Improved steady-state stability of power grids with a communication infrastructure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a communication-based control strategy that enhances the steady-state stability of power grids, demonstrating significant improvements in robustness through optimized communication link addition.

Contribution

It presents an algorithm for optimizing power grid stability by iteratively adding communication links, showing how communication infrastructure can improve grid robustness.

Findings

Significant increase in steady-state stability of tested power systems.

Communication network topology differs from transmission grid topology.

Improved robustness of power systems with the proposed control scheme.

Abstract

Efficient control of power systems is becoming increasingly difficult as they gain in complexity and size. We propose an automatic control strategy that regulates the mechanical power output of the generators in a power grid based on information obtained via a communication infrastructure. An algorithm that optimizes steady-state stability of a power grid by iteratively adding communication links is presented. The proposed control scheme is successfully applied to the IEEE New England and IEEE RTS 96 power systems, leading to a significant increase in the steady-state stability of the systems and an improvement in their overall robustness. The resulting communication network topology differs significantly from the transmission grid topology. This shows how complex the steady- state control for power systems is, influenced by the generators configuration, the transmission network topology, and the manner by which control is executed.