Electric Generator Modeling and Automatic Generation Controller

Avista Utilities is building a microgrid within the downtown area of Spokane, Washington. In the event of a natural or manmade disaster, Avista wants to build a self-sustaining and self-contained small power system using the two hydroelectric generators downtown in Spokane, some renewable energy sources, large batteries, and a control system to make the microgrid work in a stable and reliable fashion.

Abstract
Downtown Spokane is in need of a reliable backup power in the case that the main power supply lines feeding into the city fail. There are many parts to this, one part is the two hydroelectric generators. These generators located in downtown Spokane must be modeled in such a way that will allow them to run without the assistance of the larger, outside grid. This means that we must model, find the parameters of and develop a control scheme for these two generators.

Outcomes

 * Monroe Street Generator Simulink and PowerWorld models
 * Upper Falls Generator Simulink and PowerWorld models
 * Transfer models into RTDS (Real Time Digital Simulation)

Introduction
There are many models that are available to use for simulation and modeling of hydroelectric generators. This is complicated further as there is more than just the AC machine involved in generation. In addition to the AC Synchronous machine there is a governor, exciter, and an over excitation limiter. As there are many models for each of these parts we must decide on one model for each part and successfully use it in simulation to get an accurate representation of the generators.

Synchronous Machine
A synchronous machine is a popular choice for generating electric power. They come in several types. First there are the round rotor and the salient variety. As the name implies the round rotor variety has a round rotor while the salient has more of an oval shape to it's rotor. The salient type is often used with larger, slower machines. Here in the Northwest these are a very common choice for hydroelectric generators. While a round rotor machine is more often used in high speed generation applications such as steam turbines. As such the motors that we want to model are salient.

There are many models of synchronous machines, several that we looked into are the GENROU, GENSAL, GENTPF and GENTPJ. Each of these models has their own advantages and disadvantages. The GENROU is for modeling a round rotor machine; ours being a salient machine this isn't a good option. GENSAL is an older model for a salient machine, it has the advantage in requiring less computation to simulate. The GENTPF and GENTPJ are rather similar, both may be used to model round rotor or salient rotor synchronous machines. We had the parameters for a GENTPJ from testing Avista had completed on one of the generators so looked into this model in depth.



The GENTPJ differs from the GENTPF in it's handling of saturation, in this aspect it is more accurate. It also has the most parameters of any of the generators. Luckily these parameters should be the same between models and as such we can use any of the other models as well.

In the end we ended up going with a MatLab-Simulink model that is likely based on the GENSAL model.