Power system monitoring and analysis

The main targets of power system operation are the security and stability of the power system as well as the reliability and quality of supply to all customers in an economic manner which is a big challenge nowadays. To achieve the above targets system disturbances have to be analyzed carefully to fix all problems in the minimum possible time and avoid the repetition of the same problem again (e.g. Faults and/or generating units tripping). This paper presents the concepts of one of the effective tools for disturbance analysis used in Saudi Electricity Company in the Western Region (SEC-WR) named as Dynamic System Monitoring (DSM). The DSM units are linked by telephone lines and modems to the Master Station PC computer and each disturbance event can be retrieved and analyzed by Data Analysis and Display Software (DADISP) working under Windows 2000, NT or XP. Three actual disturbances in the Western Region are described and analyzed in details using the records of the concerned DSM units and cross checked with the records of some numerical protection relays to ensure the correct operation and the technical recommendations are listed and implemented in most cases to avoid repeating of the same event in future. The paper presents also good and practical new method for the evaluation of the dynamic behaviour of the generating units (MW/Hz) using DSM.