An Adaptive Wide-Area Damping Controller via FACTS for the New York State Grid Using a Measurement-Driven Model

Conventional oscillation damping controllers are typically designed offline for several selected operating conditions using planning models. This practice cannot guarantee their performance under all possible operating conditions, especially under certain extreme ones. In today's power systems, operating conditions vary dramatically and frequently due to load variations, competitive electricity markets, and higher penetration of renewable energy. This necessitates the use of adaptive controllers. A measurement-driven adaptive wide-area damping controller (WADC) design methodology for Flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices is proposed. Optimal observation/actuation signal selection and the determination of the initial WADC parameters are conducted offline. Then ring-down data that are collected online are used to build an updated measurement-driven model and adjust the controller parameters. The proposed approach is validated for the New York state grid model via simulations. By adaptively updating the controller parameters according to the current operating condition, the adaptive WADC can provide better control effect than the non-adaptive WADC under varying operating conditions.