Selection of generator set-point voltages to maximize reactive power

Exhibitor: Kien Boon Chow

Supervisor: Tapan Saha

Research Group: Complex and Intelligent Systems

Industry Sector: Energy and Utilities

The reactive power is one of the most essential element in a power system. The main reason being that it is absorbed in the magnetic field of inductive equipments. Voltage instability or insufficient bus voltage might occur due to insufficient generation of reactive power. It may even lead to more serious consequences such as a voltage collapse or in simple word, blackout.

The ultimate aim of this thesis is to maximize the reactive power output for increased voltage stability to a power system. This is accomplished by the simulation of realistic test systems with variation of generator set point voltages using Power-World simulator 8.0. Several methods of analysis are implemented along with the simulations such as Modal analysis and Fast voltage stability index(FVSI), PV analysis and QV analysis. PV and QV are used to determine the proximity to a voltage collapse while the Modal and FVSI are used as voltage stability indices.

The simulated results are mainly based on the QV analysis curve. The curve helps to determine the reactive power margin, operating voltage and collapse voltage at a particular bus. A constant load model is assumed throughout the simulations. The simulation results show that there is a limitation to the impact of the variation of generator set point voltages. However, they do show the potential for greater voltage stability in the power system. The results should become even more significant in a larger test system where the reactive power limits of the generators are higher. This should be equally true if the initial operating condition of the test system is in a not-so-optimized level.

Thesis Document (PDF)