Power system stabilizers as undergraduate control design projects

The use of power system stabilizers (PSS) to damp power system swing mode oscillations is of practical importance. The design of PSS is taught in graduate level courses on power system dynamics and control, and has been the topic of numerous M.S. and Ph.D. theses. This paper discusses the experience in assigning PSS projects in an undergraduate control design course to provide students with a challenging design problem using three different techniques and to expose them to power system engineering. The details of the PSS design projects using root-locus, frequency-domain, and state-space methods are provided.