Utilizing synchrophasor-based supplementary damping control signals in conventional generator excitation systems

A supplementary function of Excitation Control Systems (ECSs) for synchronous generators is that of a Power System Stabilizer (PSS). The PSS implementation in these ECSs only allows the use of a limited type of pre-defined local input measurements and built-in PSS algorithms. To adapt existing ECSs to take advantage of synchrophasors technology, this paper proposes and implements a prototype wide-area damping controller (WADC) that provides synchrophasor-based damping input signals to existing ECSs. The developed WADC comprise (i) a real-time mode estimation module, (ii) synchrophasor’s communication latency computation module, and (iii) phasor-based oscillation damping algorithm executing in a real-time hardware prototype controller. Through Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop (RT-HIL) simulations, it is demonstrated that synchrophasor-based damping signals from the WADC can be utilized together with a commercial ECS, thus providing new options for selection of the best feedback signal for oscillation damping.QC 20180108