selection of less disturbed machines
to a large extent depends on how the disturbance affects the
system. Hence, we may use the information available at the
clearing time (tcI)to sort out generators. The following
procedure is adopted.
(1) A first list of machines ranked in the descending
order of their kinetic energy at tclis obtained, i.e., based on
1
the quantities z M j ( 6 ; t 2 , where ijf ,i = 1, 2;- N is the
speed with respect to CO1 at tcl. This list provides a measure
of the impact of the disturbance in terms of the kinetic energy
gained by machines at tcI. Only the top few machines in the
list are included in a set Al, where the number to be
selected is specified by the program user.
(2) A second list of machines ranked in the
descending order of their absolute acceleration at tcl, i.e.,
based on the quantities K.(03 1 of equation (1) with respect
to the COI, is obtained next. This list provides a measure of
the severity of the disturbance in terms of the absolute
acceleration of each machine at tel. Only those machines
whose acceleration is within 0.5 % of the maximum absolute
acceleration are retained in another set A2.
(3) Select set A as A I u A 2 and then set B consists
of the remaining generators. The above procedure is very
efficient, since both 0; and &(ec? , i=l, 2, a-, N are
- curve simulationof the fault-on system.
available in the swing
The choice of A1 is very flexible and our experience shows
that retaining a few generators in set A results in a
998
satisfactory equivalent system. The test results show that
when this set is adequate the DEPS model gives accurate
stability predictions. The proposed method is systematic and
adaptive and DEPS does not suffer from the drawback of
oversimplification as in the two-machine model (Rahimi and
Xue's papers [5,6]) and will not encounter difficulty in the
determination of the mode of disturbance [13-141. It is
consistent and reliable as shown in the test results.
5. Algorithm Summary
The model described in section 3-4 allows flexibility in the
choice of the number of generators in the set A, let this
number be L and let k denote the order of the Taylor series
equivalent formula (19)-(22). Now M(L,k) denotes the
"order" of the model used; for instance, M(3,O) is obtained
with L=3 and k=O. Obviously, k=O is the time invariant
model.
An algorithm to identify a pair of critical clearing times, say
0.01 s apart, for which the system is just stable (tl) and just
unstable (t2) is described. Obviously, the pre-fault load flow
and the building of the fault-on (Yo)and the post-fault (Yp)
admittance matrices will be done initially. A model M(L,k)
is also selected, L being decided as described before. A
fault-on simulation is carried out, using Yo up to some
selected time tO at which time the fault is assumed to be
cleared. The algorithm next proceeds as follows.
and it is this problem that the DEPS formulation has greatly
improved. The step-size selection techniques of [8,15] and
the stopping criterion of [15] for trajectory simulation have
been used.
6. Results
The method was tested on several power test networks for a
large number of fault conditions. The systems studied
included: The New England 10-machine power system [101;
the Iowa reduced 17-machine power system [10,11] and the
50-machine IEEE power system [ l l ] . Test results show that
the DEPS model is reliable and that the predictor-corrector
algorithm based on this model is fast. The test results of the
50-machine IEEE power system are reported here to
demonstrate that the model is useful for large power system
TSA and that the algorithm is efficient.
In order to check the validity of the results, an exact
simulation (i.e., the original multi-machine system without
any dynamic equivalent reduction) has been used as a bench-
mark. A summary of results of seven faults on the IEEE 50-
generator system is given in Table 1.
The studies showed that it was possible to categorise the

Step 1: Cany out a fault-on integration to tO

Step 2: Initialization: set tl =0, t2='a large value' and
tc-to.
Step 3: Post-fault simulation: Set up the DEPS model
as described and use it to carry out several steps of
integration commencing at tc to determine whether
the system is stable or not. 0 a2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Step 4: Reset tl or 12: If stable set tl =tc, else t2=tc.
Step 5: Check convergence: If t2-tl<el stop and print Figure 1: Swing curves of generator No. 14 and 20 for
out result. 0.32 fault clearing of row 2 table 1 fault.
Step 6: Set tc:
( 1 ) If stable and t2-tl >e2 increase tc to tc+ e2;
(2) If unstable and t2-tl>e2 decrease tc to
tc-e2 ;
(3) If t2-tZse2 increase tc to tl+O.5(t2-rl).
Step 7 : Since tc has been modified, starting from tl
integrate the fault-on swing curve one more step to
the new tc and return to step 3.

Actually a crude model M(L2,O) is first employed with

larger tolerances (el =O.O2 s, e2 =O.O8 s) to obtain a first
estimate of tc. The algorithm then switches to a more exact t (a)
@
model M&3) to determine a more exact value of tc using o ai a2 03 a4 a5 a6 07
finer tolerances ( e l =O.Ol s, e2 =O.O2 s). The former
model is called a Predictor (since k=O) and the latter a Figure 2: Swing curves of generator No. 14 and 20 for at
0.33 s fault clearing of row 2 table 1 fault.
Corrector. Obviously Ll is smaller than L and, unlike the
latter, can be fairly arbitrarily chosen. The integration Step
3 is the most time consuming part of a classical CCT analysis
 Detailed simulation results Proposed algorithm results

Fault Line Stablelunstable(s) CW Prediction M(10.0) Correction M(20.3) CPU

location' tripped' time(s) timds)
Stablelunstable(s) Stablelunstable(s)

61MIL 15A) 6-12(CLA 23A) 0.1 710.18 45.8 0.1810.20 0.1710.18 2.47

68(ESS 144A) 5&87(OWE16165) 0.3210.33 46.6 0.3010.32 0.3210.33 2.32

lOl(LAK18068j 69(TRA 318Aj-101 0.2410.25 38.0 0.22f0.24 0.2410.25 1.45

105(PIC18252) 73(CHE 424A)-105 0.2010.21 45.8 0.1810.20 0.2010.21 1.89

25(CHE 41A) 25-27(LEN 43A) 0.1 910.20 61.3 0.2010.22 0.1 910.20 3.08

144(3BR2719) none 0.1910.20 40.0 0.1810.20 0.1 910.20 1.40

117(1982051R) none 0.2310.24 66.2 0.2010.22 0.2310.24 1.99

* See reference [111 for location description.

less disturbed machines after the fault was on for 0.16 s for
all the tests reported here. All the tests utilise the model
M(10,O) for Prediction and the model M(20,3)for Correction.
The detailed simulationmethod and the DEPS method use the
same fourth-order integration formula.
The CPU time shown is taken by VAX/CLUSTER
computer at Hong Kong Polytechnicbut does not include the
time of pre-fault load flow analysis and building the internal
generator bus nodal admittance matrices. From comparing
the test results in Table 1, it is easy to see that for a CCT
accuracy of 0.01 s the algorithm gives extremely reliable
results for both stable and unstable clearing times.
In Figure 1 and Figure 2 the simulation results of two
severely disturbed machine angles 8,,(t) and e,(t) are
plotted. The results correspond to the fault corresponding to
row 2 of Table 1.
7. Conclusions
It has been shown that a new dynamic equivalent modelling
technique can be used for fast and accurate first swing
stability assessment of large systems. The test results have
proved that the proposed model is reliable and the algorithm
is suitable for critical clearing time estimation in large power
systems. There is no obstacle to extending the DEPS model
for use with detailed generator representation as well. The
model does not need to be limited to applications of time
domain trajectory simulation. The scope for associating this
method with transient energy function methods is presently
being investigated.
8. Acknowledgements
The first author is in receipt of a grant from the Research
Sub-Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic to visit Hong
Kong and participate in the project. This is gratefully
acknowledged.
9. References
[l] A. A. Fouad and S. E. Stanton, "Transient Stability of
a Multi-mache Power System. Part I: Investigation
of System Trajectory; and Part 11: Critical Transiedt
Energy", IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and System,
vol. PAS-100, pp. 3408-3424, N0.7 July 1981.
[2] A. A. Fouad, Vijay Vitta1 and Tae Kyoo, "Critical
Energy for Direct Transient Stability Assessment of a
Multi-machine Power System", IEEE Trans. Power
Apparatus and System, vol. PAS-103, pp. 2199-2206,
No. 8, August 1984.
[3] A. A. Fouad, "Transient Stability Margin as a Tool for
Dynamic Security Assessment", Final Report for EPRI
Project No. EL-1755, March 1981.
[4] M. A. El-kady, C. K. Tang, et a1,"Dynamic Security
Assessment Utilizing the Transient Energy Function
Method", Proc of the 1985 PICA Conference, San
Francisco, California, May 1985, pp.132-139. ,
[5] A. Rahimi and G. Schaffer, "Power System Transient
Stability Indexes for on-line analysis of 'worst-case'
dynamic contingencies", IEEE Trans. on Power
System, vol.PWRS-2, No.3, August 1987.
[6] Xue, Y., Van Cutsem, et al, " Extended Equal Ary
Criterion: Justifications, Generalizations, and
applications", IEEE Trans. Power System vol. PWRS-
3, February 1988, pp. 400-412.
[7] W.W.Lemmon, K.Mamandur and W.R.Barcelo,"
Transient Stability Prediction and Control in Real-time
by QUEP", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems,
Vo1.4, N0.2, May 1989, pp.627-635.
[8] Y. Dong and H.R. Pota, "Fast Transient Stability
Assessment Using Large-step Numerical integration",
IEE Proceedings-c Vol. 138, No.4, July 1991, pp.
377-383.
[9] Francis Scheid,"Theory and Problems of Numerical
 Analysis", McGraw-HillInternational, Singapore, June
1983. (Book)
T. Athay, V.R. Sherkey, R. Podmore, S. Virmani and
C. Puech, "Transient Energy Stability Analysis",
Conference on System Engineering for Power:
Emergency Operating State Control, Section-IV,
Davos, Switzerland, 1979. Then
V. Vittal ''Transient Stability Test Systems for Direct
Stability Methods", IEEE Committee report, Prepared
by the IEEE stability test systems task force of the
dynamic system performance subcommittee. IEEE
Trans. on Power System, Vol. 7, No.1, Feb. 1992.
M.H. Haque, A.H.M.A. Rahim "Determination of
First Swing Stability Limit of Multi-machine Power
Systems Through Taylor Series Expansions" IEE
Pmeedings-c Vol. 136, No.6, November 1989, pp.
373-379.
V. Vittal, et al. "Transient Stability Analysis of
Stressed Power Systems Using the Transient Energy Observe therefore that, for generator M,using notations of
Function Method", IEEE Trans. on Power System, equation (11)-(12) for coefficients Cw and D ,
vol.PWRS-2, February 1988, pp 239-244. Y-1
A.A. Fouad, V. Vittal and T. Oh, "Critical Energy P,Ac (C&.nOw+DpsO,& (AQ
for Transient Stability Assessment of a Multi-machine j-1
Power System", IEEE Trans. on PAS-103 1984, pp
2199-2206.
G.A.Maria, C. Tang, and J. Kim "Hybrid Transient
and pMAcpmi-[cDii+C
iB kB
c
ieB jB, I*/
2+Qs'pd

Stability Analysis," IEEE Trans. on Power System, =Pd-Dm

Vo1.5, No.2, May. 1990, pp 384-391.
M.A. Pai and Peter W. Sauer, "Stability Analysis of
Power Systems by Lyapunov's Direct Method", IEEE 11. Appendix 2
Control System magazine, PP 23-27, January 1989.
Using the instant of fault clearing as time zero . The
10. Appendix 1 following expressions for the mth derivative at t=O of post-
fault system can be written:

Y
= (CpOv+Di,"'"O&
j-1, j*i
and higher order derivatives if required. The Taylor series
expansions of equation (19)-(23) require the derivatives
where (i=1,2,-*,M-l) E A and the subscript M denotes the
cpy)(O) which now can be computed from
equivalent generator and the ,
C and D , definitions satisfy
equation (9)-(10). Observe that
 1001

In addition, sintpkt) , Cosqkt) and cosq&t) , V i, jEB are

also needed. Now note that

and define the difference function as:

h/(>=qj(t)-(Pp)
0 t2 t3
=#)(O)t+q, (O)-+q?)(O)- 3! +
2!

and note that

A( 12)-A( 16) are used to obtain equations (23)-(25).

(All)
12. Biographies
and higher powers if required. Identical expressions forh,,(t)
Fang Da-zhong was born in Jinan city, Shandong, China.
and its powers can be written in terms of ( ~ ~ (instead
0) of He received the B.S. Degree from Peking Mechanical
q,(O). Using the above results and the power series for Institution, Peking, China in 1970, the M.S. Degree from
cos(h(t)) and sin(h(t)), Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 1981. From 1970 to
1978 he worked in Tianjin Machine Tool Company as an
engineer. In 1981 he joined the faculty of Tianjin University.
From 1991 he engaged on a collaborative project in real time
=(1 --+-.)sinCpi(O)+
h;@) transient stability control of interconnected power system in
21 Hong Kong Polytechnic. His current research is in power
system stability and security.

T.S. Chung (Senior Member) received his B.S. Degree from

Hong Kong University and his M.S. and DIC degrees from
Imperial College, London University, U.K. Before joining
the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic
in March 1977, he served a post-graduate training with
Hawker Siddley Electric, U.K. and also worked as a
q ~ ) ( O ) - ( ( ~ ~ ) ( O ) f ) c o s q ~-( O ) Transmission & Distribution Engineer at Hong Kong Electric
( q ~ ( O ) f ~ i n q &t2O+)[ ]( ~
Ltd., Hong Kong. His current research is in power system
security control, stability and optimization. Mr. C h u g also
q7)(O)ql(O)sintp~O)]-t3+ *.
( A m serves as a committee member of IEEE Power Chapter in
31
Hong Kong since 1987. He is presently Senior Lecturer and
Leader of Power Systems Group in Hong Kong Polytechnic.
Similarly since
A.Kumar David obtained his B.Sc.(Eng.) from the
q~o=(qJ,(o) + h p
University of Ceylon in 1963, and his Ph.D and D.1.C from
=(l--+.-)cosqj(o)-
h;(t) Imperial College, University of London in 1969. He has
21 worked in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, USA and Hong Kong and
h3(t) his research interests are in expert systems, planning,
(hkt)-L + -)sinq,(O) (A14 economics and reliability in power and in HVDC, and power
31
system stability.