FIELD EXPERIENCES INREENERGIZATION OF ELECTRICAL NETWORKS FROM THERMAL AND HYDRO UNITS

E. Mariani
member IEEE
F. Mastroianni V. Romano
ENEL - National Authority for Electrical Energy
Naples - Italy
Abstract. The problem dealt with in the paper is
the fast return to normal operation of a generation
and transmission power system, after it has experi-
enced a total or partial power failure. The aim is
to illustrate the practices adopted in a hydrother-
mal power system and to present the outcomes and
performances verified in some tests and field expe-
riences. Considerations about the influence of the
behaviour of the load and of the generating units
involved in restoration are also given.
INTRODUCTION
The experience gained in the field of emer-
gency control, as well as the developing theoreti-
cal approach both for preventive actions and re-
storative procedures, have allowed a reduction in
frequency and amplitude of power failures.
The practices adopted are again evolving,
Fig. 1 - Southern part of ENEL national grid
84 WM 093-1 A paper recommended and approved by
the IEEE Power System Engineering Committee of the
IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation at
the IEEE/PES 1984 Winter Meeting, Dallas, Texas,
January 29 - Febru.ary 3, 1984. Manuscript submitted
August 19, 1983; made available for printing
November 29, 1983.
but some aspects of them appear today to be
accepted to quite a wide extent; an overview of the
procedures and problems connected with the reener-
gization in ENEL network after black-outs may be of
interest, even if not exhaustive, especially for
stretched power systems, like the ENEL's one in its
southern part (fig. 1). This part of system is
characterized by medium-long distances (100 - 300
km) existing between hydro power stations, thermal
power stations and major loads; the installed ther-
mal power is by far more important than hydro
power; thermal power stations have no black start
capabilities, which are on the contrary present in
most hydro power stations.
A fast network and load restoration may be
achieved by assigning autonomous procedures to the
staff of power stations and of outstations (or of
the remote control centers controlling them), in
order to reduce the burden of the dispatcher or
making it unnecessary in the first phase of build-
ing-up of network.
The defence plan against power failures is
conceived in such a way that either thermal and hy-
dro power plants should eventually trip to house-
load and keep alive, so being able to actively par-
ticipate to network and load restoration. Should
nevertheless a thermal power plant had come to a
stop, due to unsuccessfull tripping to houseload,
the aforesaid restoration procedures will guarantee
a fast reenergization of its auxiliaries (from hy-
dro power station or from tie lines), making possi-
ble the restart of thermal power plant itself.
The paper will present the criteria underlying
the reenergization procedure, the problems posed by
thermal and hydro units and the solutions adopted,
the problems posed by the behaviour of the load
when it is restored, the illustration of some tests
and practical cases.
REENERGIZATION PROCEDURE
A preestablished partitioning of network is
done in "power restoration lines" (PRL) , each
constituted by one or more generators ("early res-
toration generators", ERG), circui ts and loads;
the configuration of each PRL is periodically (e.g.
yearly) updated, as far as new elements of the
electrical system are commissioned, or old ones are
decommissioned.
Reprinted from IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. 103, No.7, pp. 1707-1713, July 1984.
354
After a black-out each PRL, independently
from one another, will reconstitute autonomously,
that is with no exchange of information between
the outstations belonging to it, or between the
outstations and the dispatcher.
tions than the thermal ones; the last can neverthe-
less perform satisfactorily, especially if the inter-
val between the run-back , oecurred at the momen t
of tripping to houseload, and the beginning of
load pick-up is short; this requirement stresses
the importance of a fast reconstitution of network.
Assuming as an example the scheme in fig.
2, the following operations will be performed /1/,
in the following order (the generator shown in
power station 1 is assumed to be an ERG, that is
preferably a hydro generator):
a) if lack of voltage lasts more than 3 min (this
time interval is supposed to be sufficient to
assume that the network is in black-out), the
staff of each station will open all the brea-
kers of the station .itself, with the exception
of those feeding the station auxiliaries.
This operation may also be performed by an
automatism. The aim is to avoid that the
generator which will first energize the PRL
will find to much active load to restore (ex-
cess of active power output), or to much line
length to energize (excess of reactive power
absorption)
The scheme represented in fig. 2 shows a
simple example; in practice the PRL may comprise
also some meshed path.
An important thermal power station may ha-
ve its auxiliaries reenergized by more than one
PRL, to account for the possibility that a perma-
nent fault make impossible the building up of a
particular PRL, and also to reduce the delay in
auxiliaries restoration.
PROBLEMS POSED BY THERMAL UNITS
As stated above, a thermal unit shall in
general be available to network reenergization.
This depends /11, /2/ on the ability to:
a) Keep alive on its own auxiliaries
b) The staff of station 1, after a further interval
of 5 min (introduced to allow the manoeuvres
of point a), will energize the circuit 1-2,
closing the breakers A and B.
b) Energize HV circuits, with the generator under
AVR control, and terminal voltage set at the
minimum value allowed by auxiliaries supply
c) The staff of station 2, on the appearance of
voltage on circuit from 1, will energize the
circuit 2-3, closing the breakers C and D.
c) Pick-up load in steps of little ampl itude , with
the turbine under governor control, and boiler
regulator on.
d) The staff of station 3, on the appearance of
voltage on circuit from 2, will energize the
circuit 3-4 closing E and G, and a preset
load closing F.
e) The staff of station 4, on the appearance of
voltage from 3, will energize a preset load
closing the breakers H and I.
Fig.2 - Example of a power restoration line (PRL)
The load being restored in station 3 may
help a better regulation of voltage and speed of
the ERG of station 1.
The load which is so restored in station 4
may well be constituted by the auxiliaries of a
thermaI power station.
The synchronization of the various PRLs so
reconstituted (fig. 3) will then be coordinated
(even if not necessarily) by the dispatcher, as
well as the gradual load restoration.
Fig.3 - Synchronization of various PRLs
PRL 3
achievable in load restoration
state of generators; hydro units
in this respect J in better condi-
The speed
depends on the
are of course,
The time elapsed from the switching on of
breaker A and that of breaker I will of course
depend on the number of intermediate stations
which, as far as possible, should be a minimum.
355
c flu.ega.
t,gln
air
control
supet-heat
steam
temperature
fuel
control
beller
master
generated
load
Lower
limit
feed
water
control
F.T.
pressure
:T
f eed
water
flow
....--.. < .........- ...--...~
From low
pre ure
SH2
Condenser
To
extraction
pump
NORMAL STEAM FLOW CIRCUIT
ope...: 200
closed: 205-201-240-270
START UP STEAM FLOW CIRCUIT
open:205
under regul.tiona 207- 270-240
clol.cI:200
Fig. 4 - Normal and start-up simplified steam
flow circuit of an once throug boiler
Fig. 5 - Simplified regulation scheme for an OTB
on start-up circuit
As far as point a) is concerned, the main re-
quirement is that the unit be not in a start-up
phase; that is, valve 200 must be open (fig. 4).
The tripping to houseload takes place when
frequency remains below 47.5 Hz for more than a
preset time (typically 5 s) or below 46.5 Hz (in-
stantaneously), or when the main breaker trips due
to other perturbations (except those leading the
unit to complete stop, e.g. due to internal
failures) .
For once through boilers (OTB) units the trip-
ping to houseload takes place in the following
steps. The fires are tripped and feedwater pump
stopped; the maximum thermal energy must be stored,
in order to allow feeding the uni t' s auxiliaries
for 15 - 20 min, living on thermal storage; this is
accomplished by delaying the closing of valve 200
and by keeping in closed position the valve 207 up
to the moment in which the pressure on SH2 has de-
creased to an appropriate value (e.g. 35 kg/cmq);
at this moment the turbine begins to be fed through
207 - flash tank - 205 - SH2, and 200 is closed.
The feedwater pump is then started-up and fires
reignited, in order to make the unit also able to
pick-up load in appropriate steps (point c)). To
this end, at the Rossano power station (320 MW
units), the flash tank pressure is regulated at 60
kg/cmq, the steam excess being spilled through 240
to the condenser; a regulation scheme is adopted
(fig. 5) of the boiler follows type, to control the
frequency of the network which is being reener-
gized.
The differences in temperature, if any, bet-
ween SH2 and RH are controlled by 270, which at
90 MW is fully open; load steps up to 5-10% may
be picked-up in this phase.
Beyond 90 MW 270 must be closed, and this
is performed only when the unit is synchronized
wi th prevalent network.
As far as point b) is concerned, a 370 MVA
generator can typically energize up to 200 km of
400 kV overhead circuit, with therminal voltage
set at 0.9 V
n
; the reactive power adsorbed in
steady state is about 120 MVAr, a value which
complies with the capability curve of the genera-
tor.
PROBLEMS POSED BY HYDRO UNITS
Hydro units are in general of limited power
rating, with respect to thermal ones, and have a
lower percentage requirement for auxiliary power;
they are hence in general provided with black-start
equipment (little hydro turbine, or diesel engine),
even if the probability of successful tripping to
houseload is very high.
A problem may be posed by reactive power, when
energizing HV circuits; for this purpose some par-
ticular loads are restored early in the PRL re-
energization, as illustrated before (fig. 2) .
356
Some stability problem with high head plants are
in general solved wi th an appropriate setting of
accelerometer (or equivalent element) parameters.
The permanent frequency bias must in gen-
eral be set at a low value, to make easier the
frequency regulation and hence the synchroniza-
tion of the various PRLs to each other.
The parameters (permanent bias, accelerome-
ter constant etc.) will preferably be the same
during normal operation and restoration phase, to
avoid the need of switching them through interven-
tion of the staff, when restoration conditions
occur; they will be necessarily the same for
remote-controlled units.
As an example, the following are the main
characteristics and parameters of a hydro ERG
(early restoration generator) and of its governor:
Pelton type turbine rated 60 MW; head 600 m;
penstock characteristic time T
w
1.1 s; lowest
resonance frequency of penstock 0.18 Hz; inertia
constant of the uni t H = 4.1 s : servomotor inte-
gration time T
x
= 1.2 s; permanent bias b, = 2%,
accelerometer constant Tn = 2.1 s.
PROBLEMS POSED BY SOME LOADS
With the exception of purely resistive loads,
all the other present when switched on a tran-
sient absorption of active and reactive power
which may be many times the steady-state value.
This transient is nevertheless in general of short
duration (1 - 2 s), so that the frequency and the
voltage of the ERG restoring them undergo little
variations.
In some cases, especially when air condition-
ing an refrigerator apparatus are reenergized, the
transient can on the contrary last longer time, as
clearly illustrated in /3/, /4/. This might hinder
a regular build-up of PRLs and a fast network and
load restoration.
It must nevertheless be noted that the phenom-
enon of long duration (in the order of 5 s) of high
power absorption (caused by failure of start-up of
motors) presents itself only when the deenergiza-
tion of these particular loads lasts less than 2 -
4 min, as shown in /3/ and /4/. On the other hand,
from the moment of a complete network break-down to
the beginning of load restoration a longer time in-
terval normally elapses (in general at least 15
min, according to the reenergization procedure
above described). Hence in case of restoration
after black-out, refrigerator type loads do not
cause serious problems related to initial (few sec-
onds) power transients.
Two other important aspects, connected again
to refrigerator and air condi tioning type appara-
tus, must instead be considered.
357
The first one is the simultaneous start of
their motors if the deenergization has lasted long
time (more than, e.g., 15 min), due to diversity
factor; this may cause, after a short initial tran-
sient of 1 - 2 s, a steady power demand of up to,
e. g., 1.3 - 1.5 times the value requested before
deenergization; the decay to previous value may
take many minutes (see fig. 7). The load steps to
be first restored must be evaluated keeping this in
mind, in order to avoid excessive power request
from ERGs, and possible problems in frequency regu-
lation.
The second aspect is connected to the voltage
drops, accompanying active power requests higher
than normal, on MV feeders. High voltage drops, if
lasting more than few seconds, may cause the stall-
ing of motors driving compressor loads, and hence a
further increase of power request from ERGs. The
same considerations as before about load steps
evaluation apply.
DESCRIPTION OF SOME FIELD EXPERIENCES
Load restoration from infinite network
A mix of urban and rural customers, fed by MV
feeders, was disconnected and restored, with dif-
ferent deenergization intervals.
Fig. 6 shows two typical transients; in the
first one (fig. 6a) the deenergization interval was
long (5 min), and the transient shows a short peak
(lasting less than 1 s ) and a final value bigger
than previous one (41 MW against 37); in the second
(fig. 6b) the deenergization interval is very short
(roughly 2 s), the initial peak decays in 5 - 6 s,
and the final value is lower than previous one (36
MW against 41).
The outcomes may be interpreted as mentioned
before: in case of long interruption refrigerator
loads reconnect in higher number than normal aver-
age, due to temperature increase caused by the pro-
longed interruption itself; on the other hand the
backpressures on refrigerator cycle had sufficient
time to decrease, allowing a normal restart of
driving motors and hence a very short initial tran-
sient. In case of short interruption, on the con-
trary, the driving motors fail to restart due to
high backpressures, and they are gradually (in mat-
ter of seconds) switched off by their thermal pro-
tections; the initial transient lasts longer, and
the load which remains connected after it is lower
than the previous one.
In the first case the load then decreases to
normal value in matter of minutes; in the second it
increases similarly to normal, when thermal protec-
tions reset.
This fenomenon is illustrated in fig. 7, which
shows another series of deenergization - energiza-
tion of loads. The di fferent duration of ini tial
transients may not be distinguished due to time
scale; it is on the contrary clearly illustra-
a
b
Fig.6 - a) Load restoration after long deenergization b) Load restoration after short deenergization
ted the behaviour of load after the initial tran-
sients, with lower values rising to norrnal after
short interruptions, and higher values decreasing
to normal after long interruptions.
Table I shows thernain parameters registe-
red in a third series of tests, which confirm the
above considerations. Some tests took place in
late morning of a work day, and other during the
following night (the last are the same of fig. 7).
The column headed "steady-state after" lists the
values registered immediately after the initial
transients; they are lower or higher than the
values previous to interruption, respectively for
short or long deenergization interval; the discrimi-
nating time interval appears to be around 4 min.
Building up of a PRL and load restoration from a
thermal unit
Some tests have been performed in a thermal
power station equipped whit four 320 units of
OTB type (Rossano power station).
One of the units was islanded on its own
auxiliaries by tripping the ma in breaker, and
was then used to start up another unit- of the
same power station.. The test was successfull.
Both units remained on house load for more than
4 hours, without problems.
:
3MW
;
I
:
2MW-
f-- 1--.
I t
1"

.i
,- ,

1MW

i
i
i
I
,
i i
;
i
I
i i
1.30 2.00 2.30 3.00 HOUR
Fig.? - Load restoration after various deenergi-
zation interval
Tab.! - Characteristic values at reenergization
of a MV feeder

ACTIVE LOAD REACTIVE LOAQ

w
(MW) (MVAR)

ST:EADY STEADY
UI
i= w
U)
3
1ft
o
STATE
3
-
STATE

-
HOUR
Z
w
It:

W
a: It:
It: a: It
I-
0
W

W 0
W

W
l- I- LL
I-

....

u,

W LL
W
LL W
U.
W
u,
m e, m l
10.20 1 3.3 2.7 5.6 4.2 0.9 0.6 2.0 1.0
10.45 480 3.1 6.3 3.1 0.8 2.6 0.8
11.27 60 3.3 2.7 5.2 4.1 1.0 0.6 2.6 1. 1
11.33 270 3.2 3.1 5.8 3.3 1.0 0.7
2'.7 0.8
1.40 1 1 .4 1.1 3.4 2.5 0.3 0.1 1.0 0.6
2.00 60 1.4 1.2 3.1 2.5 0.4 0.2 2.5 0.6
2.18 120 1.3 1.2 4.0 2.2 0.4 0.2 1.2 0.4
2.30 240 1.4 1.5 4.8 1.9 0.4 0.5 1,8 0.6
2.55 480 1.3 1.6 4.1 1.6 0.4 0.6 3.7 0.6
3.25 360 1 .3 1.6 3.6 1.6 0.4 0.5 3.3 0.5
The same unit was then used to energize a
400 kV line of a Ienght of 200 km a bout; the
reactive power absorbed was about 150 MVAR,
near the underexcitation limit of the alternator;
the regulation of voltage was good.
transient of power output of the unit is illustra-
ted in fig. 8; it shows the phenomenon referred
to in previous paragraphs (long initial transient
due to failure to start of motor-driven compres-
sors); the unit tripped on underfrequency after 9
s about.
Fig.8 - Unit trip on underfrequency
The present feeling a bout the use of thermal
units for reenergization is that they shall prefera-
bly pick-up load after their synchronization with
other units in the same PRL, in order to reduce
the probability of tripping on underfrequency; the
[5] 10
\ I
8 6 4
62MW 120MW 82MW
150HTU."----' , 1 .t>; ,
-,. - _._--------_._-
MW i;
,4-- ,- -.i--- '-----j-
I Iii
o 2
At the recei ving end of the line various
loads were next restored in steps, through 400/150
and 150/20 kV transformers (Montecorvino station);
it was ascertained that to avoid the risk of
tripping on underfrequency, each step had not to
exceed the value of 30 MW about; the average
speed of load pick-up (with the unit on the
start-up circuit) could reach a maxirnum of 10
MW/min.
In one of the first tests of load restoration,
one load was switched from ma i n (national grid)
network and connected after a short delay (2 s
about) to the PRL being fed by Rossano unit; the
358
'SOkV
c
----I
From fig. 12 it is apparent that between the
instants 16 and 27 min about the thermal unit
has picked-up some 67 MW, at an average speed
of 6 MW/nlin.
400kV
15. 845m e
I,'. 830m::: i I
I ,
Fig.tO - Restoration of U
l
(fig. 9)
a- frequency
b- active output of thermal unit
c- active output of hydro unit 1
d- active output of hydro' unit 2
e- pressure at the base of penstock
49.2Hz 15 J 0
! T1L I : U--
. __
75 Is
J Ii If
15 (!)
Fig.9 - Test scheme of a PRL with hydro and
thermal una ts
EEEtB I ; l1:
10 "5
11tta=11 i
632')"l ,15
630: i
j i 1sJ#UtjJ rtilir
Fig.ll - Restoration of U
3
(fig. 9)
a- frequency
b- active output of thermal unit
c- active output of hydro unit 1
d- active output of hydro unit 2
e- pressure at the base of penstock
The staff of hydro plant was given the
fol lowtrig instruction: "act on power output setting
of governor in order to keep frequency equaI to
nominal"; and that of thermal plant: "pick-up
load regularly, consistently with steam availabili-
ty ,and watching at frequency". The aim of these
instructions was to assign to thermal unit the
task to pick-up load at a roughly constant speed,
and to hydro units that of absorbing, the varia-
tions of power request connected to the stepwise
variation of load.
At the time zero the breaker A was switched
off (LR in fig. 12); after 15 s about the thermal
unit tripped automatically to houseload, switching
off the breaker B.
In case of unavailability of hydro units, a
resynchronization with the main grid is felt
anyhow desirable, especially for OTa type units
which are limited by the maximum power output
relevant to start-up circuit.
Fig. 9 shows the test scheme t with two
hydro units of 50 MW each (Mucone power plant)
and one thermal unit of 320 MW (Rossano power
plant). The two power plants are connected by
means of alSO kV circuit. The breaker positions
indicated in the figure are those prevailing just
before the beginning of the test. The 320 MW unit
had an output of about 200 MW t flowing towards
the main grid through Band A.
At the instant 8 min (according to the
reenergization procedure, as described above) the
breaker C was closed and the 400 kV bus was
energized.
Building up of a PRL and load restoration from
thernlal and hydro units jointly
The two power plants have complementary
characteristics: the thermal one is well suited to
voltage and frequency regulation; the hydro one
to fast load pick-up.
At the instant 15 rnin the thermal unit was
synchronized and breaker B switched on (fig.
12) ; in the sequence shown in fig. 12 the loads
U
i
of 17 MW (fig. 10 and 12), U
2
of 30 MW (fig.
1) and U
3
of 36 M\v (fig. II and 12) were
restored by SWitching on the corresponding brea-
kers.
other units will prefera bly be hydro.
The fig. 10 (restoration of load U ) and 11
(restoration of load U
3
) show the of the
three generating units; the water pressure tran-
sient at the base of the penstock is also shown.
The permanent bias of the hydro units was set at
2%. On the power output of hydro units (first 3 s
a bout) the negati ve penstock effect and the positi-
ve effect of initial deceleration of rotating masses
are superimposed, as well as an electromechanical
decaying oscillation.
359
I I
--__ .....-- - ._
j
J i I I
-:- -l--;-,--r-;-Tt- :-----
.
.- -- +- ._.i ._ .._ .. _._ ........... ._._. --
. I
L.R.
lmin. U3
-;----.--- i I ! I !j! ill
-- _--- __ _- __:
Fig. 12 - Joint load pick-up of hydro and thermal units: frequency and power output of thermal unit
Outcomes of one practical case
supply of the auxiliaries of thermal plants.
In August 1982 the network shown in fig. 1 ex-
perienced a complete black-out, after the tripping
of the 400 kV circuit connecting it to the northern
part of national grid.
Finally the various PRLs are synchronized to
one another and with the main grid which remained
alive, and load restoration is completed, as well
as the re-start of generating units which had come
to complete stop, if any.
The main PRLs involved in restoration were Ca-
priati-Napoli and Mucone-Rossano-Brindisi.
The recovery time has been of about 30 min
(complete load restoration 40 min); the resynchro-
nization of the last two thermal units (one at Ros-
sano and the other at Brindisi) took place 2 hours
about after the initial event, due to internal
troubles.
The overall performance may be considered sat-
isfactory, even if this occurrence has demonstrated
the opportunity to support the human operators with
appropriate automatic apparatus (e.g. to implement
the switching phase described in point a of reener-
gization procedure paragraph) .
A careful maintenance and sufficiently fre-
quent inspections and tests of auxiliaries appara-
tus of power plants and substations are of course
mandatory for a reliable application of the resto-
ration procedure.
A 400 - 220 - 150 kV network with a diameter
of roughly 500 km, three main thermal power s t a-
tions and four main hydro power stations, and a
peak load of about 3,000 MW was completely restored
in a practical case within 30 - 40 min.
Either hydro and thermal units (drum type and
once through type boilers) can perform satisfacto-
rily, if governor parameters, regulation schemes
and steam flow circuits are set appropriately. The
average load pick-up speed of a 320 MW thermal unit
can reach 10 MW/min.
The correct intervention of the staffs wich
are in charge of the operation of power plants and
of substations may be made easier with the support
of automatic apparatus, sensitive to voltage ap-
pearance and disappearance, for the switching oper-
ations.
CON C L U S ION S
REF ERE N C E S
After a network black-out a fast and relia-
ble return to normal operation can be achieved if
generator uni ts, of hydro and thermal type, had
a successfull trip to houseload, and the procedu-
res of restoration are autonomous, that is they
are implemented wi thout being necessarily coordi-
nated' at least in a first phase, by the network
dispatcher.
/1/ G. Fusco, D. Venturini, F. Mazzoldi, A.
Possenti - "Thermal units contribution to the
electric power system restoration after a
black-out" - CIGRE Conference Sep 1982, paper
32-21
/2/ W.P. Gorzegno, P.V. Guido "Load rejection
capability for large steam generators" - PAS,
March 1983
To his end, after a preset time interval has
elapsed from voltage disappearance, the elements
of the network are disconnected through the
switching off of practically all the breakers; an
autonomous building-up of the network itself then
begins, through the reconstitution of preset power
restoration lines (PRL) , composed of hydro and
thermal power plants, HV circuits and some loads,
and having the main purpose to insure the power
/3/ R.J. Frowd, R. Podmore, M. Waldron - "Synthe-
sis of dynamic load models for stability stu-
dies" - PAS, January 1982
/4/ E. Mariani, F. Mastroianni, V. Romano
"Transient behaviour of load in HV and MV
networks restoration" L' Energia Elet trica,
August 1982 (in italian) .
360