RAS and Contingency Modeling

Workshop

May 27 – 29, 2015 in Salt Lake City

Jamie Weber, Ph.D. Caroline Marzinzik, MSEE
weber@[Link] caroline@[Link]
217-384-6330 ext. 13 217-384-6330 ext. 12
 Presenters
• James Weber, Ph.D. (Jamie)
– Director of Software Development at PowerWorld
Corporation since 1997
– weber@[Link]
– 217 384 6330 ext 13
• Caroline Marzinzik, M.S.E.E.
– Senior Software Developer at PowerWorld since 2004
– 1995 – 2004: spent 10 years running transfer capability
studies and writing software to implement studies at a
NERC Region: Mid-American Interconnected Network
(MAIN). This has since been absorbed into MidWest ISO
– caroline@[Link]
– 217 384 6330 ext 12

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 Presenters:
Experience with RAS and Relays
• For 15 years we have been working with engineers on
directly modeling the logic and actions that describe
RAS and Relays in software
– Contingency Analysis Tool
– Available Transfer Capability Add-on (ATC)
– PV and QV Curves Tool (PVQV)
• We have a lot of experience looking at descriptions of
RAS and encoding them in software
• We have a lot of experience adding new features to
software to permit additional wrinkles in how RAS is
defined.
• This feature set has evolved incrementally over the past
15 years doing several dozen very small projects to
enhance the software feature set
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 Introduction
• Define RAS and Relaying
• Contingency Definitions
• Legacy Methods for Modeling RAS and
Relays
• Who has details on RAS modeling
• Overview of this Workshop

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 What is RAS?
• NERC wrote a document to define this in
June 2014
– [Link]
FAQ_RAS_Definition_0604_final.pdf

– WECC was well

represented on
this team

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 NERC Definition:
Protection System
• The NERC Glossary of Terms defines a Protection
System as
– Protective relays which respond to electrical quantities
– Communications systems necessary for correct
operation of protective functions
– Voltage and current sensing devices providing inputs
to protective relays
– Station dc supply associated with protective functions
(including batteries, battery chargers, and non‐
battery‐based dc supply)
– Control circuitry associated with protective functions
through the trip coil(s) of the circuit breakers or other
interrupting devices.

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 NERC Definition:
RAS (Remedial Action Scheme)
• A scheme designed to detect predetermined System conditions
and automatically take corrective actions that may include, but
are not limited to, curtailing or tripping generation or other
sources, curtailing or tripping load, or reconfiguring a
System(s). RAS accomplish one or more of the following
objectives:
– Meet requirements identified in the NERC Reliability Standards
– Maintain System stability
– Maintain acceptable System voltages
– Maintain acceptable power flows
– Limit the impact of Cascading
– Address other Bulk Electric System (BES) reliability concerns.
• These schemes are not Protection Systems; however, they may
share components with Protection Systems.
Note: Most of this document is dedicated exceptions of what is NOT RAS
Note: Term “RAS” is used instead of “SPS” (Special Protection Scheme) to
avoid confusion
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 My Simple Definition
• Protection System Device (typically a Relay)
– Device monitors a small set of mostly local signals
– Usually protects a single piece of equipment from
damage
– Actions are typically limited to opening or closing
breakers
• Remedial Action Scheme (RAS)
– Control scheme monitors a larger set of signals
(potentially more than local signals)
– Protects one or more pieces of equipment or prevents
larger system-wide or region-wide collapse
– Actions are more diverse

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 What is the Time-Frame?
• These definitions make no distinction about the
time-frame of the Relay or RAS actions
– If milliseconds to a few seconds
 a Transient Stability model is necessary
– If tens of seconds to minutes with automated response
of Relay or RAS  Power Flow solution simulation only
– Minutes of response as a person (the operator) walks
over and takes off the shelf the binder entitled “What
to do when stuff happens”  again Power Flow

• Majority of this workshop in focuses only on topics

related to the steady state power flow solutions
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 What is Measured
• System Protection definition says “Voltage
and current sensing devices providing inputs to
protective relays”
– Voltage and current are available in a Power Flow
solution
– But time-frame again may require Transient
Stability
• RAS definition says “scheme designed to
detect predetermined System conditions”
– This may be voltage and current  Power Flow
– But could be generator speed, frequency, etc. 
Transient Stability

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 In software: when are RAS and
Relays used?
• Clearly not under normal operating conditions
– When solving a base case power flow solution
 RAS should not be doing anything
• Within a software tool, when are RAS and
Relays going to matter?
– Contingency, Contingency, Contingency
– RAS will respond to the changes that occur during
an unexpected event  Contingency
• For RAS and Relay models to be useful
 first obtain or define a list of contingencies
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 Defining Contingencies
• Each Contingency has Name which is a unique
string used to identify it
– We need the name because this will also be used to
identify it when looking at results
• Each Contingency is then made up of many
ContingencyElements
• A ContingencyElement describes
– Object to which an action is applied
– Action that occurs
– Criteria, CriteriaStatus, TimeDelay under which the
action occurs (Boolean logic, where to apply, ordering)
• These aren’t needed for plain contingency definitions, but will
become vital in the RAS modeling which will be discussed in
examples
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 ContingencyElement

• Object
– many choices of various
contingency actions are
available
• Action
– What happens
to the object
• Criteria, CriteriaStatus
– Logical criteria under
which actions are applied
• Time Delay
– Use for ordering
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 ContingencyElement Actions
• There are many – we continue adding them as users have a need
– Opening/Closing of transmission lines and transformers
– Loss or Recovery of a generator, load, or switched shunt
– Movement of generation, load, injection group, or switched shunt MWs
or Mvars.
– Changing or Setting of generation, load, injection group, or switched
shunt MWs or Mvars
– Changing or Setting of generator or switched shunt voltage setpoint
– Opening of all lines connected to a bus
– Opening of all lines connected to a substation
– Opening/Closing of all lines or transformers in an interface
– Open/Close, Set/Change injection group values
• Many special options with this
– Bypass/Inservice, Set impedance of series capacitors
– Changing or Setting of phase-shifter setpoint
– Open/Close 3-winding transformer
– Open/Close DC lines, Set/Change DC line setpoints or resistance

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 Contingency Dialog

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 Contingency Definitions
• A lot more detail to discuss
– We will cover in great detail on May 27 – 29 in Salt
Lake City at WECC offices
• Final output for sharing with others
Contingency (Name, Category, Skip, Memo)
{
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 2&3" "Double" "NO" "My Memo A"
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 1&2" "Double" "NO" "My Memo A"
"L_Falcon-PatriotC1" "Single" "NO" "My Memo A"
"T_Falcon-TitanC1" "Single" "NO" "My Memo A"
}

ContingencyElement (Contingency, Object, Action, Criteria, CriteriaStatus,

TimeDelay, Comment)
{
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 2&3" "BRANCH 15 54 2" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 2&3" "BRANCH 15 54 3" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 1&2" "BRANCH 15 54 1" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
"L-2_Roughrider-Raven 1&2" "BRANCH 15 54 2" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
"L_Falcon-PatriotC1" "BRANCH 10 13 1" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
"T_Falcon-TitanC1" "BRANCH 10 39 1" "OPEN" "" "CHECK" 0 ""
}
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 Contingency Solution:
It’s more than just the actions
• “Post-Transient” Power Flow: options matter a lot
– What happens when you change MW injection by 2000 MW
(outage generators)
• Load or Generator change Make-up Power
• Specify input parameter with each generator
– Participation Factor
– Max MW response
– Disable response
– Generator Voltage Control for Post-Transient
• Generator Line Drop Compensation
• Regulate terminal bus only (ignore remote regulation)
– Bus Load Throwover (model distribution switching)
– Control Options
• Switched Shunt and Transformer switching

• We’ll cover these in the next day

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 Limit Monitoring Options
• These matter a great deal too
• Setup with the model (case)
– Provide options to specify various limits for Branches
(A, B, C, D, E, etc.)
– Provide options for specifying various limits for Buses
(A, B, C, D)
– Provide LimitSet for choosing which limits to use
• Advanced Limit Monitoring During Contingency
– Monitor for a violation due to a change in the system
(5% voltage drop for example)

• We’ll cover these in the next day

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 What do you need to model RAS
in the Power Flow
• The description of a RAS is really the same as a Contingency.
– A list of actions that occur
• Actions become more complex though.
– Trip MWs from a group of generators equal to 50% of the flow on an interface (or
use a 2D lookup table to determine what to trip)
– The Criteria is vital here
 these actions do not always occur
• Must describe the Boolean logic of when these actions occur
– The CriteriaStatus and TimeDelay
describe when and at what point in solution process to include

• Question
– How do you implement the Boolean checks of when to trigger the
RAS and the ordering of actions?
– How do you handle the lookup tables, expressions used in more
complex actions?

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 Traditional Modeling of RAS in
Software Studies
• Often the more complex features are provided
manually by you the power engineer
– Boolean logic of when to apply
• May know that taking a
double-line outage will
cause RAS to be applied
• Thus if contingency is for
double line outage just
include RAS actions
– Figure out the “RAS Arming”
level from the base case
– Solve the contingency 
If a line is overloaded then
open it and resolve
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 Other Common Shortcuts
• Run a very detailed study of RAS
– Particular contingencies cause violations (line
overloads, bus voltage violations)
– Verify that your RAS fixes these violations
• Then, for the next 1, 2, … (10?) years assume the
RAS always works to fix these problems
• Functionally this means
– Run your list of 100s or 1,000s
of contingencies
– Manually wade through
the 1,000s of violations that
occur and just ignore what is
handled by RAS (experience)

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 Another common treatment for
RAS
• Power engineer writes custom code to
automate all the processes from the
previous 2 slides
– Write custom code to implement RAS
– Write custom code to
remove particular violations
from your output reporting

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 Problems with these approaches
(1/2)
• Reproducibility
– Can you replicate a manual process and get the same
answer over and over?
• Validity of assumptions
– The RAS was designed many years ago. Are you sure
your RAS is still always fixing the problems for which it
was designed?
• Narrow assumption of when RAS is implemented
– You are limiting the application of RAS to specific
contingencies
– This prevents you from seeing a cascading outage
caused by several RAS interacting with each other

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 Problems with these approaches
(2/2)
• Documentation and Sharing
– How do you communicate what your RAS does to another utility
or neighbor with the precision necessary to model it in software?
– Custom code  who manages and takes support calls for that
code?
• Input Data Management
– Much of this leads to manually created contingency lists that are
tuned for a particular operating condition
• RAS arming, Boolean criteria
• Training – Human Resource Problem
– Rely completely on the power engineer’s experience which takes
many years to develop
• Engineers move jobs within a company
• Engineers switch companies
– How do you train new engineers or communicate all these
assumptions? And do it quickly!

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 Another Hidden Problem
• PowerWorld’s experience working with utility
engineers
– The engineers running power flow and transient
stability studies have a general idea of how RAS
functions
– However, they may not manage and design the
RAS itself, so they may miss details
• The implementation of when to “arm” and
how much is very specific
– The details matter!
– Consider a very simple RAS example next
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 “Simple RAS”
Line A

Line B
Gen X

• General Description of RAS

– If two transmission lines (Line A and Line B) are tripped
 then trip a generator (Gen X)
• RemedialAction definition seems simple
– Object = Gen X
– Action = OPEN
– Criteria = (Line A is OPEN) AND (Line B is OPEN)
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 Wait!
Differences in Initial Case
Line A

Line B
Gen X

• What if Line A and Line B are out for maintenance this

week?
– Using our “Simple RAS” then this means that the Criteria
always evaluates as TRUE!
– Running a contingency analysis tool with this RAS defined
would trip Gen X under every contingency
– In this example, clearly the RAS criteria should evaluate to
FALSE
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 Wait?
More differences in Initial Case
Line A

Line B
Gen X

• What if Line B is out for maintenance this week?

• Using our “Simple RAS” then this means that if Line A is opened
during the contingency then Gen X will be tripped
– That might be correct, … but
– It may not be correct for some RAS
• For some if Line B is OPEN in the reference case then the RAS will not be
armed! Tripping Gen X is not correct then
• The engineers running power flow/stability need to go talk with
the RAS engineers to learn these details

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 Communication
• RAS design requires that their be redundant communication
systems for RAS to prevent communication failure
• We also need the human communication between different
groups of engineers to work as well
• Our experience is there are 4 groups here (though at most
organizations there is some overlap)
1. “Planning Engineers” run power flow and stability studies
2. “Operations Engineers” run power flow and stability studies
3. “Relay Engineers” who manage/ design the system protection
4. “RAS Engineers” who manage and design the RAS
• Most in audience today are in Groups 1 and/or 2, but we all
need to engage with folks in Group 3 and 4 to get the details of
RAS and Relay modeling correct

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 Classroom Style
• Classroom Style Portion –
Wednesday PM and Thursday AM
– Presentations on how to implement the
various input parts that represent RAS and
Relay models
• Contingency Actions
• Boolean Logic
• Lookup tables and Expressions
– You will work along with Caroline and I while
doing this portion
– This is “Hands-On Classroom style”
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 Break-Out Groups
• Break-out Groups Work – Thursday Afternoon
– You have all been assigned to 6 break-out groups on your name
tags (A, B, C, D, E, F)
• At least one engineer experienced in building RAS and Contingency
definitions in each group
• Several utility engineers who may have sample RAS
– Goal for Thursday afternoon is for you to sit down and implement
some of your RAS
– If you don’t have RAS, then dream some up or we can go through
the WECC RAS catalog for ideas
• Break-Out Group Work/Presentation – Friday Morning
– 1 hour organizing thoughts to put together a brief presentation
on RAS
– 2 hours of presenting RAS to the full group
• Educates the group. Provides discussion of alternative ways to
implement the same RAS
– Finish by discussing potential new features needed to model RAS

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 Classroom Agenda for First PM:
Fundamental Structures/Processes
• Case Information Displays
– Navigating a case, Records and Fields
– Filtering, Conditions, Device Filtering, Expressions,
Searching
– Injection Groups and Interfaces
• Auxiliary Files
– Key Fields, Labels, ObjectID
– Variable Names
– Self-defining structure
• Contingency Solution Basics
– MW Participation Factor Control (Make-up power)
– Contingency Analysis Basics

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 Classroom Agenda for First AM:
Contingencies and RAS
• Limit Monitoring Settings
• “Post-Transient” Power Flow: options matter a lot
– What happens when you change MW injection by
2000 MW (outage generators)
• Load or Generator change Make-up Power
• Specify input parameter with each generator
– Participation Factor, Max MW response, Disable response
– Generator Voltage Control for Post-Transient
– Bus Load Throwover (model distribution switching)
– Control Options
• Switched Shunt and Transformer switching
• Modeling of Remedial Action Schemes
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