IEEE Power Engineering Society - Winter Meeting 2000 Special Technical Session

Digital Simulation of Power Systems and Power Electronics using the NIATLAB/Simulink Power System Blockset
by Gilbert Sybille Power System Simulation Laboratory IREQ - Hydro-Quebec Varennes, Quebec, CANADA and Hoang Le-Huy Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Universite Lava1 Ste-Foy, Quebec, CANADA

I. DESCRIPTION
Digital simulation of power systems has been intensively studied during the last three decades because of increasing needs in the domain. Various approaches have been considered for the formulation and solution of the network equations. The main simulation methods that have been developed include state-variable analysis, nodal analysis, and modified nodal analysis. These methods have been applied to the development of different simulation packages. The most popular ones are EMTP for power networks (using nodal analysis with fixedstep integration) and SPICE for electronic circuits and power electronics (using modified nodal analysis with variable-step integration). The Power System Blockset (PSB) is a graphic tool that allows building schematics and simulation of power systems in the Simulink environment. The blockset uses the MATLAB/Simulink environment to represent common components and devices found in electrical power networks. Simulinks variable-step event-sensitive integration algorithms allow increased accuracy in zero-crossing detection of currents as compared with fixedstep algorithms. One important feature of the Power System Blockset which has been introduced with version 2.0 is its ability to simulate either with continuous variable time-step integration algorithms or with a discretized system. For small and medium size systems, variable time steps algorithms are usually faster because the number of steps will be less than with a fixed-time step method. However, for large systems which contain many states or many non-linear blocks such as power electronic switches, it is advantageous to discretize the electrical system. Both the continuous integration and fixed-time step methods will be illustrated. The graphic interface of Simulink provides a user-friendly environment where the power circuit and control system are represented in the same diagram. The results is displayed while the simulation is running. The processing power of MATLAB allows the designer to perform complex post-processing on simulation results. This special technical session presents the features of the Power System Blockset and its applications in the simulation of power systems and power electronics systems.

11. THEPOWER SYSTEM BLOCKSET

The PSB is a graphic tool that allows building schematics and simulation of power systems in the Simulink environment. The blockset uses the Simulink environment to represent common components and devices found in electrical power networks. It consists of a block library that includes electrical models such as RLC branches and loads, transformers, lines, surge arrester, electric machines, power electronics devices, etc. Diagrams can be assembled simply by using click and drag procedures into Simulink windows. The Power System Blockset uses the same drawing and interactive dialogue boxes to enter parameters as in standard Simulink blocks.

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Electrical Sources Elements Power Electronics Machines Connectors Measurements

Power System BIockset Copyright [c) 1997-1 998 by TEQSIM International, Inc., under sublicense from Hydro-Quebec, and The Mathworks, Inc. All Rights Resewed.

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powergui

Figure 1 The Power System Blockset Library

Simulation results can be visualized with Simulink scopes connected to outputs of measurement blocks available in the PSB library. These measurement blocks acts as an interface between the electrical blocks and the Simulink blocks. The voltage and current measurement blocks can be used at selected points in the circuit to convert electrical signals into Simulink signals. Nonlinear elements requiring control, such as power electronic devices, have a Simulink input that allow control f o a Simulink system. rm

Block library
Elements in the PSB block library are classified in various groups according to their nature: Electrical Sources, Elements, Power Electronics, Machines, Connectors, and Measurements. The Elements group contains single-phase models RLC branches and loads, linear and saturable transformers, mutual inductances, E-section lines, MOV type surge arrester, circuit breaker and n-phase distributed-parameter line model. Using the masking facility of Simulink, the user can easily add more complex elements built from the basic PSB building blocks and associate a dialog box. This technique has been used to develop a three-phase library which is also provided. The Power Electronics group contains common semiconductor devices. Each element in this group (except Diode) has a Simulink gating control input and a Simulink output returning switch current and voltage. The Machines group contains simplified and detailed models of synchronous machine, an asynchronous machine, a permanent magnet synchronous machine, a model of hydraulic turbine governor, and an excitation system. Each machine block has a Simulink output returning measurements of internal variables.

UI. CONTENTS OF THE SPECIAL TECHNICAL SEsSION

The Special Technical Session is divided in three parts. Part 1 explains the principle of operation of the PSB. In parts 3 and 4 eight different examples of applications will be explained and demonstrated on the PC. TWO of these examples (series compensated transmission network and DSTATCOM)are presented in detail in this paper. The topics presented in this STS are shown below. 1. Introduction to Matlab/Simulink and Power System Blockset (PSB) Features of MATLAB, Simulink and PSB Power systems and power electronics modeling using state-variable approach in PSB Variable step and fixed-step simulation Comparison with EMTP and PSPICE 2. Power networks applications Series compensated transmission network Line and transformer energizing Electrical machines in power networks Performance evaluation for a distance protection relay 3. Power electronics applications HVDC transmission system
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Static var compensators DSTATCOM Variable-frequency PWM AC motor drives

IV. EXAMPLE SERIES 1 COMPENSATED TRANSMISSION NETWORK

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This example illustrates phenomena related to subsynchronous resonance in a series-compensated AC transmission network. "Descriptionof the Transmission Network
6'350 MVA 13.8 kVl735 kV DNS MOVl

line 1; 300 km

13.8 kV 6'350 MVA

MOV2

loo MW

- ... .. .

Figure 2 Series and Shunt Compensated Network

The single-line diagram shown in Figure 2 represents a three-phase, 60 Hz, 735 kV power system transmitting power from a power plant consisting of six 350 MVA generators to an equivalent network through a 600km transmission line. The transmission line is split in two 300 km lines connected between buses B 1,B2 and B3. In order to increase the transmission capacity, each line is series compensated by capacitors representing 40% of the line reactance. Both lines are also shunt compensated by a 330 Mvar shunt reactance. The shunt and series compensation equipments are located at the B2 substation where a 300 MVA 735/230 kV transformer with a 25 kV tertiary winding feeds a 230 kV, 250 MW load. Each series compensation bank is protected by metal oxide varistors (MOVI and MOV2). The two circuit breakers of line I are shown as CB 1 and CB2. This circuit will be used to illustrate transients obtained for a line fault and a bus fault applied at substation B2. The circuit built with the PSB schematic diagram is shown on Figure 3. The generators are simulated with a Simplified Synchronous Machine block. Universal transformer blocks (two-windings and three-windings) are used to model the two transformers. Saturation is implemented on transformer connected at bus B2. The currentflux saturation characteristic is simulated by a piecewise linear characteristic. The figure shows a fault applied on line 1, on the line side of the capacitor bank. The fault and the two line circuit breakers are simulated with blocks from the three-phase library. Three oscilloscopes are used to display waveforms while the simulation is running.

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I '

735 kV Series Compensated Transmission System

Doble did: on the Help Mton (?) for details

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Before starting simulation, spedfy Ts-50e-6 in your workspace

Figure 3 PSB Simulation of the Series Compensated Network

Series compensation equipments have been grouped in two subsystems. Three identical modules are used for each phase. The details of these series compensation modules are given in Figure 4.

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Figure 4 Series compensation module

The transmission line is 40% series compensated by a 62.8 pF capacitor. Each capacitor is protected by a metal oxide varistor (MOV block) consisting of 60 columns and its protection level (specified at a reference current of 500 Ncolumn or 30 kA total) is set at 299.7 kV. This voltage corresponds to 2.5 times the nominal capacitor voltage obtained at a nominal current of 2 kA rms.
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A gap is also connected in parallel with the MOV. The gap is fired when the energy absorbed by the surge arrester exceeds a critical value of 30 MJ. In order to limit the rate of rise of capacitor current when the gap is fired, a damping RL circuit is connected in series. The energy dissipated in the MOV is calculated by Energy & Gap firing subsystem. Energy is obtained by integrating the power (product of the MOV voltage and current). When the energy exceeds the 30 MJ threshold a closing order is sent to the breaker block simulating the gap.

Three-phase Fault on Line I Simulation results obtained for a three-phase-to-ground fault applied on line 1 are shown on Figure 5. Fault is applied at t=lcycle in substation B2 at the line side of the series compensation bank. The two line circuit breakers are initially closed and then open at t=5 cycles, simulating a fault detection and opening time of 4 cycles. The fault is eliminated at t=6 cycles, one cycle after line opening. The energy dissipated in the MOV (trace 6) builds up and reaches the 30 MJ threshold level after 3 cycles, one cycle before opening of the line breakers. As a result, the gap is fired and the capacitor voltage (trace 4)quickly discharges to zero through the damping circuit. Frequency Analysis One particular characteristic of series compensated systems is the existence of subsynchronous modes (poles and zeros of the system impedance below the fundamental frequency). Dangerous resonances can occur if the mechanical torsion modes of turbine/generator shafts is in the vicinity of the zeros of the system impedance. Also, high subsynchronous voltages due to impedances poles at subsynchronous frequencies will drive transformers into saturation. The transformer saturation due to subsynchronous voltages will be illustrated below. The PSB has the ability to compute the impedance vs. frequency between any pair of nodes. The positive-sequence impedance as function of frequency (magnitude and phase) seen from bus B2 is shown in Figure 6. Three main modes can be observed: 9 Hz, 175 Hz and 370 Hz.The 9 Hz mode is mainly due to a parallel resonance of the series capacitor with the shunt inductors. The 175 Hz and 370 Hz modes are due to the 600 km distributed parameter line. These three modes are likely to be excited at fault clearing. The system short circuit level at bus B2 is obtained from the impedance (58 Q) at 60 Hz. It corresponds to a three-phase short circuit power of (735kV) 2/58 = 9314 MVA

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Transientperformancefor a fault at bus B2 The simulation results obtained for a three-cycle, three-phase-to-ground fault at bus B2 as shown on Figure 7.

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The 9 Hz subsynchronous mode excited at fault clearing is clearly seen on phase A voltage at bus B2 (trace 1)
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and capacitor voltage (trace 3). The 9 Hz voltage component appearing at bus B2 drives the transformer into saturation as shown on the transformer magnetizing current (trace 4). The flux in phase A of the transformer is plotted on trace 5. At fault application the voltage at transformer terminals drops to zero and the flux stays constant during the fault. At fault clearing, when the voltage recovers, the transformer is driven into saturation as a result of the flux offset created by the 60 Hz and 9Hz voltage components. The pulses of the transformer magnetizing current (trace 4) appear when the flux exceeds its saturation level of 1.2 p.u. The transformer magnetizing current contains a 60 Hz reactive component modulated at 9 Hz.

V. EXAMPLE DISTRIBUTION 2 STATCOM

In this example, the PSB is used to study the operation of a distribution STATCOM (DSTATCOM) on a 25 kV distribution system. The system built with the PSB GUI is shown on Figure 8. Description The short circuit power at the 25 kV B2 bus is 25 MVA inductive with an angle of 56 degrees. The +/-3 Mvar DSTATCOM is connected to the 25 kV B2 bus through a 25 kV/ 2kV Wye Delta transformer. On this 25 MVA inductive network, the +/- 3 Mvar STATCOM can correct voltage dip of +/- 12%. The reactive power generation or absorption is obtained by generating a secondary voltage which is in phase with the primary voltage (taking into account the transformer 30 degrees phase shift). When the secondary voltage is lower than the primary voltage (in pu), the STATCOM will absorb reactive power, When it is higher, it will generate reactive power. The secondary voltage is synthesized by a pulse width modulation inverter (PWM) using a 3 kHz chopping frequency. In order to minimize harmonic frequencies (around multiple of 3 kHz) generated by the PWM, the output voltage of the inverter is filtered before being sent to the secondary of the transformer.

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Modulation index

VDC Regulator

STATCOMControl G. Sfiille Power Sytem Simulation, IREQ

Iq Regulator

Figure 9 Control system of the DSTATCOM

The PWM Pulse Generator sends pulses to the ZGBT inverter. It generates PWM pulses using the standard triangular PWM technique. The control system shown on Figure 9 performs the following main functions: Phase Locked Loop (PLL) The three voltages at the STATCOM terminals are sent to a PLL (available in Extrashleasurements library) which synchronizes on the zero crossings of the fundamental component of the phase A voltage. Measurement of direct and quadrature axis components of the STATCOM currents (Id, Iq) is performed by the abc-to-dq0 Transformation block (available in Extrashleasurements library). The theta=wt angle computed by the PLL is used as a reference for the abc to dq transformation. The Iq current is regulated by a PI regulator. The Iq regulator follows the Iq reference value which can be adjusted between +1 pu (capacitive) and -1 pu (inductive). The output of the Iq regulator is the desired Vd voltage to be generated by the inverter. The Id current is also regulated by a PI regulator. The Id current correspond to the small active power flowing into the STATCOM. The regulator follows a reference imposed by the DC bus voltage regulator. The DC bus voltage has to be regulated in order to compensate for active power losses in the transformer and in the inverter. The output of the Id regulator is the desired Vq voltage to be generated by the inverter. The modulation index and phase angle of the voltage to be generated by the inverter are obtained by a rectangular to polar transformation of the Vd and Vq components. The line-to-line rms output voltage at the output of the inverter is a function of the DC bus voltage and of the modulation index m as given by the following equation:
VLLrms =

.J3 x -Vdc 2 - h

= m x 0,612 x Vdc

Therefore, the minimum DC voltage required to generate 2000 V rms (rated secondary voltage) is 2000/0.612 = 3300 V rms. A DC bus voltage of 4000 V rms has been specified.

DSTATCOM start-up and step on reference current This system is discretized with a time step Ts=2e-6. In this test, a step is applied to the current reference input in order to observe the dynamic response when the DSTATCOM changes from full inductive to capacitive operation. When the simulation starts, the DC capacitor starts charging. This requires a Id component corresponding to the active power absorbed by the capacitor. When the DC voltage reaches its reference value (4000 V), the Id component drops to a value very close to zero and the Iq component stays at the 1 pu reference value (3 Mvar inductive). At t=O. 1 s the Iq reference current changes to + 1 pu. When the DSTATCOM changes from inductive to capacitive, a 180 degrees phase shift of the current Ia with respect to voltage Va is observed. The transition from inductive to capacitive is shown on Figure 10. It is noted that the modulation index increases (inverter
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voltage increases) when the STATCOM changes from inductive to capacitive.

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Figure 10 Step on operating point from inductive (Id=-1 pu) to capacitive (Id=+l pu)

Harmonic analysis In order to illustrate the Matlab post-processing capabilities, the frequency spectrum of the voltages at the inverter terminals as well as at the inverter output as also been computed. This is obtained from the standard Matlab fft function. Results are shown on Figure 11 for the STATCOM absorbing 3 Mvar (Iq =-1 pu). As expected, harmonics are clustered around multiples of the 3 kHz chopping frequency. All harmonics have been reduced to below 0.5% on the 25 kV bus by the filters. Also, the fundamental component of Va (indicated on Va spectrum bottom graph) drops to 0.88 pu, when the STATCOM absorbs its rated reactive current. This is the expected voltage drop for an inductive current of 1 pu/3 MVA on a 25 MVA network.

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VI. CONCLUSION
This special technical session has presented the Power System Blockset as a unified framework for the simulation of power systems including power networks, power electronics and control systems. The simulation tool has been developed using state-variable approach and runs in MATLABNmulink environment. Application examples for power systems including power networks, power electronics and electric machines have been presented to illustrate the capability of the PSB to deal with various systems in power engineering. The simulation results obtained with PSB are comparable to those obtained by popular simulation packages (EMTP and PSpice). The user friendly graphical interfaces of Simulink and PSB allow faster development and closed-loop testing of control systems used in power systems and drives.

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