Designing a Real-Time Grid Simulator for use in Market and A.G.C. Studies

Abstract

Market based generation dispatch is becoming the industry norm in advanced electrical jurisdictions. Due to the continuous evolution of markets and their potential impacts on system operation, studies are performed from economic and social perspectives in order to gauge the effects of any changes before implementation into live systems. In addition, it is essential to verify the effect of changes in market design on power systems from a technical perspective. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a real-time power system simulator for use in the investigation of market designs and automatic generation control schemes. The scope of this thesis is the mathematical algorithms used in the simulator, hardware and software implementation, and validation of the implemented simulator. The simulator is based on a modified version of the power flow calculation using an innovative combination of a standard numerical technique implemented on a readily available computing hardware platform. The result is a significant decrease in computation time. The power flow is performed repeatedly, with frequency being calculated between time steps to provide system dynamics. Frequency is calculated using a modified version of the generic generator swing equation. Generator and load models and their respective control systems are provided for the purposes of simulator validation and testing, although do not fall within the scope of the simulator itself.