ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

ASSESSMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF VOLTAGE

STABILITY IN DISTRIBUTION NETWORK USING

OPTIMAL PLACED DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

UNIT WITH HARMONIC CONTROL

MSc Thesis Research Proposal

By

EBE MEKONEN TAREKE

Advisor: TESHOME GOA (Ph.D.)

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER

ENGINEERING (POWER STRAEM)
COLLEGE OF ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING

MARCH 2021
 APPROVAL PAGE

Title:

Student Name: Signature, Date:

Approved by the examining committee members:

Name Academic Rank Signature Date

Advisor: ________________ ________________ ___________ ___________

Co-Advisor: ________________ ________________ ___________ ___________

Examiner: ________________ ________________ ___________ ___________

Examiner: ________________ ________________ ___________ ___________

Chairperso
n:

Name Signature Date

DGC Chairperson: ________________ ________________ ________________

Dean/Associate ________________ ________________ ________________

Dean for Graduate

Programs:

MSC THESIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL I

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL PAGE...............................................................................................................................i

TABLE OF CONTENTS.....................................................................................................................ii

CHAPTER ONE...................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................1

1.1. Background...........................................................................................................................1

1.2. Statement of the Problem..........................................................................................................2

1.3. Significance of the Study...........................................................................................................2

1.4. Objective of the study................................................................................................................2

1.4.1. General objectives...............................................................................................................2

1.4.2. Specific objectives...............................................................................................................2

CHAPTER TWO..................................................................................................................................4

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE....................................................................................................4

CHAPTER THREE.............................................................................................................................6

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................6

CHAPTER FOUR................................................................................................................................7

WORK SCHEDULE AND COST BRAEKDOWN...........................................................................7

4.1. Work Schedule...........................................................................................................................7

4.2. Cost breakdown.........................................................................................................................7

REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8

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 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Today, power quality studies are becoming a growing concern. The AC distribution systems
to industry show typically poor power quality due to their inherent electrical load
characteristics. The inductive and non-linear load characteristics of the industry consume the
large reactive power and produce high harmonic currents, so that the total power factor
becomes adversely affected. These power quality problems in the AC distribution system can
constrain the amount of power delivered to the industry and have a negative effect on
themselves as well as on the public grid. As a result, detailed study of reactive power and
harmonic mitigation is required in distribution network [9].

The modern power system networks are forced to be operated much closer to stability limits
due to ever increasing load demand, the environmental constraints in expansion of
transmission and distribution networks. In such a stressed condition, the system may enter
into voltage instability problem and it has been found responsible for several block outs across
the world. A power system needs to be with sufficient reactive power capability to remain
voltage secured even under highly stressed conditions. In a deregulated environment, the
optimum bidders are chosen only based on real power cost characteristics and this results in
reactive power shortage and ultimately the probable voltage instability. Distribution lines, in a
deregulated environment, are operated under heavily loaded conditions and it results in
increased voltage drop and is in high risks of outages. To ensure uninterrupted and quality
power supply to the consumers the power system should be stable under contingency
conditions. The introduction of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) controllers [1]
were increasingly used to provide voltage and power flow controls. Insertion of FACTS
devices is found to be highly effective in preventing voltage instability. However, the benefits
and performance of FACTS controllers are determined by their location and size [2].
However, now a day Distributed Generation (DG) in power system networks has been
growing rapidly. This increase can be explained by factors such as environmental concerns,
the restructuring of electricity businesses, and the development of technologies for small-scale
power generation.

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1.2. Statement of the Problem
Voltage instability and line overloading have become challenging problems due to the
strengthening of power system by various means. The nature of voltage stability can be
analyzed by the production, transmission and consumption of reactive power. One of the
major causes of voltage instability is the reactive power unbalancing which occurs in
stressed condition of power system. Another challenging problem of power system is
harmonic distortion in the system due to nonlinear loads or the widespread use of power
electronics elements cause the existence of significant non-sinusoidal quantities in the system.
These non-sinusoidal quantities can create serious harmonic distortions in transmission and
distribution systems. This paper presents the method of the optimal location of DG unit for
enhancing the voltage stability with mitigating harmonic distortion of the system. The
integration of DG units in distribution systems can have impacts on the system power quality,
among which harmonic resonance is the most significant. The DG units can have impacts on
the system resonance behavior due to their harmonic injection and due to the changes of the
equivalent impedance of the system. During a contingency, the real power component of line
loading does not change significantly, whereas the reactive power flow can change
dramatically [3].

1.3. Significance of the Study

This work has significance in the power system reliability evaluation, harmonic mitigation
and voltage stability. Minimize the payment for the energy consumption, reduce investment
cost, ensure the power demand in the public grid by energy saving and ensure the security of
electric power distribution system.

1.4. Objective of the study

1.4.1. General objectives
The general objective of this study is solving power quality problems in distribution network.
Mainly, the thesis deals on voltage stability in the distribution network and mitigating the
harmonic distortion of current in electric power supply with proposed method.

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1.4.2. Specific objectives
The specific objective of the thesis is to mitigate the distorted current, and providing
compensated reactive power to maintain the system voltage stable. In addition, this thesis
basically deals on:

 Identify causes of power quality problems

 Modeling and performing the NR power flow analysis of the network
 Identifying the optimal Placement of DG unit for voltage stability improvement using
the PSO optimization technique
 Sizing the DG units for voltage stability improvement
 Mitigating harmonic distortion of the system
 Observing the network voltage stability and harmonic with and without compensators

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 CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Voltage stability evaluation and Harmonic mitigation techniques are well developed and
various papers, articles and books are published on this topic. Analytical and probabilistic
techniques are in use for many decades. Integrating DG units into distribution systems can
have an impact on different practices such as voltage profile, power flow, power quality,
stability, reliability, and protection. The impact of the DG units on stability problem can be
further classified into three issues: voltage stability, angle stability, and frequency stability. As
both angle and frequency stability are not often seen in distribution systems, voltage stability
is considered to be the most significant in such systems.

Sarita S. Bhole , Prateek Nigam [4], aimed for improvement of voltage profile and reduce
power system losses by using multi type FACTS devices. Their individual contribution
towards the improvement of voltage profile and reduction of power losses has been tested on
a 5-bus system. P. Ajay D. Vimal Raj, M. P. Kessel and H. Glavitsch [5], estimate the voltage
stability of a power system. This method is based on the indicators of risk of voltage
instability. This paper proposes a method to compute load curtailment evaluation, using
optimal power flow computation, incorporating the steady state voltage stability margin
constraints. N.Boonpirom and K.Paitoon Wattanakij [6], presented the static voltage stability
enhancement using FACTS devices. With the insertion of SVC, enhancement in voltage at
various buses, reduction in system power loss, improvement in power factor and power flow
are the objectives of the study.

A study made in [7] on enhancement of voltage profile using fixed capacitor thyristor
controlled reactor (FC-TCR). This study focuses on improving the voltage stability limit of
power flow between two different regions. It also discusses about the increasing in utilization
of transmission lines because of the increasing demand of power owing to industrialization,
this causes power supply degradation. As a result of the above consequence, the study tries to
brief a ways of maximizing power transfer mechanism using FACTS devices and the
modeling has been carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.

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In [8] presented a paper on compensation devices, SVC and Harmonic filter for practical DC
electric traction networks to improve the voltage and reduce wave distortion. In this paper he
discussed different power quality phenomena that can appear such as voltage fluctuation,
voltage and current distortion, voltage sag, voltage transient, voltage and current unbalances.
All of the power quality phenomena appear due to the presences of nonlinear loads. Also he
analyzed the system and the power quality problems generated different scenarios.

All the above literatures uses FACTS devices which was recently used for compensation
purpose however, now a day the DG units are becoming more and more developed, therefore
this paper uses distributed generation unit with considering the harmonic distortion arises.

In [10] discussed reactive power issues which is more significant in distributed generation
using renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) Cells, which operate mostly at
unity power factor. This paper investigates the effect of reactive power shortage on reliability
of power systems with significant penetration of PV cells. The IEEE 14-Bus system is utilized
to perform the study.

The study in [11] effects of grid connection of wind farm, different schemes comparison,
penetration power, and average wind speed to grid reliability are analyzed. Voltage deviation,
voltage fluctuation flicker, harmonic, and three-phase voltage imbalance indexes are used to
evaluate the effect to power quality. Specific indexes values are used to measure extent of
impact are given and relevant assessment software is developed.

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 CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
As a result of today’s power electronics technologies, new devices capable of providing
control to one or more of the main transmission and distribution system parameters have
been developed. Placing and sizing of the DG units to improve the voltage stability margin
and
consider the harmonic nature of both the renewable energy resources and the load. IEEE
defines DG as “the generation of electricity by facilities that are sufficiently smaller than
central generating plants so as to allow interconnection at nearly any point in a power
system”.

DG unit is optimized when system has minimum loss under a given constraint of technical
aspects, environmental aspects and economic aspects. Only the technical aspects of voltage
stability or marginal improvement of voltage and network minimum loss are considered for
optimal DG placement in radial distribution system and the other environmental and
economic aspects are not considered in this paper. This paper proposes a Particle Swarm
Optimization (PSO) based algorithm for the optimal location and sizing of DG unit to
improve voltage stability and mitigate harmonic distortion arises. The effectiveness of the
proposed algorithm has been tested in IEEE-118 Bus standard test system. In progress Genetic
Algorithm (GA) or hybrid of GA and PSO can be used if it is found more appropriate
technique for the work.

The Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm belongs to the category of Swarm Intelligence
methods. It is a population based algorithm that exploits a population of individuals to probe
promising regions of the search space. In every iteration, the velocity vector is adjusted so that
the prior best positions (cognitive aspect) and the best positions found by the particles within
a specific neighborhood (social aspect) act as attractors. Each particle moves with an
adaptable velocity throughout the search space, and retains in its memory the best position it
has encountered so far.

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 CHAPTER FOUR
WORK SCHEDULE AND COST BRAEKDOWN
4.1. Work Schedule
Table 4.1. : Time schedule for the study

Number of weeks
Serial Proposed tasks Week 1, Week 5 Weak Week Week 14,15 Week 17 up Remark
numbe 2 ,3 and 4 and 6 7,8,9 11,12 and and 16 to the end
r and 10 13
1 Title selection and
reviewing literatures


Proposal submission
2 and

presentation
3 Review related
literatures and Data

collection
4 System design and
modeling

5 Simulation with
appropriate methods

and software
6 Compile the final paper
work, Prepare PPT and

ready for presentation

4.2. Cost breakdown

The total cost expenditure required to finish this work is as shown below in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2. : Total cost expense of the proposed study

Reason for
No Quantity Unit price Total price
Expenditure
Visiting to areas
1 related to the 45 days 300 Birr per day 13,500 Birr
study
Paper printing and
2 4 500 Birr 2,000 Birr
binding

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 3 Paper Publication 1 12,000 Birr 12,000 Birr
Total cost 27,500 Birr

REFERENCES

[1] J. Tibin, X. Sini, S. Chitra, “PSO Based Optimal Placement and Setting of FACTS
Devicesfor Improving the Performance of Power Distribution System,” Bonfring
International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue,
December 2011

[2] S.Sakthivel, Dr.D.Mary, R.Vetrivel and V.Senthamarai Kannan, “Optimal Location of

SVC for Voltage Stability Enhancement under Contingency Condition through PSO
Algorithm” International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887), Vol. 20, no. 1,
April 2011.

[3] B. L. a. V. Ajjarapu, "Investigation of various generator reactive power reserve (GRPR)

definitions for online voltage stability/security assessment," in Proc. IEEE PES General
Meeting, Jul. 2008.

[4] Sarita S. Bhole , Prateek Nigam, “Improvement of Voltage Stability in Power System by
Using SVC and STATCOM,” International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,
Vol. 4, no. 2, Feb. 2015.

[5] F. A. Althowibi and M.W.Mustafa, “Voltage Stability Calculations in Power Transmission

Lines: Indications and Allocations,” IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy,
pp. 390-395, Nov.2010.

[6] Shravana Musunuri, G.Dehnavi, “Comparison STATCOM, SVC, SSSC and TCSC
devices for voltage stability improvement,” North American Power Symposium (NAPS-2010),
pp. 26-28, Sept. 2010.

[7] Ghanshyam Vishwakarma and Nitin Saxena, “Enhancement of Voltage Profile by using
Fixed Capacitor- Thyristor Controlled Reactor (FC-TCR),” International Journal of
Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, Vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 18-22, 2013.

[8] Rekha T, Dr. Bisharathu Beevi A “Power Quality Control in DC Traction Systems using
Static VAR Compensator and Harmonic filter,” International Journal of Engineering
Research & Technology (IJERT), Vol. 3, no. 10, Oct. 2014.

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[9] M. Ashari , C. V. Nayar , Syed Islam , “A Novel Scheme for Mitigation of Line Current
Harmonics and Compensation of Reactive Power in Three Phase Low Voltage Distribution
Systems,” IEEE transactions on power system, 2000.

[10] D. Gaikwad and S. Mehraeen, “Reactive Power Considerations in Reliability Analysis of

Photovoltaic Systems,” IEEE transactions on power system, 2012.

[11] Xiaoming Liu, Donglei Sun, Jie Zhang, Xin Tian, Xiangyang Cao, “Effects Analysis of
Distributed Generation to Receiving-End Power Grid,” IEEE, 2017.

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