Effects of time delays in the electric power grid

Communication delays in an electric power grid affect the performance of control systems and can cause power losses. This paper analyzes the causes and effects of communication delays. The analysis employs a simulated power network comprising several generators for which braking resistors with intelligent (fuzzy logic) controllers are used for transient stability control. A balanced 3LG (three-phase-to-ground) fault at different points on the transmission lines is considered. Simulation results show that, although a fuzzy-logic-controlled braking resistor can improve transient stability, the communication delay associated with the online calculation of the total kinetic energy deviation, which is the input parameter for fuzzy control, has an influence on the transient stability performance. The paper also examines the delay that a system can tolerate and the cyber attacks that can cause additional delays. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing