Implications of the Dichotomy of Modal Participation Factors for Monitoring and Control of Electric Power Networks

Title of thesis: IMPLICATIONS OF THE DICHOTOMY OF MODAL PARTICIPATION FACTORS FOR MONITORING AND CONTROL OF ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS Paul Kenton Tschirhart, Master of Science, 2013 Thesis directed by: Professor Eyad Abed Department of Electrical Engineering Steadily increasing demand for electricity has led to today’s electric power networks often being stressed to their stability limits. Improved methods of stability monitoring and control placement are needed to manage the increased stress on power networks. Modal participation factors have been used for several decades in the analysis of modal behavior in power networks. Recently a dichotomy was discovered in modal participation, indicating that the participation of system states in system modes should be calculated differently from the participation of system modes in system states. This masters thesis numerically explores possible roles for these new participation factor definitions in power network monitoring and control. The results suggest that the mode in state participation factors are best employed in modal monitoring (especially in deciding which variables to monitor to best detect specific modes), while the state in mode participation factors are best suited to control applications (such as controller placement). IMPLICATIONS OF THE DICHOTOMY OF MODAL PARTICIPATION FACTORS FOR MONITORING AND CONTROL OF ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS by Paul Kenton Tschirhart Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science 2013 Advisory Committee: Professor Eyad Abed, Chair Professor Bruce Jacob, Advisor Professor Alan Sussman c © Copyright by Paul Kenton Tschirhart 2013