Practical Implementation of Coordinated Q-V Control in a Multi-Machine Power Plant

This paper presents details of the practical implementation of a coordinated reactive power-voltage controller (CQVC) developed for a multi-machine steam power plant. The CQVC performs optimal coordination of the synchronous generators´ reactive power outputs in order to maintain the total reactive power delivered by a steam power plant (SPP) or the voltage at a steam power plant HV busbar. This is required to achieve slow preventive control of generated reactive powers in order to maximize reactive power reserves along with slow high side voltage control. The CQVC is designed to act through existing automatic voltage regulator inputs, thus no modification of an existing excitation system was made. In order to increase the robustness to changes in operating conditions and to achieve the desired shape of the reactive power response, the two-step predictor corrector method is implemented. A newly developed algorithm for steady state detection ensures non-interference of reactive power voltage control with excitation system response. The paper also presents practical design solutions to overcome limitations posed by application to a real system. Acceptance and functional tests carried out during the commissioning of the CQVC are also discussed in this paper.