Frequency regulation from steam turbine generators

The paper looks at frequency regulation service from large steam turbines in the Alberta electric system. The Alberta system is approximately 8000 megawatts of which over 7000 megawatts is produced from steam turbine generators. The Alberta system has experienced load-generation imbalance up to +/-1000 Megawatts following disturbances. Typically, this resulted with Alberta islanding from the WSCC. The management of frequency in the Alberta electric system varies from automatic generation control systems for small load-generation imbalances to reliance on governor response, load response, generator/load tripping schemes and supplemental control systems for large load-generation imbalance. Steam turbine governor response, thought to be reasonably linear, has been found to be nonlinear in nature having a major influence on frequency regulation in the Alberta system. As Alberta continues to restructure, the emphasis and value on predictable governor response for system security through frequency regulation is required