OPTIMAL RECLOSING TIME OF TRANSMISSION LINES AND ITS APPLICATION IN REAL POWER SYSTEM

P. Li*, B.H. Zhang*, Z.G. llao*, Y.F. Rao*, Y. T. Wang*, Z.Q. Bo t , A. Klimekt, Q. Zhao#, W. He'
*School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. E-mail: roclarry(~igmail.com
t

AREVA T&D Automation, UK.

*Ningxia Electric Power Corporation,Yinchuan 750001 ,China

Keywords: Optimal reclosing time (ORT), system stability,

transient energy function.

Abstract
The study of various stability-control methods for a transmission system indicates that the reclosing time of a transmission line has a distinct influence on system stability. And there is an optimal reclosing time (ORT) for all transmission line faults. Utilizing the transient energy function (TEF) with classical models considered, the ORT setting computation method is proposed. This paper shows the validity and practicability of ORT. Based on analyzing the characteristic and influencing factors of the ORT, the setting criteria of reclosing time for transmission line is presented. It will conduct simulations with a complex real system in Northwest of China. Simulation studies show that this technique can significantly increase the security margin and damp the oscillation of the power system. It is indicated that the variation of optimal reclosing time of a certain transmission line is insensitive to these influencing factors: the fault location, fault clearing time and pre-fault power flow of this line. Finally, the setting strategy is drawn to optimize the reclosing time of the key transmission lines in NingXia network under current technological conditions.

1 Introduction
Holding steady run is one of the primary missions of power system. Modem power system are facing continuously restricting stability margins, as social and economic obstacles set limits to the realization of new generation and transmission structure. Hence, it is very important to focus attention on all measures able to improve stability-related aspects. Nowadays, to enhance the continuousness of power supply and the stability of power system, the reclosure device is extensively used for high voltage transmission lines in power networks.

As taking the advantages, also some technical problem for the auto-reclosure device should be solved. Presently, it is difficult to distinguish an instantaneous fault from a permanent one in practice. Most reclosures take place when the nature of a fault is unknown. The contemporary autoreclosure techniques adopt the scheme of fixed time reclosure and re-trip if a permanent fault. The impacts on system stability and power apparatuses due to reclosing on a permanent fault could be worse than that caused by the fault. For some power networks, the transmission capacity may have to be limited so that the system stability requirement is satisfied if reclosing on a permanent fault at a fixed reclosing time. The study of various stability-control methods for a transmission system indicates that the reclosing time of a transmission line has a distinct influence on system stability. There is an optimal reclosing time (ORT) for all instantaneous or permanent transmission line faults [1.-3]. The power transfer capacity may be increased significantly if an optimal reclosing time is adopted [4-1d0]. This paper is organized as following: Firstly, based on the Ordinary Differential Equation theory and Transient Energy Function (TEF) method, the qualitative analysis and quantitative computation method for the ORT is presented. Secondly, to show the validity of the ORT. extensive studies and simulations are carried out. After analyzing the characteristic and influencing factors of the ORT, the optimal reclosing criterion for transmission lines is introduced. It will conduct simulations with a real complex system in Northwest Grid of China to verify the practicability of the ORT. Simulation studies show that this technique can significantly increase the security margin of the power system. More, the simulation results indicate that the variation of optimal reclosing time is insensitive to the changes of the fault location, fault clearing time and pre-fault power flow, and so on. Finally, the setting scheme is drawn to optimize the reclosing time of the network under current technological condition.

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2 Optimal Reclosing Time

2.1 Qualitative analysis of the ORT In multi-machine power system, given that 1=0' is the instance at which the last system disturbance occurred justly, and the stable equilibrium point (SEP) is the origin of the state space. Neglecting the damp, the generator adaptes classical models, and the movement equations of rotors are following:
W'i
_ _I

system stability is proposed, and the instance corresponding to the minimum TEF after the last network's operation is selected as the optimal reclosing time (ORT). Given classical model adopted, the multi-machine system TEF based on the center of inertia (COI) frame is [ 18,19]
f"Ih

Mi (t),

Z Pi (O

"i)

[.

Cs0

y)

2i=

i-I

Y 9

Y+

(2-2)

Di,

fcos

~d(O, Oj)

Where
MT

( 0'15 -

1 C0,
pi = pTi Dy =dEi 1Ei 12Gii I Ej I -Gy
1 1
,i=

12,

(2-1)
XM,

Where Mi Inertia constant of generator i; 5i,o Power angle and angular velocity of generator i; Mechanical power input of generator i; Pei, Electromagnetic power of generator i; The system dynamic behavior after the last disturbance is characterized by equations (2-1). The stability of system is the stability of the solution of system equations (2- 1), which is an autonomous system. According the qualitative theory of the Ordinary Differential Equation, the solution of (2-1) depends on the initial value: if the initial value is inside the stable region of SEP, the system will be stable and converge to the SEP finally, or else the system will lose stability. The initial value of (2-1) is the power angle and angular velocity of each generator at the instance of the last disturbance just accomplished. Zero initial value is an ideal situation, namely, the last system operation is completed at the SEP, and the system will reach the steady state at once, but it is impossible in general. In practice, the optimal instance that the last operation accomplished is instance at which the system state variables (5i, iv, i =I. - N) are best closed to the SEP[2]. For instantaneous fault, the last disturbance of system is successful reclosure. It must ensure that the reclosing time is longer than the least reclosing time which is determined by the circuit breaker (CB). If the fault is a permanent one, the last disturbance is the CB re-tripping following an unsuccessful reclosure. In any case, the fault must be cleared as quickly as possible, which is decided by the protection (about 0.1 s). Selecting optimal last operation time is equivalent to selecting optimal reclosing time. As far as system stability is concerned, reclosing on a permanent fault may not always result in negative effects. Utilizing suitable reclosing time, the accelerative energy yielded by the second fault striking may counteract the decelerative energy carried by the rotor back-swing of generators, and the power imbalance of the generators is decreased significantly.
PTi

MT H

MT

SEP of the generator i with the COI frame; Sf5j, wco Angle and angular velocity of the system COI; Gii, B4 Real and imaginary components of the U-th Ol elements of the network's admittance matrix; Angle and angular velocity of the generator with the COI frame; Given V~h is TEF just after the last disturbance. The optimal reclosing criterion can be calculated by [ 10~- 17] [i, oi
1f n
-,h 2 f_ l

min (-Y XM (toi+,o

2,iI

2P(:,
i=1

-); 9ii+ D' Jcos 09 d(0,++90)1

S[C!. (cosOf~iiiY Yj

cos 64,)s)] +~
-

-iI

Where the superscript "+" denotes the value of system state variable just at the last disturbance accomplished; and the superscript "P" denotes the variable depending on the grid structure after the last disturbance, such as the SEP and the admittance matrix. In general, it is difficult to obtain the analytical solution of equation (2-3), so the TEF curve is calculated as the numerical integral method of the transient stability calculation, and the local minimum point is sought out as the ORT.

3 Setting computation of the optimize reclosing time

The ORT is interrelated with the system condition. To achieve the optimal effect in deed, it is necessary to calculate and set the ORT online in real time. But this is unpractical in real power system. In this section, based on the analysis of the influencing factors and natures of the ORT, the offline setting scheme of reclosing time of transmission line is suggested. 3.1 Influencing factors analysis In the above formula (2-2) and (2-3), the TEF value is mainly related with the following factors: a) reclosing instance; b) inertia of power system; c) system configuration; d) structural changes caused by the reclosure;

2.2 Quantitative computation of ORT It is well known that, Transient Energy Function (TEF) method is a direct method for studying the power system transient stability. The TEF value indicates the oscillations magnitude of an autonomous system: the larger the TEF is, the severer the system condition is, and vice versa. While the TEF is larger than the critical value, the system will be unstable [18, 19]. Based on this, using the TEF as an index of

ill
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e) fault clearing time; f) fault location; g) pre-fault operation conditions. etc. Clearly, factor a) is the objective that will be optimized. The change of b) -g) will influence the TEF value, and may induce to the variation of the ORT. Normally, it is difficult to reset the reclosing time online to follow these changes. All these influence factors may reduce the practicability of the ORT. After numerous analysis and simulation, some conclusions and strategies are obtained: First, the inertia of the system mainly depends on the generator installed capacity. which may not be changed heavily in short term, especially for large-scale real system. Second, the grid structure will not be regulated massively and frequently, and the small adjustment has little influence on the ORT. Third, the structural changes caused by the reclosure have been considered in the computation procedure. There is a small difference in fault clearing time of relay. And the ORT is insensitive to the small difference of the fault clearing time. Simulations indicate that the ORT varies slightly with system operation conditions and fault location for a given system configuration. In a word, of all influencing factors, the great change of inertia and configuration of the power system is important for the ORT, and others have little impact on the ORT. All above analysis give a support to apply the ORT in real power system. 3.2 Nature analysis of the ORT The ORT calculated from the TEF is the minimum point of the TEF curve, and exactly speaking, it is a local minimum point of TEF curve, which is formed by the TEF value corresponding to different reclosing time. The TEF is continuously depended on the system state variable (angle and angular velocity of generator in classical model) which are solutions of ordinary differential equations. So the TEF curve is smoothness, which ensures that the curve is flat and the TEF is also smaller in the neighborhood of a local minimum point. For the operation parameter variation or setting error, the proposed ORT will yield optimal or suboptimal results, not the worst. This nature is important for the application of the ORT in practice. After disturbance, the angle and angular velocity of generators is swing in some periods. The minimum point of the TEF will appear periodically. It is also useful for catching the ORT. 3.3 Setting calculation of the ORT More often, the auto-reclosure device adopts simple timing unit in field. The reclosing time cannot be reset online to follow the changes of system practical situation. More, considering the requirement and reliability of the system, it is not suitable to vary the reclosing time frequently [8]. Therefore, as setting the reclosing time offline, it is ought to take various cases into account. And it is reasonable and realistic to propose a relatively optimum reclosing time. Since no practical method is available to avoid reclosing on a permanent fault presently, and also as far as system stability is concemned, reclosing on a permanent fault may not always

result in negative effects. From the point of view of system stability, the optimizing reclosing time should be calculated under the system maximum power-flow condition with the permanent fault, which the transient stable limit is restricted [5,8,17]. As such case, the reclosure operation has great influence on the system stability. For the faults on other operation mode of the power network, even if it isn't the best, only the magnitude of system oscillations can be affected. However, it will not threaten the system stability. Considering the natures of the ORT, this approach will achieve optimal or suboptimal results. However, it should be noted that the reclosing instance need to be re-calculated, and updated to devices in time as system configuration changes greatly.

4 Application of ORT in real power system

The Northwest Grid in China, including about 1 100 buses, 150 generators and 650 AC-lines, has been investigated by simulation. The simulations have been conducted mainly in key transmission sections in NingXia province network of Northwest Grid (as simply shown in Fig. 1). In the simulation studies, the ORT of the single-phase reclosure under a singlephase to earth permanent fault are calculated. The contemporary reclosing time is 0.7s in NingXia network. The fault location is at the first 2% of relevant line. 'The fault happens at 0.0s, and fault clearing time is 0.lIs. Because of the least reclosing time (about 0.5s), normally, the TEF curves start at 0.5s and end at 2.0s. The TEF of instance t is the transient energy as the last operation achieved by reclosing at this instance.

/330kV I...... YinRci-YinChuan Section YinChuan-YinNan Section Run-out Section

Fig. 1 Key transmission sections in NingXia network 4.1 Calculation of the ORT Fig.3 shows the single-phase fault and single-phase reclosure TEF curve of the 220-ky line BuQiao-JinFeng of the YinBeiYinChuan transmission section (as shown in Fig.2). The fault location is at the 2% of the line to BuQiao. It is clearly that the TEF reaches its first local minimum point at approximately 0.95s. Also the curve is smoothness and flat in the neighborhood of 0.95s.
DaWK BUQuao Chang~hg yitiBet 0 N U Toe 'a

Yinflhuan (D YinChuan LuHua linI'eng

0'2 kV S~imn

Ii YueC

Fig.2 YinBei-YinChuan transmission section in NingXia Network

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; /
.. .. . . .

Notation: "/" indicates that the line DaWK-YinChuan does not exist in 2008 winter running mode. 4.2 Influencing factors Simulation In order to verify the practicability of the ORT, some main influence factors are simulated in the NingXia network on heavy-load run mode in 2007 winter. Firstly, different fault location of the transmission line can influence on the TEF curve. Fig.6 shows the single-phase fault and single-phase reclosure TEF curve of the line YinChuan-DaBa faulted at different location (distance to the head-terminal of the line 2%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 98%, respectively). It can be seen from the fig.6 is that: The TEF is larger as the head or end-terminal fault, and the stability is relatively weak, which accords with the actual situation of the system running. Moreover, the minimum point of TEE, namely the ORT, varies slightly (about in 0.90s-'0.95s), and the TEE curve is very flat near the ORT. It can be concluded that the fault location has little impact on the ORT of a certain line.
8

1,5 Tin W~

Fig.3 TEE Curve of fault on the line BuQiao-Jin~eng

125 o120+

,,100,

Time(s) '3
2%1

Eig.4 Angle swing curves between YinRe and LueYang Plant Eig.4 shows the angle-oscillation curves between the generating units of the YinRe and LueYang Plant, between which the magnitude of angle-oscillation is relatively larger, under different reclosing time. Eig.5 shows the maximal angle difference oscillation curves under different reclosing time (0.70s and 0.95s). It can be seen that reclosing at the instance in the interval about 0.95s-l .00s the system oscillation can be reduced obviously. It is consistent with the ORT corresponding to the local minimum point of the TEE curve.The ORT of transmission lines in YinBei-YinChuan Section of NingXia network in heavy-load running mode in 2007 and 2008 winter is presented in Table 1.

98%

IT

'rmS)

Fig.6 TEE Curve of different fault location

110

110 1052 4 U 0 1

4~Toime(s) 6

1 Time(s)

Fig.5 Max angle difference swing curves TransmissionLine Line Section YinBeiYinChuan Section DaWK-YinChuan ChangShg-LuHua BuQiao-JinFeng Optimal Reclosing Time 2008 W 2007 W / 0.95s 0.83s 0.85s 0 .95s
0.92s 0.82s

Eig.7 TEE Curve of different fault clearance time Secondly, the impact of the different fault clearing time on the ORT of a certain line is verified. Nowadays, the relay can trip the fault line quickly (less than 0.1is for high voltage transmission lines). But the time stray of the protection action, it should verify the influence of different fault clearing time on ORT. Eig.7 shows the single-phase fault and single-phase reclosure TEE curve of the line YinChuan-DaBa with different fault clearing time (0.08s, 0.09s, 0.10s, 0.1 Is and

-0.93s

______YueYH-TaoLe

Table 1 The ORT of transmission line in Yinbei-Yinchuan transmission section of NingXia network

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0. 12s, respectively). What can be seen from the fig.7 is that: The longer is the fault clearing time, the higher is TEF curve, and the weaker is the system stability, which is the actual situation. More, the minimum point of TEF, namely the ORT, vary slightly (about 0.95s), and the TEE curve is very flat near the ORT. It can be concluded that the fault clearing time of the protection has little impact on the ORT of a certain transmission line. Thirdly, the impact of the different pre-fault power-flow level on the ORT of a certain line is verified. Fig.8 shows the single-phase fault and single-phase reclosure TEF curve of the line YinChuan-DaBa in different pre-fault power-flow (0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 times of basic power flow, respectively). What can be concluded from the fig.8 is that: The severer is the pre-fault power flow, the higher is TEF curve, and the weaker is the stability, which also is the actual situation. More, the minimum point of TEF, namely the ORT, vary slightly (about 0.90s'A .O0s), and the TEE curve is very flat near the ORT. It is obvious that the ORT varies slightly with pre-fault operation condition for a certain system configuration.

ORT of a certain line is independent to the reclosing time of others lines, and there is nothing concerned mutual coordination. Considering the workload and the system reliability, the ORT calculation and setting can be just carried out on some key transmission lines and sections. It is useful to improve the flexible of the application of the ORT. 5.2 Setting strategy of the ORT for NingXia Network Using the TEE theory, the ORT has been calculated for the lines of main transmission sections in the NingXia network. The angle-swing curve reclosed on different time has verified the validity of the ORT. Utilizing the ORT can damp the swing of the system, and improve the capability to suppress transmission line fault. The ORT is a local optimal reclosing time, obtained from a certain operation condition and fault. For NingXia power system, the ORT is calculated on some main running modes (e.g. heavy load mode in 2007 winter, 2008 winter and so on). Comprehensive considered the natures, influencing factors and the setting method of the ORT, the reclosing time of relevant lines can be set offline, and will yield optimal or suboptimal results. Within the same voltage lines of a section, the computation results indicate that the ORT is nearly the same. Therefore, the ORT setting can be carried out according to sections with the same voltage level. Table 2 shows the ORT setting scheme of the main transmission sections in NingXia network on the voltage level. The ORT need to be recalculated for system configuration changes greatly to maintain its effectiveness. Transmission lines 220kV Sections 330kV Sections 750kV Lines IORT 0.80s'-0.90s 1.00s- .1Os l.05s'-l.15s

-PL-O.

SPL10i' 7 PL-1 Pt=1.2

2-I,

11

Time(s)

1.52

Fig.8 TEF Curve of different pre-fault power flow

5 Setting strategy of ORT for Ningxia Network

5.1 Practicability analysis As the change of the system inertia and structure, the ORT will vary. In order to achieve good result, and also considering the requirement and reliability of the system running, the ORT should be recalculated as system configuration changes greatly. The device should be reset in time. The unit of update period can be "year". Moreover, it can be seen from the most TEE curve of the lines in NingXia network that the period of TEF curves are almost longer than 1.2s, and the distance between continuous minimum and maximum TEE point is almost longer than 0.5s. Another exciting result is that the TEF curve is very flat near the local minimum point, and ascends slowly. Therefore, there is a large time interval near the ORT, in which the TEE is smaller. It benefits improving the practicability and increase the use deadline of the ORT. It is worth noting that the ORT, based on the TEE method, is calculated for a transmission line respectively. Namely, the

Table 2 The ORT setting strategy of the main transmission sections in NingXia network on voltage

6 Conclusion
The reclosing time of a transmission line has distinct impact on power system stability. Based on the transient energy function (TEE), the ORT can be calculated accurately, and also has actual physical meaning. Theoretical analysis and numerical application with a complex real power system has clearly underlined the success, feasibility and practicability of this technique. Considering the realistic situation, the setting scheme is drawn to optimize the reclosing time of power system under current technological condition. Simulation studies with NingXia network show that this technique can significantly increase the security margin and damp the oscillation of the power system. It can be concluded that the ORT is insensitive to the influence of the fault location, fault clearing time and pre-fault power flow, etc. The ORT can be set only on the lines of key transmission sections of a power network. All these works are helpful to improve flexible of the application of the ORT to realistic power networks.

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