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Description
Present distribution infrastructure is designed mainly for uni-directional power flow with well-controlled generation. An increase in the inverter-interfaced photovoltaic (PV) systems requires a thorough re-examination of the design, operation, protection and control of distribution systems. In order to understand the impact of high penetration of PV generation, this work conducts

Present distribution infrastructure is designed mainly for uni-directional power flow with well-controlled generation. An increase in the inverter-interfaced photovoltaic (PV) systems requires a thorough re-examination of the design, operation, protection and control of distribution systems. In order to understand the impact of high penetration of PV generation, this work conducts an automated and detailed modeling of a power distribution system. The simulation results of the modeled distribution feeder have been verified with the field measurements.

Based on the feeder model, this work studies the impact of the PV systems on voltage profiles under various scenarios, including reallocation of the PV systems, reactive power support from the PV inverters, and settings of the load-tap changing transformers in coordination with the PV penetration. Design recommendations have been made based on the simulation results to improve the voltage profiles in the feeder studied.

To carry out dynamic studies related to high penetration of PV systems, this work proposes a differential algebraic equation (DAE) based dynamic modeling and analysis method. Different controllers including inverter current controllers, anti-islanding controllers and droop controllers, are designed and tested in large systems. The method extends the capability of the distribution system analysis tools, to help conduct dynamic analyses in large unbalanced distribution systems.

Another main contribution of this work is related to the investigation of the PV impacts on the feeder protection coordination. Various protection coordination types, including fuse-fuse, recloser-fuse, relay-fuse and relay-recloser have been studied. The analyses provide a better understanding of the relay and recloser settings under different configurations of the PV interconnection transformers, PV penetration levels, and fault types.

A decision tree and fuzzy logic based fault location identification process has also been proposed in this work. The process is composed of the off-line training of the decision tree, and the on-line analysis of the fault events. Fault current contribution from the PV systems, as well as the variation of the fault resistance have been taken into consideration. Two actual fault cases with the event data recorded were used to examine the effectiveness of the fault identification process.
ContributorsTang, Yingying (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
The standard optimal power flow (OPF) problem is an economic dispatch (ED) problem combined with transmission constraints, which are based on a static topology. However, topology control (TC) has been proposed in the past as a corrective mechanism to relieve overloads and voltage violations. Even though the benefits of TC

The standard optimal power flow (OPF) problem is an economic dispatch (ED) problem combined with transmission constraints, which are based on a static topology. However, topology control (TC) has been proposed in the past as a corrective mechanism to relieve overloads and voltage violations. Even though the benefits of TC are presented by several research works in the past, the computational complexity associated with TC has been a major deterrent to its implementation. The proposed work develops heuristics for TC and investigates its potential to improve the computational time for TC for various applications. The objective is to develop computationally light methods to harness the flexibility of the grid to derive maximum benefits to the system in terms of reliability. One of the goals of this research is to develop a tool that will be capable of providing TC actions in a minimal time-frame, which can be readily adopted by the industry for real-time corrective applications.

A DC based heuristic, i.e., a greedy algorithm, is developed and applied to improve the computational time for the TC problem while still maintaining the ability to find quality solutions. In the greedy algorithm, an expression is derived, which indicates the impact on the objective for a marginal change in the state of a transmission line. This expression is used to generate a priority list with potential candidate lines for switching, which may provide huge improvements to the system. The advantage of this method is that it is a fast heuristic as compared to using mixed integer programming (MIP) approach.

Alternatively, AC based heuristics are developed for TC problem and tested on actual data from PJM, ERCOT and TVA. AC based N-1 contingency analysis is performed to identify the contingencies that cause network violations. Simple proximity based heuristics are developed and the fast decoupled power flow is solved iteratively to identify the top five TC actions, which provide reduction in violations. Time domain simulations are performed to ensure that the TC actions do not cause system instability. Simulation results show significant reductions in violations in the system by the application of the TC heuristics.
ContributorsBalasubramanian, Pranavamoorthy (Author) / Hedman, Kory W (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Sankar, Lalitha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Constraint relaxation by definition means that certain security, operational, or financial constraints are allowed to be violated in the energy market model for a predetermined penalty price. System operators utilize this mechanism in an effort to impose a price-cap on shadow prices throughout the market. In addition, constraint relaxations can

Constraint relaxation by definition means that certain security, operational, or financial constraints are allowed to be violated in the energy market model for a predetermined penalty price. System operators utilize this mechanism in an effort to impose a price-cap on shadow prices throughout the market. In addition, constraint relaxations can serve as corrective approximations that help in reducing the occurrence of infeasible or extreme solutions in the day-ahead markets. This work aims to capture the impact constraint relaxations have on system operational security. Moreover, this analysis also provides a better understanding of the correlation between DC market models and AC real-time systems and analyzes how relaxations in market models propagate to real-time systems. This information can be used not only to assess the criticality of constraint relaxations, but also as a basis for determining penalty prices more accurately.

Constraint relaxations practice was replicated in this work using a test case and a real-life large-scale system, while capturing both energy market aspects and AC real-time system performance. System performance investigation included static and dynamic security analysis for base-case and post-contingency operating conditions. PJM peak hour loads were dynamically modeled in order to capture delayed voltage recovery and sustained depressed voltage profiles as a result of reactive power deficiency caused by constraint relaxations. Moreover, impacts of constraint relaxations on operational system security were investigated when risk based penalty prices are used. Transmission lines in the PJM system were categorized according to their risk index and each category was as-signed a different penalty price accordingly in order to avoid real-time overloads on high risk lines.

This work also extends the investigation of constraint relaxations to post-contingency relaxations, where emergency limits are allowed to be relaxed in energy market models. Various scenarios were investigated to capture and compare between the impacts of base-case and post-contingency relaxations on real-time system performance, including the presence of both relaxations simultaneously. The effect of penalty prices on the number and magnitude of relaxations was investigated as well.
ContributorsSalloum, Ahmed (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Hedman, Kory (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Rail clamp circuits are widely used for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection in semiconductor products today. A step-by-step design procedure for the traditional RC and single-inverter-based rail clamp circuit and the design, simulation, implementation, and operation of two novel rail clamp circuits are described for use in the ESD protection of

Rail clamp circuits are widely used for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection in semiconductor products today. A step-by-step design procedure for the traditional RC and single-inverter-based rail clamp circuit and the design, simulation, implementation, and operation of two novel rail clamp circuits are described for use in the ESD protection of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. The step-by-step design procedure for the traditional circuit is technology-node independent, can be fully automated, and aims to achieve a minimal area design that meets specified leakage and ESD specifications under all valid process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) conditions. The first novel rail clamp circuit presented employs a comparator inside the traditional circuit to reduce the value of the time constant needed. The second circuit uses a dynamic time constant approach in which the value of the time constant is dynamically adjusted after the clamp is triggered. Important metrics for the two new circuits such as ESD performance, latch-on immunity, clamp recovery time, supply noise immunity, fastest power-on time supported, and area are evaluated over an industry-standard PVT space using SPICE simulations and measurements on a fabricated 40 nm test chip.
ContributorsVenkatasubramanian, Ramachandran (Author) / Ozev, Sule (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Cao, Yu (Committee member) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
This work presents research on practices in the day-ahead electric energy market, including replication practices and reliability coordinators used by some market operators to demonstrate the impact these practices have on market outcomes. The practice of constraint relaxations similar to those an Independent System Operator (ISO) might perform in day-ahead

This work presents research on practices in the day-ahead electric energy market, including replication practices and reliability coordinators used by some market operators to demonstrate the impact these practices have on market outcomes. The practice of constraint relaxations similar to those an Independent System Operator (ISO) might perform in day-ahead market models is implemented. The benefits of these practices are well understood by the industry; however, the implications these practices have on market outcomes and system security have not been thoroughly investigated. By solving a day-ahead market model with and without select constraint relaxations and comparing the resulting market outcomes and possible effects on system security, the effect of these constraint relaxation practices is demonstrated.

Proposed market solutions are often infeasible because constraint relaxation practices and approximations that are incorporated into market models. Therefore, the dispatch solution must be corrected to ensure its feasibility. The practice of correcting the proposed dispatch solution after the market is solved is known as out-of-market corrections (OMCs), defined as any action an operator takes that modifies a proposed day-ahead dispatch solution to ensure operating and reliability requirements. The way in which OMCs affect market outcomes is illustrated through the use of different corrective procedures. The objective of the work presented is to demonstrate the implications of these industry practices and assess the impact these practices have on market outcomes.
ContributorsAl-Abdullah, Yousef Mohammad (Author) / Hedman, Kory W (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T (Committee member) / Sankar, Lalitha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
For a (N+1)-bus power system, possibly 2N solutions exists. One of these solutions

is known as the high-voltage (HV) solution or operable solution. The rest of the solutions

are the low-voltage (LV), or large-angle, solutions.

In this report, a recently developed non-iterative algorithm for solving the power-

flow (PF) problem using the holomorphic embedding

For a (N+1)-bus power system, possibly 2N solutions exists. One of these solutions

is known as the high-voltage (HV) solution or operable solution. The rest of the solutions

are the low-voltage (LV), or large-angle, solutions.

In this report, a recently developed non-iterative algorithm for solving the power-

flow (PF) problem using the holomorphic embedding (HE) method is shown as

being capable of finding the HV solution, while avoiding converging to LV solutions

nearby which is a drawback to all other iterative solutions. The HE method provides a

novel non-iterative procedure to solve the PF problems by eliminating the

non-convergence and initial-estimate dependency issues appeared in the traditional

iterative methods. The detailed implementation of the HE method is discussed in the

report.

While published work focuses mainly on finding the HV PF solution, modified

holomorphically embedded formulations are proposed in this report to find the

LV/large-angle solutions of the PF problem. It is theoretically proven that the proposed

method is guaranteed to find a total number of 2N solutions to the PF problem

and if no solution exists, the algorithm is guaranteed to indicate such by the oscillations

in the maximal analytic continuation of the coefficients of the voltage power series

obtained.

After presenting the derivation of the LV/large-angle formulations for both PQ

and PV buses, numerical tests on the five-, seven- and 14-bus systems are conducted

to find all the solutions of the system of nonlinear PF equations for those systems using

the proposed HE method.

After completing the derivation to find all the PF solutions using the HE method, it

is shown that the proposed HE method can be used to find only the of interest PF solutions

(i.e. type-1 PF solutions with one positive real-part eigenvalue in the Jacobian

matrix), with a proper algorithm developed. The closet unstable equilibrium point

(UEP), one of the type-1 UEP’s, can be obtained by the proposed HE method with

limited dynamic models included.

The numerical performance as well as the robustness of the proposed HE method is

investigated and presented by implementing the algorithm on the problematic cases and

large-scale power system.
ContributorsMine, Yō (Author) / Tylavsky, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Armbruster, Dieter (Committee member) / Holbert, Keith E. (Committee member) / Sankar, Lalitha (Committee member) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Undrill, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The past decades have seen a significant shift in the expectations and requirements re-lated to power system analysis tools. Investigations into major power grid disturbances have suggested the need for more comprehensive assessment methods. Accordingly, sig-nificant research in recent years has focused on the development of better power system models

The past decades have seen a significant shift in the expectations and requirements re-lated to power system analysis tools. Investigations into major power grid disturbances have suggested the need for more comprehensive assessment methods. Accordingly, sig-nificant research in recent years has focused on the development of better power system models and efficient techniques for analyzing power system operability. The work done in this report focusses on two such topics

1. Analysis of load model parameter uncertainty and sensitivity based pa-rameter estimation for power system studies

2. A systematic approach to n-1-1 analysis for power system security as-sessment

To assess the effect of load model parameter uncertainty, a trajectory sensitivity based approach is proposed in this work. Trajectory sensitivity analysis provides a sys-tematic approach to study the impact of parameter uncertainty on power system re-sponse to disturbances. Furthermore, the non-smooth nature of the composite load model presents some additional challenges to sensitivity analysis in a realistic power system. Accordingly, the impact of the non-smooth nature of load models on the sensitivity analysis is addressed in this work. The study was performed using the Western Electrici-ty Coordinating Council (WECC) system model. To address the issue of load model pa-rameter estimation, a sensitivity based load model parameter estimation technique is presented in this work. A detailed discussion on utilizing sensitivities to improve the ac-curacy and efficiency of the parameter estimation process is also presented in this work.

Cascading outages can have a catastrophic impact on power systems. As such, the NERC transmission planning (TPL) standards requires utilities to plan for n¬-1-1 out-ages. However, such analyses can be computationally burdensome for any realistic pow-er system owing to the staggering number of possible n-1-1 contingencies. To address this problem, the report proposes a systematic approach to analyze n-1-1 contingencies in a computationally tractable manner for power system security assessment. The pro-posed approach addresses both static and dynamic security assessment. The proposed methods have been tested on the WECC system.
ContributorsMitra, Parag (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
This research mainly focuses on improving the utilization of photovoltaic (PV) re-sources in distribution systems by reducing their variability and uncertainty through the integration of distributed energy storage (DES) devices, like batteries, and smart PV in-verters. The adopted theoretical tools include statistical analysis and convex optimization. Operational issues have

This research mainly focuses on improving the utilization of photovoltaic (PV) re-sources in distribution systems by reducing their variability and uncertainty through the integration of distributed energy storage (DES) devices, like batteries, and smart PV in-verters. The adopted theoretical tools include statistical analysis and convex optimization. Operational issues have been widely reported in distribution systems as the penetration of PV resources has increased. Decision-making processes for determining the optimal allo-cation and scheduling of DES, and the optimal placement of smart PV inverters are con-sidered. The alternating current (AC) power flow constraints are used in these optimiza-tion models. The first two optimization problems are formulated as quadratically-constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problems while the third problem is formu-lated as a mixed-integer QCQP (MIQCQP) problem. In order to obtain a globally opti-mum solution to these non-convex optimization problems, convex relaxation techniques are introduced. Considering that the costs of the DES are still very high, a procedure for DES sizing based on OpenDSS is proposed in this research to avoid over-sizing.

Some existing convex relaxations, e.g. the second order cone programming (SOCP) relaxation and semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation, which have been well studied for the optimal power flow (OPF) problem work unsatisfactorily for the DES and smart inverter optimization problems. Several convex constraints that can approximate the rank-1 constraint X = xxT are introduced to construct a tighter SDP relaxation which is referred to as the enhanced SDP (ESDP) relaxation using a non-iterative computing framework. Obtaining the convex hull of the AC power flow equations is beneficial for mitigating the non-convexity of the decision-making processes in power systems, since the AC power flow constraints exist in many of these problems. The quasi-convex hull of the quadratic equalities in the AC power bus injection model (BIM) and the exact convex hull of the quadratic equality in the AC power branch flow model (BFM) are proposed respectively in this thesis. Based on the convex hull of BFM, a novel convex relaxation of the DES optimizations is proposed. The proposed approaches are tested on a real world feeder in Arizona and several benchmark IEEE radial feeders.
ContributorsLi, Qifeng (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T (Committee member) / Mittelmann, Hans D (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
This thesis provides a cost to benefit assessment of the proposed next generation distribution system, the Future Renewable Electric Energy Distribution Management (FREEDM) system. In this thesis, a probabilistic study is conducted to determine the payback period for an investment made in the FREEDM distribution system. The stochastic study will

This thesis provides a cost to benefit assessment of the proposed next generation distribution system, the Future Renewable Electric Energy Distribution Management (FREEDM) system. In this thesis, a probabilistic study is conducted to determine the payback period for an investment made in the FREEDM distribution system. The stochastic study will help in performing a detailed analysis in estimating the probability density function and statistics associated with the payback period.

This thesis also identifies several parameters associated with the FREEDM system, which are used in the cost benefit study to evaluate the investment and several direct and indirect benefits. Different topologies are selected to represent the FREEDM test bed. Considering the cost of high speed fault isolation devices, the topology design is selected based on the minimum number of fault isolation devices constrained by enhanced reliability. A case study is also performed to assess the economic impact of energy storage devices in the solid state transformers so that the fault isolation devices may be replaced by conventional circuit breakers.

A reliability study is conducted on the FREEDM distribution system to examine the customer centric reliability index, System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI). It is observed that the SAIFI was close to 0.125 for the FREEDM distribution system. In addition, a comparison study is performed based on the SAIFI for a representative U.S. distribution system and the FREEDM distribution system.

The payback period is also determined by adopting a theoretical approach and the results are compared with the Monte Carlo simulation outcomes to understand the variation in the payback period. It is observed that the payback period is close to 60 years but if an annual rebate is considered, the payback period reduces to 20 years. This shows that the FREEDM system has a significant potential which cannot be overlooked. Several direct and indirect benefits arising from the FREEDM system have also been discussed in this thesis.
ContributorsDinakar, Abhishek (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
With growing complexity of power grid interconnections, power systems may become increasingly vulnerable to low frequency oscillations (especially inter-area oscillations) and dependent on stabilizing controls using either local signals or wide-area signals to provide adequate damping. In recent years, the ability and potential to use wide-area signals for control purposes

With growing complexity of power grid interconnections, power systems may become increasingly vulnerable to low frequency oscillations (especially inter-area oscillations) and dependent on stabilizing controls using either local signals or wide-area signals to provide adequate damping. In recent years, the ability and potential to use wide-area signals for control purposes has increased since a significant investment has been made in the U. S. in deploying synchrophasor measurement technology. Fast and reliable communication systems are essential to enable the use of wide-area signals in controls. If wide-area signals find increased applicability in controls the security and reliability of power systems could be vulnerable to disruptions in communication systems. Even though numerous modern techniques have been developed to lower the probability of communication errors, communication networks cannot be designed to be always reliable. Given this background the motivation of this work is to build resiliency in the power grid controls to respond to failures in the communication network when wide-area control signals are used. In addition, this work also deals with the delay uncertainty associated with the wide-area signal transmission. In order to counteract the negative impact of communication failures on control effectiveness, two approaches are proposed and both approaches are motivated by considering the use of a robustly designed supplementary damping control (SDC) framework associated with a static VAr compensator (SVC). When there is no communication failure, the designed controller guarantees enhanced improvement in damping performance. When the wide-area signal in use is lost due to a communication failure, however, the resilient control provides the required damping of the inter-area oscillations by either utilizing another wide-area measurement through a healthy communication route or by simply utilizing an appropriate local control signal. Simulation results prove that with either of the proposed controls included, the system is stabilized regardless of communication failures, and thereby the reliability and sustainability of power systems is improved. The proposed approaches can be extended without loss of generality to the design of any resilient controller in cyber-physical engineering systems.
ContributorsZhang, Song (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Undrill, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014