A steady-state stability analysis of uniform synchronous power grid topologies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how uniform grid topologies affect power grid stability, showing that topology changes can improve stability and reduce generator torque ripple, with simulations and analysis of circulant grid stability.

Contribution

It extends previous stability analysis by demonstrating the physical significance of stability variations due to topology changes through simulations.

Findings

Increased interconnection density enhances stability.

Topology modifications can significantly affect stability values.

Stable topologies correlate with reduced generator torque ripple.

Abstract

Motter et al. derived a real-valued master stability function which determines whether and to what degree a given power grid is asymptotically stable. Stright and Edrington adopted certain uniformity assumptions on a grid's components and demonstrated how differences in topologies obtained using these components can affect the stabilities of the resulting grids. Building on this work, we show via simulations the physical significance of stability as opposed to instability. We show that for stable topologies, increased stability can correspond to decreased generator torque ripple. We also describe how some elementary changes in grid topology can affect stability values. Known stability values for certain abstract circulant grids are used to quantify stability enhancement as interconnection density increases.