Thesis Defense of Kiran Kumar Challa

Abstract: The development of dynamic power system components models became increasingly important in the modern grids dominated by high penetration of renewables because of the increased dependency of planning and operational decisions on dynamic simulation studies. The parameters of synchronous machines and associated control models play significant role in the overall model of the grid, which need to be updated regularly by the utilities. So, the parameters of the power plants are calibrated/estimated either using off-line testing or online measurements from phasor measurement units (PMU) or digital fault recorders (DFR). Development of individual generator models is feasible only if the PMU/DFR data is available for each generator in a power plant. Otherwise, they can provide only aggregate model of a generating plant as PMU/DFRs are usually placed in substations. Digital protective relay (DPR) records are available for individual generators in any generating plant. This thesis explores the possibilities of utilizing DPR records of individual generators for parameter estimation. About 200 relay records have been collected from a hydro plant and a thermal plant in Karnataka. It is found that most of the records contain at the most 3 seconds data. Existing methods of parameter estimation using PMU/DFR data failed to work with the short duration records. There is no prior work reported in the literature which uses short relay records for parameter estimation of the synchronous generators. Constrained iterated unscented Kalman filter (CIUKF) and enhanced scattered search (eSS) algorithms are proposed for the parameter estimation using DPR records in this thesis. The parameters of a turbo alternator and its excitation system (210 MW) are estimated from the relay records collected using the proposed algorithms and the results are found be accurate. This is a first of its kind effort in the literature to the best of our knowledge. It is also found that the relay records should contain pre-fault data, during fault data and some post-fault data for accurate estimation. However, from the collected records only a small percentage of the records are found to be useful. To generate realistic data in the laboratory an experimental test bed development, replicating the field implementation aspects of the digital relays, is proposed in this thesis. A realistic scaled-down generalized substation model for translational research in smart grids is developed, which can be configured to operate in 7 widely used substation bus bar schemes with prevalent current transformer (CT) configurations. All the potential transformers (PT) and CT measurements, circuit breaker (CB), isolator and earth switch status signals are made available to configure any protection strategy like bus-bar protection, unit protection schemes, etc. precisely the same way they get implemented in the field. A systematic procedure for the development of an experimental scaled-down frequency-dependent transmission line model of a 230 kV transmission line is proposed. A lumped parameter frequency dependent transmission line model using modal transformation is derived for a 230 kV transmission line and scaled-down to 220 V. Clarke and inverse Clarke transformations are implemented using specially designed 1-phase transformers. The inductances of the scaled-down model are realized using amorphous cores. A new algorithm is proposed to fit a reduced-order R-L equivalent circuit to the frequency response of the modal impedances of the transmission lines. A close enough fitting is achieved with lesser number of passive elements using the proposed method compared to the widely used vector fitting algorithm. This kind of physical realization of a frequency dependent power transmission line model in the laboratory is first of its kind effort in the literature to the best of our knowledge.