Electromechanical Wave Propagation Analysis in Power Systems

Power system disturbances induce ElectroMechanical Waves (EMWs) that propagate through the transmission network with a velocity much smaller than the speed of the light, causing system instability that may lead to cascading failures and blackouts. Previous studies model nonlinear EMW propagation via partial differential equations while considering a uniform and nonuniform distribution of the moments of inertia of the synchronous generators and ignoring the parameters of lines. This paper considers a more realistic power system model by accounting for the line admittances when distributing the generator inertias, which is a key step of the EMW continuum modeling. Simulations carried out on the New England 39-bus 10-machine system revealed that the calculation of EMW velocity and also arrival time of disturbance are significantly improved using the new generator inertia distribution. The inertia distribution pattern also changed the EMW propagation path, providing a more accurate information for designing control signals to damp system oscillations due to disturbances.