IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO.

3, JULY 2007 1799

z -Transform-Based Methods for

Electromagnetic Transient Simulations
Task Force on Frequency Domain Methods for Transient Studies
Working Group on Modeling and Analysis of System Transients Using Digital Simulation
General Systems Subcommittee, IEEE Power Engineering Society
Taku Noda, Member, IEEE, and Abner Ramirez, Member, IEEE

Abstract—This is an introductory paper on -transform-based II. -TRANSFORM

methods for electromagnetic transient simulations of power sys-
tems. Since the theory of the -transform was originally developed Definition
for the analysis of time series data defined at equidistant time
steps, simulation models developed using -transforms can readily In Fig. 1, the solid line shows a continuous-time waveform
be used in electromagnetic transient simulations based on the , and it is sampled at equidistant time steps as marked by
same time step. First, this paper briefly introduces the basics of the the circles. The time scale is normalized by the sampling interval
-transform, and then applications to electromagnetic transient . We first define a train of impulses (Dirac’s delta functions)
simulations of power systems are reviewed.
as
Index Terms—Electromagnetic transient analysis, equivalent
circuits, power systems, signal processing, switching transients,
time series, transforms. (1)

Using , the sampled signal can be expressed by

I. INTRODUCTION
-TRANSFORM has both frequency-domain and time-do- (2)
main properties. It has a close relationship with the Laplace
and, thus, its Laplace transform is
transform. In fact, the -transform of a waveform can be ob-
tained by simple replacement of a variable in its Lapace trans-
form expression. Thus, a -transformed function can be consid-
ered as a frequency-domain expression. However, at the same
time, the operator implies a one-sample delay in the time (3)
domain.
The theory of the -transform was originally developed for
the analysis of time-series data defined at equidistant time steps. If we use the notation for and define
A pioneering work in the development of the -transform theory
for sampled-data control systems can be found in [1]. Reference (4)
[2] is a good introductory text book focusing on discrete-time equation (3) can be brought into
signal processing. For electromagnetic transient (EMT) analysis
of a power system, Humpage et al. [3]–[6], Hauer [7], Angelidis
(5)
and Semlyen [8], and the first author of this paper [9], [10] ap-
plied -transforms for the modeling of transmission lines. Girgis
et al. [11]–[13] and Wang and Watson [14] used -transforms This is the definition of the -transform of and denoted
for obtaining a reduced-order equivalent of a power network. hereafter by . As shown in the above, the
First, this paper briefly introduces the basics of the -trans- -transform of a waveform can be obtained simply by replacing
form, and then the above mentioned applications to EMT simu- the complex frequency by using (4) in its Laplace transform
lations of power systems are reviewed. expression.

Manuscript received May 2, 2006. Paper no. TPWRD-00236-2006.
Task Force Members: Luis Naredo (Chairperson), Abner Ramirez, Akihiro
Ametani, Alberto Gutiérrez, Andrea Mansoldo, Ani Gole, Antonio Lima, Atef
Morched, Bjørn Gustavsen, David Wilcox, Felipe Uribe, Fernando Moreira,
Francisco de León, Juan Martínez, Leonardo Guardado, Marisol Dávila, Michel
Ritual, Naoto Nagaoka, Neville Watson, Pablo Gómez, Pablo Moreno, Reza
Iravani, Sandoval Carneiro, Taku Noda, Venkata Dinavahi, Victor Ortiz, Wash-
ington Neves.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2006.886793
0885-8977/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
A. Mapping Between the and Planes
Equation (4) maps the complex plane into the complex
plane as shown in Fig. 2. An interesting property of this mapping
is that the left-hand side of the plane is mapped inside the unit
circle on the plane. The stability of a discrete-time system
can be assessed by checking whether all poles of the system
are inside the unit circle or not. A discrete-time system having
1800 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 3, JULY 2007

2) Shift Theorem: Multiplying the operator in the do-

main corresponds to shifting the time-domain waveform in the
positive time direction by one time step. Thus, for
is equivalent to delaying the waveform
by samples.
3) Initial Value Theorem: The initial value of a waveform
can be obtained by its -domain function with

(7)

4) Final Value Theorem: The final value of a waveform can

be obtained by the following formula:

(8)

Fig. 1. Continuous-time waveform is plotted by the solid line, and it is sampled 5) Periodic Function: Let us assume that be a single-
at equidistant time steps as marked by the circles. The time scale is normalized shot waveform having values only for (other-
by the sampling interval.
wise zero). The -transform of the periodic function with
for each period is given by

(9)

C. Inverse -Transform
Here, three methods to obtain the time-domain waveform
from its -domain expression are introduced.
1) Power Series: If the power series expansion of with
Fig. 2. Laplace s plane (a) and the z plane (b).
respect to is obtained

(10)
all poles inside the unit circle on the plane is stable, since the
corresponding continuous-time system having all poles on the
then .
left-hand side of the plane is stable. The perimeter of the unit
2) PFE (Partial Fraction Expansion): If can be ex-
circle corresponds to the imaginary axis of the plane ( is
panded into partial fractions of the form (here, we describe a
the angular frequency).
method applicable to the case where contains first-order
Another interesting property is the fact that the mapping is not
fractions only)
one by one. Equation (4) indicates that if the angular frequency
is increased along the imaginary axis of the plane, the cor-
responding locus on the plane turns around on the perimeter (11)
of the unit circle any number of times. The sampling theorem
tells that frequency components higher than the critical angular
then, using the -transform , is given
frequency cannot be preserved by sampled data.
by
This is equivalent to that the end point of the upper
perimeter of the unit circle corresponds to ;
if the angular frequency is increased beyond this point, the locus (12)
overlaps on the lower perimeter that is the frequency response
for negative frequencies. “Aliasing” is also closely related to 3) By Definition: It can be proved that the inverse -trans-
this topic. form of is analytically obtained by

B. Properties of -Transform
(13)
1) Linearity: -transforms are linear, and thus the following
relation is satisfied: where is a closed loop enclosing the convergent area of .
In most cases, the integration above can be evaluated by ap-
(6) plying Cauchy’s residue theorem.
NODA AND RAMIREZ: -TRANSFORM-BASED METHODS FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENT SIMULATIONS 1801

Using the shift theorem, we obtain

(19)

This indicates that the output can be calculated by mul-

tiplications and additions, which are very efficient if the
model order is small. Equation (19) is closely related to the
concept of recursive convolution which was originally devel-
Fig. 3. Norton and Thevenin equivalent circuits derived by the rational function oped for transmission-line modeling [15]. The same arithmetic
of z in (17).
operation as (19) is called an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response)
filter in the field of digital filter design and also an Auto-Regres-
sive Moving-Average (ARMA) model in the field of time-series
D. Bilinear Transformation (BLT) analysis.
The following approximate relation between and is often
useful for replacing with in a frequency-domain expression: B. Norton Equivalent
If is considered to be an admittance, (19) can be
(14) rewritten in the form

Since this is obtained via the bilinear approximation (20)

where and are the voltage and the current and

(15)

equation (14) is called the bilinear transformation (BLT). (21)

This can be interpreted into the Norton equivalent circuit shown

III. BASIC CONCEPTS
in Fig. 3(a), which is compatible with the nodal conductance
formulation used in EMTP-type programs.
A. Rational Function and Recursive Convolution
The input–output relation of a linear time-invariant system C. Thevenin Equivalent
can be described by If is an impedance, (19) can be rewritten in the form

(16) (22)

where is the transfer function of the system and and where

are the input and the output, respectively. If and
are, respectively, considered to be the voltage and the cur-
rent of a network component, is the admittance of the com- (23)
ponent. If and are the current and the voltage,
is the impedance. In most -transform applications to EMT sim-
and can be interpreted into the Thevenin equivalent circuit
ulations, the transfer function is replaced (approximated)
shown in Fig. 3(b).
by a rational function of in the form
D. Representation of Wave Propagation Function
(17)
When the propagation function of a transmission line
Some methods identify the coefficients , of length with its frequency dependence is modeled in an
in the frequency domain by fitting the frequency response EMTP-type program, it is common to decompose into a
of (17) with given , and others in the time domain by pure time delay corresponding to the traveling time and
matching the time response of (17) with recorded or calculated a transfer function representing the wave deformation
data. Let us assume that (17) has been identified by some
identification method. Substituting (17) into (16) gives (24)

If the deformation function is replaced by (17), the wave

deformation in the time domain can efficiently be calculated by
(18) (19). Since the time delay is associated, the term does not
1802 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 3, JULY 2007

have to be represented separately as in the equivalent circuits

shown in Fig. 3.

IV. APPLICATIONS TO EMT SIMULATIONS

A. Modal-Domain Transmission Line Modeling

The dynamics of an -phase transmission line is described
by coupled partial differential equations (PDEs). The modal
theory proposed in [16] can be used to transform the coupled
PDEs into decoupled PDEs which can be solved indepen-
dently. Since each PDE describes a natural mode of propaga-
tion, the decoupled domain is called the modal domain. Voltages
and currents in the phase coordinates are interfaced
with those and in the modal domain by the linear
transformation

(25)

where and are called the voltage and current transfor-

mation matrices. When the frequency dependence due to the
skin effects of the conductors and the ground is neglected, Berg-
eron’s solution for each modal PDE can be expressed in the fol-
lowing form in the time domain [17]: Fig. 4. z -domain equivalent of a modal-domain transmission-line model.

(26)
where and are the current and the voltage at the sending
end, and and are those at the receiving end. The charac-
teristic admittance is denoted by , and the current sources
and are calculated by
(27)
Next, we consider the case where the frequency dependence is
taken into account, and thus, the characteristic admittance and
the propagation function are frequency dependent. If the fre-
quency-dependent characteristic admittance is denoted by
in the frequency domain and the propagation function is
decomposed into a pure time delay and a wave deforma-
tion function as described in Section III-D, (26) and (27)
are formally rewritten using Laplace transforms in the form
have already been calculated in (28), the convolutions due only
to are calculated. As explained in Section III-D, the con-
volutions are carried out by (19), and the outputs and are
added to the current sources of the Norton equivalents at both
ends. Finally, for each mode, we obtain the -domain equivalent
circuit shown in Fig. 4(a). Assuming that and are approx-
imated to be real and constant, the phase- and modal-domain
quantities are interfaced using (25) as shown in Fig. 4(b). In this
way, a modal-domain transmission-line model is implemented
in an EMTP-type program.
The remaining task is to identify rational functions of
for and . Humpage et al. [3]–[6] first fit given fre-
quency response of with the rational function of
(30)
using a two-stage least-squares procedure. They use
(31)

(28) for the characteristic impedance (instead of the characteristic

admittance), where
(29)
(32)
where denotes an inverse Laplace transform. The inverse
Laplace transforms in (28) and (29) can also be denoted by Equations (30) and (31) are then transformed into the -domain
convolutions. For instance, can be denoted by using BLT in (14) to obtain rational functions of .
, where is the impulse response of the char- Hauer [7] uses
acteristic admittance. Let us assume that and are,
respectively, replaced by rational functions of in (17). Then, (33)
according to Section III-B, the terms for the
sending end and for the receiving end in (28) to fit both and in the frequency domain via a non-
can be realized respectively by Norton equivalents shown in linear optimization technique, and then BLT is used to obtain
Fig. 3(a). Regarding (29), since the terms and rational functions of .
NODA AND RAMIREZ: -TRANSFORM-BASED METHODS FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENT SIMULATIONS
Fig. 5. z -domain equivalent of a phase-domain transmission-line model (the
three-phase case is shown here but this equivalent is applicable to general
n-phase case).
B. Phase-Domain Transmission-Line Modeling
In a modal-domain model, the modal transformation matrices
are assumed to be real and constant. This assumption is ap-
propriate for most overhead lines. However, the transformation
matrices of some vertically-arranged overhead lines and under-
ground cables show significant frequency dependence. Phase-
domain transmission-line models [8]–[10] have been proposed
to avoid errors due to the use of real constant transformation ma-
trices for such transmission lines by directly formulating equa-
tions in the phase domain rather than in the modal domain. In
(28) and (29), all quantities have been scalar for the modal-do-
main formulation. If we consider , , , and as vectors
with length of the currents and voltages at the sending and
receiving ends, respectively, and and as by
matrices, (28) and (29) become the equations for a phase-do-
main formulation and this leads to the equivalent circuit shown
in Fig. 5.
Angelidis and Semlyen [8] replace and with the
matrix rational function of
(34)
which directly realizes a matrix-vector convolution, where
and are the coefficient matrices of size by . The elements
of the coefficient matrices are identified by a frequency-domain
least-squares procedure. The term of is used for the
conductance matrix in the equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 5.
On the other hand, the first author of this paper [9], [10] re-
places each element of and by a rational function
of in (17), and the terms of are used to form the
by conductance matrix in Fig. 5. The coefficients of the
rational functions of are identified by a frequency-domain
least-squares procedure.
It is interesting to note that the model proposed in [9] explic-
itly represents modal traveling-time differences by utilizing the
fact that the operator corresponds to one sample delay in
the time domain. The phase-domain propagation function of an
-phase transmission line consists of modal components with
different traveling velocities. This means that the phase-domain
deformation function still exhibits discontinuities in the time do-
main due to the modal traveling-time differences after removing
1803
Fig. 6. Example of a phase-domain deformation function with time-domain
discontinuity.
Fig. 7. Linear interpolations are applied both to the input and the output of a z
function to interface with an external network with a different time step.
the traveling time of the fastest mode as in (24). Such a discon-
tinuous response can accurately be fitted by
(35)
where is the number of modal components with distinct trav-
eling times and the modal traveling-time differences are repre-
sented by the terms. The numbers of numerator and de-
nominator coefficients are the same, and thus the sum of
for is equal to . For instance, a
three-phase overhead line has the three modes; an earth-return
mode and two aerial modes. The earth-return mode is slower
than the aerial modes, and the velocities of the aerial modes are
usually almost the same as shown in Fig. 6. Thus, this can be
fitted by (35) with (the two aerial modes are represented
by one numerator term).
Another interesting attempt proposed in [10] is to apply in-
terpolations both to the input and the output of the calculation
in (19) as shown in Fig. 7, in order to interface with an external
network with a different time step. This practically overcomes
one of the most disadvantageous points of -transform methods;
an identified model is tied to a specific time step.
C. Reduced-Order Network Equivalents
A reduced-order network equivalent is basically used to rep-
resent a large subnetwork to reduce computation requirements,
especially in the following situations.
• When a large number of simulation cases have to be
performed with different parameter values, a sub-network
which is not affected by the parameter values, is replaced
by a reduced-order equivalent to reduce computation time.
1804
Fig. 8. Network for the application example.
• When the equivalent circuit of a sub-network (or a net-
work component such as a transformer for high-frequency
studies) is not known but its frequency or time response is
known, and if the sub-network can be replaced by one of
the equivalent circuits shown in Fig. 3, then the simulation
can be carried out.
The model proposed in [11]–[13] uses the Thevenin equivalent
shown in Fig. 3(b) and the coefficients of the rational function
in (17) are identified by a least-squares procedure in the time
domain. On the other hand, the model in [14] uses the Norton
equivalent shown in Fig. 3(a) and the coefficients of the rational
function are identified by a least-squares procedure formulated
in the frequency domain.
V. APPLICATION EXAMPLE
The network for this example is shown in Fig. 8. The voltage
source corresponds to with , reciprocals were used. In this way, a network equivalent with
and its internal resistance and inductance are and
respectively. In this network, there are three 10-km,
15-m height, single-phase transmission lines (TLs) represented
by their frequency domain admittance matrix:
(36)
where
characteristic admittance;
propagation constant, and the length.
The per-unit-length series impedance and shunt admittance
of the TLs are calculated considering the skin effects of both
the conductors and the ground soil. At the receiving end of each
line there is an - (in parallel) load with and
. The frequency response of the driving-point admittance
seen from Node 1 is calculated, and based on that response a
reduced-order network equivalent in the rational function form
in (17) is identified in the following way.
The basic idea of the identification is to determine the coef-
ficients , of the rational function model
using a least-squares procedure formulated in the frequency do-
main [9]. However, the model order has also to be identified
at the same time. Thus, is increased from 1 to 10, and for each
order the least-squares identification process mentioned above
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 3, JULY 2007
Fig. 9. Frequency response of the driving-point admittance seen from Node 1
of the network shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10. Current entering Node 1 of the network shown in Fig. 8.
is repeated. The model order that gives the smallest rms error
is finally chosen. In those cases yielding unstable poles their
has been identified. Since the system shown in Fig. 8 in-
cludes distributed-parameter lines that theoretically possess in-
finite number of poles, the order of the identified model can be
regarded as a greatly reduced one. Fig. 9 compares the frequency
response of the identified model with that of the given system,
where good agreement is observed in the frequency range from
1 Hz to 1 kHz.
Assuming zero initial conditions, the source is connected
to the network at , yielding the current delivered by the
source as shown in Fig. 10. The identified -domain model in
the form of (17) can readily be used as a time-domain ARMA
model in (19), and the waveform shown by the solid line was cal-
culated using the ARMA model. For comparison, the same tran-
sient was calculated by a frequency domain technique, i.e., the
Numerical Laplace Transform (NLT) [18], and superimposed
using a dashed line in Fig. 10. Since was used for the
error tolerance in the NLT calculation, the dashed line can be
considered as the rigorous solution. The result by the identified
reduced-order equivalent closely reproduces the rigorous solu-
tion.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has introduced the basics of the -transform and
applications to EMT simulations have been reviewed. The ap-
plication of the -transform to EMT analysis is proposed as a
NODA AND RAMIREZ: -TRANSFORM-BASED METHODS FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENT SIMULATIONS
complimentary tool for the existent time and frequency domain
methods. However, more research is needed in the case of rep-
resenting nonlinear elements and switched devices in the -do-
main. The authors hope that this material will help the progress
of research and development in this field.
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Taku Noda (M’97) received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering
from Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1992, 1994, and 1997, respectively.
From 2001 to 2002, he was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON, Canada. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Doshisha University.
His research interest includes electromagnetic transient analysis of power sys-
tems and analysis of surges using electromagnetic-field computations.
Abner Ramirez (M’96) received the B.Sc. degree from the University of Gua-
najuato, Mexico, in 1996, the M.Sc. degree from the University of Guadalajara,
Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree from the Center for Re-
search and Advanced Studies of Mexico (CINVESTAV) Campus Guadalajara,
in 2001.
He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, from 2001 to 2005.
Currently, he is a Professor at CINVESTAV–Guadalajara. His interests are elec-
tromagnetic transient analysis in power systems and numerical analysis of elec-
tromagnetic fields.