Oscillation Damping Controller Design Using Ringdown Measurements for the Italian Power Grid

This paper presents the design and demonstration through simulations of a wide-area oscillations damping controller (WADC) for the Italian grid. A simple, linear transfer function model is built using collected ring-down measurements to capture the system’s oscillatory behavior. This constructed transfer function model is utilized for the controller design, instead of a complicated dynamic grid model. A measurement-driven approach is used to tune the parameters of the controller, thus the transfer function model can be updated online to track the variations of the system operating condition. The proposed approach is validated through a case study on the Italian power grid. The optimal observation signal for the controller is selected using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of ring-down measurements. Two Compensation Devices (CDs) are selected as the actuators for the WADC. The control effect of the designed controller is shown for an actual undamped oscillation event that took place in December 2017.