Integration of MHD Plants into Electric Utility Systems

This paper considers the behavior of an MHD/steam-comined cylce plant under the dynamic operating conditions prescribed by the transient stability regime (50 msc to 10 sec after a disturbance on a power system). Using a three-phase fault to ground to test the model developed, it is shown that: (1) in this regime, the MHD generator acts as a current source to provide damping and consequent increased network stability; (2) the low energy storage capability of the MED generator reduces fault currents and plant surges relative to those of a similarly rated conventional plant; and (3) load tripping introduces special requirements which are discussed in the paper.