IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 20, NO.

2, MAY 2005

1179

Letters__________________________________________________________________________________________
On Speed Stability

As definies no
atendem essa situao.

Olof Samuelsson, Member, IEEE, and Sture Lindahl, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractDistributed energy resources, such as wind turbine generators, often employ induction generators. When such a generator is subjected to a nearby fault, its rotor may accelerate and reach high steady-state
speed far from that corresponding to the frequency of the system. This is
the generator counterpart to induction motor stalling, which is classied as
voltage stability. The phenomenon is a matter of stability, but it is not covered by current denitions of power system stability. We denote this type
of stability as speed stability and propose a denition, which also includes
induction motor stalling.

Fig. 1.

Single-line diagram of simulated system.

Index TermsInduction generators, power system stability, terms and

denitions.
freando
velocidade mecnica
aumenta (negtivamento).
afundamento
s=Ns - Nr
I. INTRODUCTION

Induction generators are used in wind farms and more and more frequently in distributed energy resources. A severe voltage sag due to
a fault in the connecting network may cause a signicant speed increase of the turbine and generator rotor. After voltage recovery, the
rotor speed of the induction generator may be so high that it does not
return to the prefault value. Existing stability concepts used in power
system analysis [1] and [2] do not include this phenomenon. The phenomenon is, however, similar to the motor stall concept for induction
machines in motor operation.
motor bloqueado http://www.electrotechnik.net/2010/11/motor-stalling-its-effects-and.html
No ameaam

Fig. 2. Response in generator terminal voltage.

II. FAULT NEAR AN INDUCTION GENERATOR

In 1996, a two-phase fault on the 150-kV level in the Danish Eltra
system caused tripping of 47 local combined heat and power (CHP)
units (> 2 MW ) and an unknown number of smaller DG units up
to 150 km from the fault. Sixty percent or 340 MW of CHP generation
(> 2 MW ) was lost. The protection philosophy of existing wind farms
and distributed resources dictates disconnection of the unit at severe
voltage sags. The Eltra example indicates that this principle may not
be viable when the percentage of such generation units increases. Grid
operators are now formulating requirements on the generating units that
they must remain connected to the grid and be prepared to continue
generation after a shunt fault on the connecting grid [3].
The voltage sag at remote faults will not threaten the capability of an
induction generator to deliver active (real) power to the grid during the
fault, and the acceleration of the rotating masses will be small. In most
cases, the unit will return to normal operation after fault clearing. The
voltage sag at nearby faults, on the other hand, will signicantly reduce
the terminal voltage, and the capability to deliver power during the fault
is severely impaired. When the generating unit is radially connected,
the clearing of the fault may disconnect the generating units from the
rest of the grid. In other cases, the generating unit may remain connected to the grid, and the clearing of the fault will reduce the sag. The
reduced delivery of active power during the fault causes the generating

Manuscript received February 13, 2004. Paper no. PESL-00013-2004.

The authors are with the Department of Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation, Lund University, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden (e-mail:
Olof.Samuelsson@iea.lth.se).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2005.846194

consumo maior de
reativos (tenso
afunda)

unit to accelerate. After clearing the fault, the speed may deviate significantly from the prefault speed. At this point, the reactive consumption
of the induction generator may be signicantly higher than the prefault
value. This may cause reduced terminal voltage and reduced delivery
of active power to the grid. If the speed increase is too high, the generator may not return to the prefault state. The mechanical torque of the
turbine will decrease when the turbine speed increases, and the turbine
may reach the steady state at elevated speed. This state is not desirable
since it is accompanied by reduced active power, increased reactive
consumption, and depressed voltages near the generating unit.
III. SIMULATION EXAMPLE

A simulation of the simple system in Fig. 1 serves to illustrate the

sequence of events described above. A squirrel-cage induction generator (IG) is connected to busbar A.
At time t = 1 s, a three-phase fault occurs at F on the power line
connecting busbar A and C in Fig. 1. The fault is cleared after 0.9 s
by opening circuit breakers 3 and 7. At this time, the rotor ux has
been reduced, and the rotor speed has increased to such an extent that
the generator will not return to a normal operating point, as shown in
Figs. 25.
IV. EXISTING STABILITY CONCEPTS
According to [1], Power system stability is the ability of an electric power system, for a given initial operating condition, to regain a

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, MAY 2005

baixa produo de
potncia ativa

Fig. 3. Response of generated active (real) power.

alto consumo de reativo

Frequency stability refers to the ability of a power system

to maintain steady frequency following a severe system upset
resulting in a signicant imbalance between generation and
load.
In the situation above, stability, as previously dened, is lost, and
instability results. The question is, what type of instability? Since no
synchronous machine is involved, it cannot be classied as rotor angle
instability. The frequency in the system is acceptable, so it cannot be
frequency stability either. The rst sentence dening voltage stability
is perfectly applicable, but the second limits the denition to a balance
between load demand and load supply. An induction machine in motor
operation that stalls is, thus, obviously a case of voltage instability. In
the case here, no load is involved, and instead, we have an induction
machine in generator operation in a run-away situation.
Thus, we have encountered a stability phenomenon that is not fully
covered by the existing stability denitions.

V. PROPOSED DEFINITION OF ROTOR SPEED STABILITY

There are two ways to include the run-away situation with induction
generators.

Fig. 4.

Response of consumed reactive power.

velocidade aumenta e
segue acima da pr-falta

Adjust the voltage stability denition to include induction generators.

Introduce a new type of stability denoted rotor speed stability.

The rst suggestion is simpler, but thinking in terms of underlying
physics may favor the second alternative: Rotor speed stability focuses
on torque-speed dependence of asynchronous generators, while rotor
angle stability focuses on torque-angle dependence of synchronous
generators. Therefore, we suggest a denition based on that of rotor
angle stability: Rotor speed stability refers to the ability of an induction (asynchronous) machine to remain connected to the electric
power system and running at a mechanical speed close to the speed
corresponding to the actual system frequency after being subjected to
a disturbance.
Note that this denition covers the case of stalling induction motors
and, thus, leads to a need to update the voltage stability denition.

VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS

Fig. 5.

Response of generator speed.

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mquinas sncronas se
mantere

state of operating equilibrium after being subjected to a physical disturbance, with most system variables bounded so that practically the
entire system remains intact. This also applies to a part of the system
[1].
There are three stability concepts relating to different physical phenomena shortly described as follows [1].

Rotor angle stability refers to the ability of synchronous machines of an interconnected power system to remain in synchronism after being subjected to a disturbance.
Voltage stability refers to the ability of a power system to
maintain steady voltages at all buses in the system after being
subjected to a disturbance from a given initial operating condition. It depends on the ability to maintain/restore equilibrium between load demand and load supply from the power
system.

The need to classify different types of power system stability is

stressed in [1]: Distinguishing between different forms is important
for understanding the underlying causes of the problem in order
to develop appropriate design and operating procedures. Rigorous
denitions also covering stability of induction generators are, thus,
needed. We have tried to describe the phenomenon of what we denote
as speed stability and provide a tentative denition.

REFERENCES
[1] P. Kundur, J. Paserba, V. Ajjarapu, G. Andersson, A. Bose, C. Canizares,
N. Hatziargyriou, D. Hill, A. Stankovic, C. Taylor, T. Van Cutsem,
and V. Vittal, Denition and classication of power system stability
IEEE/CIGRE joint task force on stability terms and denitions, IEEE
Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 13871401, Aug. 2004.
[2] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control. New York: McGrawHill, 1994.
[3] (2003) E.ON Netz grid codeHigh and extra high voltage.
E.ON Netz GmbH, Bayreuth, Germany. [Online]. Available:
http://www.eon-netz.com/Ressources/downloads/enenarhseng1.pdf