A new approach for identifying coherent generator groups in large scale power systems

The development of the modern Global Positioning System (GPS) technique makes the real time monitoring of the generator status workable. However it is impractical and unnecessary to install GPS devices at all generators due to the high cost. Observations and calculations indicate that most of the generators in a large power system have some similar transient power angle characteristics. Therefore the generators can be grouped according to the similarity of their power angle characteristics, and within each group only one generator is required to install GPS device to monitor the real time status of all the generators in the group. Based on the coherence group theory, the coherence groups of the generators are irrelevant to the magnitude of disturbance and the details of the generator unit model. Therefore, by building a classical synchronous generator linear system model, an accessible Gram matrix model can be derived. Then according to the generator identification rule of ε-coherence (or coherent group), the generator coherence groups can be identified in a large power system. The methodology can facilitate the real time monitoring of generators' status and the real-time control based on the GPS technique.