Fault Tolerance and Security for Power Grid Confguration with FACTS Devices

该奖项是根据运输业工程探索性研究(ETI)项目征集颁发的。大容量电力系统构成了有史以来最大、最复杂的互联交通网络之一。这些遍布世界各地的电网由大量能源组成，这些能源通过高压交流输电系统近乎同步地运行。随着电力系统的发展，占主导地位的大容量电力系统已经形成了由一条或多条输电线路连接的紧密耦合的大型机器群。这种情况是由于区域电力系统之间互联的增长而发展起来的。随着电力传输的日益繁重，这种系统变得容易发生连锁故障，因为动力学可能以不可预测的方式在整个系统中耦合，连锁故障可能是由自然发生的事件引起的，也可能是由恐怖分子类型的活动引起的。自然发生的连锁故障的例子包括1965年臭名昭著的纽约停电，以及最近1996年7月和8月的两次加州停电。传统上，由于地理和法规的限制，电网的控制一直是分散的。电力系统中的节点(称为“母线”)往往在地理上彼此远离，它们之间很少或根本没有系统的通信，这使得协调控制变得困难。此外，国家电网的不同区域可能由独立的私营或公共实体所有，这些实体的运营场所不同。这也给协调控制带来了困难。最有前途的分散式网络控制器之一是基于电力电子的控制器系列，被称为“灵活交流输电系统”(FACTS)设备。这些设备通过快速切换在本地修改系统的拓扑。通过开关模式的选择，这些装置可以实现各种电力系统目标，如电压支持、振荡抑制和提高稳定性。这种能力不仅可用于提高最大吞吐功率等可靠性目标，还可用于出于经济原因调整功率流。在电力系统重组的环境中，可以预见，整个系统的潮流将被调整，以实现经济目标的最大化。然而，这些装置相对较新，目前很少超过原型阶段，因此它们对输电网络的广泛影响尚未得到彻底分析。虽然这些装置增加了网络潮流的可控性，但它们的分散性质可能会导致它们之间的有害相互作用。在这个项目中，我们建议利用灵活的拓扑FACTS设备来开发分布式控制策略，以i)检测和减轻有意或无意的连锁故障，ii)开发能够自动调整以适应不断变化的经济和物理环境的操作策略，以及iii)开发交互策略以减少相反的行为。

This award is made under the Exploratory Research on Engineering the Transport Industries (ETI) program solicitation. Bulk power systems form one of the largest and most complex inter-connect transportation networks ever built. These net-works throughout the world consist of large numbers of energy sources operating in near synchronism coupled through a high-voltage AC transmission system. As power systems have evolved, the dominant bulk power system has been formed as large groups of closely coupled machines connected by one or more transmission links. This situation has devel-oped as a consequence of growth in interconnections among regional power systems. With increasingly heavier power transfers, such systems become vulnerable to cascading failure as dynamics can couple throughout the system in unpredictable ways, Cascading failures may be brought on by naturally occurring events, or may be induced through terrorist-type activities. Examples of naturally occurring cascading failures include the infamous New York blackout in 1965 and more recently, the two California blackouts of July and August 1996.Control of the power network has traditionally been decentralized due to geographic and regulatory constraints. The nodes (called "buses") in a power system are often geographically remote from one another with little or no systematic communication between them, making coordinated control difficult. Also, different regions of the national power grid may be owned by independent private or public entities whose operating venues differ. This, too, poses difficulties in coordinated control.One of the most promising decentralized network controllers is the family of power electronics-based controllers, known as "flexible AC transmission system" (FACTS) devices. These devices locally modify the topology of the system by rapid switching. By the choice of switching patterns, these devices can achieve a variety of power system objectives, such as voltage support, oscillation damping, and stability improvement. This ability can be used for not only reliability objectives such as increasing the maximum throughput power, but can also be used to adjust power flow for economic reasons. In the power system restructured environment, it is foreseeable that power flows will be adjusted throughout the system to maximize economic objectives. These devices, however, are relatively new and few are cur-rently beyond the prototype stage, therefore their wide-spread impact on the transmission network has not yet been thoroughly analyzed.While these devices offer increased network power flow controllability, the decentralized nature of their actions may cause deleterious interactions between them. In this project, we propose to utilize flexible topology FACTS devices in developing distributed control strategies to i) detect and mitigate intentional or unintentional cascading failures, ii,) develop operating strategies that can automatically adjust to changing economic and physical environments, and iii) develop interaction policies to mitigate counterproductive actions.