Frequency Stability of Isolated Hydropower Plant with Surge Tank Under Different Turbine Control Modes

Currently, the Thoma criterion is often violated to diminish the cross-section of the surge tank; therefore, the surge fluctuation is aggravated and the frequency stability becomes more deteriorative. The focus of this article is on stabilizing the low-frequency oscillation of an isolated hydropower plant caused by surge fluctuation. From a new perspective of hydropower plant operation mode, frequency stability under power control is investigated and compared with frequency control by adopting the Hurwitz criterion and numerical simulation. In a theoretical derivation, the governor equations of frequency control and power control are introduced to the mathematical model. For numerical simulation, a governor model with a control mode switch-over function is built. The frequency oscillations under frequency control, power control, and control mode switch-over are simulated and investigated, respectively, with different governor parameters and operation cases. The result shows that the power control has a better performance on frequency stability at the expense of rapidity compared with the frequency control. Other recommendations regarding worst operation cases and choice of control modes are also developed