Operational Experiences with SVCs for Local and Remote Disturbances

Abstract

This paper presents the operational experiences with SVCs in the San Francisco Bay Area transmission system, operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Company. The two SVCs, at Newark Substation in the East San Francisco Bay, and the Potrero Switching station located in the City of San Francisco, were installed in 2002 and 2004, respectively. The intent of this paper is to show actual SVC operation during local and remote disturbances and make a comparison to expected behavior based on previous simulation and study work. The events recorded and discussed in this paper were recorded by the ABB MACH2 Control & Protection System Transient Fault Recorder.

Review of Wide-Area Controllers for Supporting Power System Stability

“…Decentralized controls are used during both normal operation and contingencies [27], [28]. Examples of decentralized controllers used to enhance system stability during contingencies are those implemented in flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) devices for damping system oscillations [35], [36], [37] or for supporting voltage stability [38], [39], [40], [41]. Current state-of-the-art controllers used in large-scale CIG power plants for supporting stability during contingencies are also implemented in a decentralized fashion using local measurements [42], [43].…”

Validation of power system models

“…Component level testing can be done either through staged tests [16]- [19] or on-line disturbance based model validation [20]. Reference [21] presents an example of model validation based on disturbance monitoring for a FACTS device (SVC), while references [22], [23] discuss much work done in developing better load models and component level model validation for load models performed in the laboratory. Such component level testing is of course a crucial step and necessary part of system wide model validation.…”

SVC operation & reliability experiences

“…An example illustrating this is given in detail in [1] where recordings from the PG&E Potrero SVC at a severe transmission line fault in the PG&E system close to San Francisco. For background on this particular case it can be said that there are two SVCs in the San Francisco bay area and both are involved in this event.…”