WAMS based self-tuning FACTS controllers for improved utilisation of existing power transmission assets

随着越来越多的人反对建设新的输电线路，大宗能源的传输将成为英国和欧洲许多地区的一个重大挑战。例子包括从英国北部到南部负荷中心的输电线路，以及从挪威北部到奥斯陆附近负荷中心的水电输入走廊。因此，通过将现有输电资产加载到更接近其容量的位置来充分利用现有输电资产绝对至关重要。为了确保在如此重的负荷下的安全运行，需要通过使用柔性交流输电系统（FACTS）设备的电压和功率流的适当控制来改善系统的动态性能。通常很难获得关于电力系统的所有元件（例如负载）的准确信息，这对传统的基于模型的控制设计造成了根本限制。在上述背景下，本项目的目的是设计和验证一个自校正控制方案的FACTS设备，只依赖于测量信号，从而满足需要准确的系统信息。这种控制器的设计独立于系统的操作条件，因此，不需要重新调整系统配置的变化。通过广域测量系统（WAMS），使用来自战略位置的多个反馈信号，可以潜在地提高FACTS控制器的有效性。因此，控制设计需要在多变量框架中制定。控制器的性能将通过硬件在环（HIL）仿真进行实时验证，采用测试台，模拟大型电力系统的行为，和商业控制模拟器。拟议的项目基本上集成了FACTS与WAMS，并可能为这两种技术的开发人员和用户提供新的优势。

With increasing opposition to building new transmission lines, transfer of bulk energy is going to be a major challenge in the UK and in many parts of Europe. Examples include the transmission link from the north of the UK to the load centres in the south and the corridor importing hydro power from north of Norway to the load centres near Oslo. It is therefore, absolutely critical that the existing power transmission assets are fully utilised by loading them much closer to their capacity. To ensure secure operation under such heavy loading, the dynamic performance of the system needs to be improved through appropriate control of voltage and power flow using the flexible ac transmission systems (FACTS) devices. It is often difficult to obtain accurate information about all the components (e.g. loads) of a power system which poses fundamental limitation on conventional model based control design. In the above context, this project aims at designing and validating a self-tuning control scheme for FACTS devices that rely solely on the measured signals and thereby, obviate the need for accurate system information. Such controllers are designed independent of the system operating condition and therefore, need no retuning with changes in system configuration. Use of more than one feedback signals from strategic locations, available though wide-area measurement systems (WAMS), can potentially improve the effectiveness of the FACTS controller. Hence, the control design needs to be formulated in a multi-variable framework. The performance of the controller would be validated in real-time through hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulation employing a test bench, emulating the behaviour of large power systems, and a commercial control simulator. The proposed project essentially integrates FACTS with WAMS and could potentially provide the developers and user of both these technologies a new edge.